I've recently made the jump from gas to charcoal-- not so much out of necessity but out of cost (gas grill blew over in a windstorm last year and was destroyed-- just can't afford any decent one at the moment).
I went for one of those Jumbuck oil-drum style barbecues, without an offset smoker. Had some great success so far, especially on the grilling front. Not a huge amount of cooking space, but the burgers and lamb chops are coming off great. Tried my hand at smoking some baby back ribs a few nights ago, to some success, but again due to the cooking space I can only fit two baby back racks on.
My problem is I've been using Weber lumpwood. I'm not pleased with it. On the bag it says lights in 15 min, cooks for 60. I found it was taking around 25 to get the bottoms of the pieces at the top of the chimney lit (used two lighting cubes) and those pieces were never lighting on top. Also, the temperature on these lumps wasn't well-retained. I found I had to top it up after 45 minutes. Went through probably 4-5 kg of charcoal in 2 hours. I'm considering trying out the Big K briquettes next time. Are there any recommended brands to use? Don't mind briquettes or lumpwood. When I'm smoking I've got a collection of woods I throw in for flavour. Also I've seen at homebase those 15kg bags of fireplace fuel...they look like massive hockey pucks made of MDF. It says suitable for cooking on the bag, but something about processed fuel (yeah, yeah, briquettes are processed) doesn't seem right to use on food.