What is solid fuel?

Most commonly, when people use the term solid-fuel they refer to modern coal alternatives, such as manufactured briquettes or pellets.  But technically it is a little broader than this, as it in reality refers to the many forms of solid fuel available including wood, briquettes, pellets, logs made of compacted organic matter (from wood shavings to used coffee!) - the list could get quite extensive here in reality; but the take-away from this is that the term 'solid fuel' can be taken quite literally; it's not a gas or a liquid like LPG or Oil, it's fuel with a solid matter, fit for physically loading onto the fire bed. 

What does multifuel mean?

This is definitely one of the most common queries when many people first start looking at purchasing a stove; and luckily it's a really straight-forward one to answer. 

The term 'multifuel' is given to any stove designed to burn both wood and solid fuels.  Nowadays as a rule of thumb, a multifuel stove will have the classic metal riddle grate, allowing you to 'shuffle' the embers to cause ash to fall down into an ash-pan below; while wood burning stoves will typically not have a grate at all any more due to the way different fuels burn most efficiently.  

So in short; with a multifuel stove you can burn a wider range of fuel types, whereas a wood burning stove should only ever be used to burn wood. 

So what is smokeless fuel?

Smokeless fuel is simply a manufactured form of solid fuel which has been specifically designed to produce minimal smoke when burnt correctly.   It is important to note that in some areas (referred to as Smoke Control Areas / Smoke Control Zones), creating smoke from a chimney is actually an offence and thus smokeless fuels become a requirement in these areas, with the exception of burning wood on DEFRA-Exempt stoves - these stoves have already proven themselves to perform such a clean burn of dry wood, that they are exempted from the restriction and you can burn wood on them cleanly.