How much Charcoal do I need?

Estimating the amount of charcoal needed for a BBQ is something with no hard and fast rule as it depends on a number of factors

1) How many people? How much food?
2) How many BBQ pit?
3) Size of the BBQ pit?
4) How long do you want to cook?
5) Quality of the charcoal

We start at the first question. You have to determine the number of people and amount of food you are cooking. Typically a 3kg bag of chunky charcoal will last you 1.5 hours and fill a cooking area 40x50cm - this is enough to cook for up to 20 persons (this is assuming you don't leave the grill empty for long periods) volume of food. If you are cooking a lot of roots (potatoes, sweet potatoes etc) prepare extra charcoal. 

Now then if you have two pits and the pits are larger - you will need extra charcoal a 40x80cm cooking area will require 1.5-2 bags of charcoal to fill for 1.5-2hours but you can cook a lot more with the larger surface (again assuming you know what you are doing). Two large pits of 40x80cm will need 4 bags of charcoal and will accommodate food for up to 80-100 persons with 2 cooks.

Quality of charcoal is very important in determining how long the charcoal will last. Large chunky ones and the premium anti-smoke briquettes will last up to 2 hours. Those that you get from supermarket in shattered chips will run out in just over an hour as the smaller charcoals not only burn faster but gives out less even heat. The down side of briquettes is they take much longer to start. However, do note that anti-smoke charcoal briquettes will take a longer time to start and for most people can be rather difficult to start a fire with these.

There is really no hard and fast rule so when in doubt get a little extra since the alst thing you want is to run out of charcoal half way (you can always keep for next time).