Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

I have been reading that briquettes are more efficient for log burners,and was wondering whether anyone has experience of them here.
I would be interested to know how they compare with logs ,heat wise and cost wise.
Also,where is the best place to buy,preferably east side.
Any info would be appreciated.

Have tried them in my log burner - they light easily and give you fast heat but don't last long - well at least regardless of how I have fiddled with the controls I have never been able to stop a rapid burn with these. Cheapest I have found so far is in Supreme and I buy them to cut up into 4CM lumps and use them as fire starters instead. I would think that log for log wood would be cheaper to use!

Waddo-the only thing I have seen in supreme are packs of what I would call kindling,I will have another look next time I'm in, but what I mean are these-
https://www.homegardencyprus.com/en/pro ... briquettes

Ah Ha, different type! The ones in Supreme are in a red plastic bag and are made of recycled olive pressings! The ones you are looking for made of Hardwood I have never seen North or South. However, Stone Art used to sell logs that looked very much like those, don't know if they still do as no been in for a long time but maybe worth a look.

Thanks Waddo I will try Stone art,by the way,the link I posted is for Home and garden in the south.

waddo wrote:Ah Ha, different type! The ones in Supreme are in a red plastic bag and are made of recycled olive pressings! The ones you are looking for made of Hardwood I have never seen North or South. However, Stone Art used to sell logs that looked very much like those, don't know if they still do as no been in for a long time but maybe worth a look.

I am tomorrow going south for some of those from Home and Garden - They are Hardwood and are roughly 5Euro a 10KG bag (depending on how many you buy)
Stone Art still do some similar for 25TL per 10KG bag - I am calling for a bag on the way to do a comparison.

I have fell out with wood/wood sellers and their loads/tonnes! so I am going to see how these work out - at least you know what you are getting for your money!

IPman- I would be interested in the comparison between the two,apparently the quality differs widely.

I noticed packs in the stove place on the left between the Bellapais lights & the Lefkosa roundabout, think it is called Akinlar. Have not tried them though we have traditional wood at the moment.

I went to Stone Art yesterday and bought 2 packs of briquettes,they are made by a big German timber company called Rettenmeier- web site here - https://www.rettenmeier.com/en.html.
The briquettes conform to EU ISO standards and give off 5.4 Kw hr per kilo.
I was very impressed by the heat output which far exceeded logs of similar size,and between 5pm and 11pm I used 6 briquettes(1/2 a 10kg pack) which kept the whole house very warm with no need for any additional heating.My villa is just under 200m sq and very open plan.
The other good point is they are neatly packed and clean to handle which means you can store them more easily than logs and keep them in your house if you have room as they are not full of bugs.
Cost wise,I generally use my log burner from around mid December to early March- approx 10 weeks.
this works out at 35 packs ,which cost 875 tl or around £112 at current exchange rates, which seems very reasonable to me,bearing in mind the savings I make by not having to run 2 aircons on heat (42000 BTU) each evening.
I am fortunate that I have never had to buy logs here as I had 10 overgrown olive trees which I have gradually been pruning each year for next winters fire wood along with pallets that I have been able to scrounge for free,I will be pruning my last two olive trees this week,so I will need an alternative source from next winter and I think I will definitely be using briquettes in future.

Could I have directions to Stone Art please.

That is a bargain thanks for the information will have to try them.

Thanks Philoz. Will try these and report back

Where is Stone Art?

Not sure if still there but there used to be a chap producing his own logs from Olive sawdust. He was in a traditional villa maybe 50 metres before Atakara supermarket in Alsancak. He made to order. This is a while ago so not sure if still doing them. Sorry don't have any other details other than it was the villa with red brick wall & piers.

Spud 50- Stone Art is in the mini mall near edener Ozankoy

Becker, about 12 years ago we bought ours from the guy in Alsancak (got rid of our log burner eventually) but don't think he's there now. I got cross with him though because he stood and watched his wife do all the lifting and carrying whilst he just stood and watched. Typical.

