The Story of Peat Briquettes

Once upon a time, you couldn’t walk into an Irish home without spying a stack of peat briquettes. Although not quite as popular as they once were, peat briquettes are nonetheless still used in households with an open fire.
The history of peat briquettes stretches all the way back to World War Two. Briquettes, as we know them today, were invented to address the coal shortage during the war. The idea was to compress milled peat into the distinctive briquette shape, in the hope this peat would be an adequate substitute for coal. This provided to be very successful and briquette production continued long after the war. nBord na Mona still manufacturers briquettes. Although the last briquette factory is due to close in 2024.

Briquette Composition

As stated, the briquettes available from Tallaght Fuel Centre are manufactured in nBord Na Mona factories and made from milled peat.
Peat or turf, as it’s commandingly known in Ireland, is cut from bogs all over the county. A machine cuts turf from the land in a rectangular shape. This turf is then air-dried in the open air throughout the summer months.
This dried peat is then taken to a factory where it is milled and compressed to form briquettes. The process of compression is the secret to the long burning time of briquettes. As they are so compressed they burn at a high temperature, produce a warm orange flame and are safe to use in open fires and multi-fuel burners.

Advantage of Briquettes

As discussed, briquettes are made from compressing peat into the multi-sided shape we associate with this distinctively Irish solid fuel solution. This shape makes it easy to stack and store briquettes. The shape also means briquettes can be broken into smaller sizes, making them suitable for all sized open fires, stoves and multi-fuel burners.

 Briquette Orders

If you’d like to order briquettes you can do so through our website or by calling our Tallaght fuel centre today. We offer free delivery to clients all over South Dublin.