How to Properly Start a Wood Burning Stove
Wood stoves can be an ideal option to conserve energy and also heat the room. However, they need an amount of care.
A majority of modern wood stoves comply with EPA emission guidelines. Look for an EPA sticker under or beside the grate, to ensure that your stove doesn’t generate many harmful pollutants.
How to start a Wood Fire
The scent and sound of a woodfire is an enjoyable addition to any home. It is essential to know how to create a fire on your stove. Incorrect techniques can lead to an unburned fire that doesn’t burn efficiently and creates creosote or smoke. These tips will aid you in starting a fire that will heat your home with minimal effort and maximum security.
Check the condition of your coals and logs before you begin the fire. If they’re damp it will dampen your fire and prevent the proper burning. You might want to open the chimney to remove any ash that’s fallen into the stove.
Start by placing several small newspaper pieces that are dry and clean into your stove. This will help to ignite the tinder and ignite the kindling. Once they start to burn, add a layer of larger pieces of kindling to the top of the pile. This should be done in a crosshatch pattern, so that there is air between each piece of wood.
If your wood stove has an automatic control for combustion, it will automatically pump air into the fire as it expands. This will allow the fire to burn at a consistent pace without the need to open the stove’s door to tend it.
It is important to not use too much tinder, since it can cause an unburned fire that burns at a high rate and doesn’t utilize the fuel as efficiently as it could. Once you’ve got a good bed in your stove of igniters, tinder, and embers to start the main flame, you can do this by laying down two large logs of the base on the grate. Then, on the top of these base woods put a layer of wood perpendicular to them. This method of building an ember known as a “top-down” fire will result in an effective and long-lasting fire that doesn’t engulf the larger base logs.
oo early, it can cause the fire be smothered, and it will not allow for the proper airflow, which will lower the effectiveness of the fire.
Adding Wood
Stoves aren’t just beautiful home decor pieces They can also help you save money by providing efficient wood heating. They can be used alone or in conjunction with a furnace or central heating system to provide the extra heat required in large wood burning stove houses or homes with multiple rooms. A lot of the stoves that are clean burning available use an advanced combustion principle which is able to separate the burning volatile compounds from combustible gases and tar. This is accomplished by supplying air in two distinct stages. The first stage allows for the vaporization of the volatile compounds and the second stage supplies fresh air that has been pre-heated. This improves the combustion process and reduces the odors.
The amount of heat that you can get from a stove is contingent upon the type and amount of moisture of the wood you use as well as the size of logs. To let the wood dry, the logs should be kept in a ventilated area for a couple of months prior to burning. If the logs are too wet they will release a lot of steam that is basically wasted energy.
During the burning of the fire, add more wood to the stack in intervals, and not all at all at. Too much wood added at once causes the temperature inside the firebox to increase and creates a vortex, which draws smoke and unburnt volatile compounds back into the flame, which could reduce your stove’s efficiency.
You should avoid the use of other combustibles, such as paper or cardboard in your stove, as they are not wood and have different physical properties that cannot be burned without causing dangerously high temperatures and excessive emissions. Also, avoid using compressed combustibles, such as wood briquettes, as they have a distinct chemical and physical composition to real firewood and aren’t type-approved for burning in wood burning stoves.
If you’re installing wood-burning stoves in your home, it is important to have it properly installed and tested by a professional. A certified WETT technician will test the installation to ensure proper operation and safety as well as ensure that your chimney is operating properly. These professionals offer maintenance services for your stove and chimney to ensure they remain in top condition. They can check for leaks in the areas connected to your chimney and repair any problems they find. They will also make sure that the residents of the house know and follow the fire evacuation guidelines in case of an emergency.