Philoz wrote:I went to Stone Art yesterday and bought 2 packs of briquettes,they are made by a big German timber company called Rettenmeier- web site here - https://www.rettenmeier.com/en.html.
The briquettes conform to EU ISO standards and give off 5.4 Kw hr per kilo.
I was very impressed by the heat output which far exceeded logs of similar size,and between 5pm and 11pm I used 6 briquettes(1/2 a 10kg pack) which kept the whole house very warm with no need for any additional heating.My villa is just under 200m sq and very open plan.
The other good point is they are neatly packed and clean to handle which means you can store them more easily than logs and keep them in your house if you have room as they are not full of bugs.
Cost wise,I generally use my log burner from around mid December to early March- approx 10 weeks.
this works out at 35 packs ,which cost 875 tl or around £112 at current exchange rates, which seems very reasonable to me,bearing in mind the savings I make by not having to run 2 aircons on heat (42000 BTU) each evening.
I am fortunate that I have never had to buy logs here as I had 10 overgrown olive trees which I have gradually been pruning each year for next winters fire wood along with pallets that I have been able to scrounge for free,I will be pruning my last two olive trees this week,so I will need an alternative source from next winter and I think I will definitely be using briquettes in future.

I did the comparison - not scientific by any means - but the stone art ones were easily on a par with the home and garden ones and a lot less money and hassle in transporting. I will be converting to the ones from stone art! 25TL whether you buy 1 pack or 100! No one here seems to do bulk order discounts in anything!
As an aside - I also bought a pack from Merlins in the South as i was in there, heat wise they were the best and cheapest! at 3.19 Euro for a 10kg pack they were the cylindrical ones (5) These were slightly swifter - but not much! these would probably be the best option but are in the South.

Ipman, can you tell me where Merlins is please, from the Metahan border.

Thank you IPMAN-So the leroy merlin ones are around 20% cheaper,but when you factor in the cost of insurance,petrol,etc, not so much cheaper.
I assume stone art will deliver if you buy a big quantity like a pallet?
Re the quantity discount,it's a case for finding another supplier this side(there must be) which puts you in a better bartering position.
When my existing log supply runs out which I think will be mid winter next year,I will be going over to briquettes.

Bogaz58 wrote:Ipman, can you tell me where Merlins is please, from the Metahan border.

HERE

Philoz wrote: I assume stone art will deliver if you buy a big quantity like a pallet?

Unfortunately Not

Interested - How do you start your fire then with just the Briquettes?

Waddo-they light really easily,I use regular firelghters,but you could also use the liquid for charcoal BBQs.
Once they get going you need to crank your log burner down so it's getting the minimum air supply-they will last for 3 hours if you do that.

IPMAN- that's bizarre. it's like they are doing you a big favour just selling you stuff-reminds me of BMW dealers in the UK.

It's a Job for finding another supplier that really wants the business!-I'm sure there is one out there.

Philoz wrote:IPMAN- that's bizarre. it's like they are doing you a big favour just selling you stuff-reminds me of BMW dealers in the UK.

It's a Job for finding another supplier that really wants the business!-I'm sure there is one out there.

Hi Philoz, I went to Stoneart again today for some more, still not budging on a discount, on the way there I called at Akinlar to see what they had. The ones they do are the cylindrical type, I bought a couple of packs to try, they are 24tl for 8kg, he will do a discount for a bulk order, 22tl - this makes them 2.75tl a kilo, whereas the stone art ones work out at 2.5tl a kilo. Even with my cse in maths that makes the stoneart ones better value. Hopefully they won’t read this forum or the price will go up

IPMAN-are the ones from Akinlar from the eu? if they are they should have a KWhr rating per kilo which I suppose is the best way of comparing them price wise.
The ones you bought from leroy merlin still look like the best value so far as they were cheaper than stone art,but did you notice what the heat rating was?

The ones from Akinlar are from Turkey in plain wrapping so who knows. The Merlin ones were were 4.6kwh compared to stoneart at 5.3kwh so .07kwh more - I’m sure there’s a calculation for these figures somewhere