There are 5 basic rules to follow for an efficient fire:
- Begin with a hot fire
- Use only dry, seasoned wood
- Use plenty of kindling
- Don’t use big pieces of wood
- Give the fire enough air
How to make your stove work best depends on many variables. Your climate, your home, the type of wood your burn and how you attend to your stove. You can check your success easily by looking at your chimney. If you see smoke rather than clear heat waves and water vapor coming from your chimney, you are missing one or more of the five basic tips and wasting fuel and dirtying the air unnecessarily.
Begin with a hot fire. All of the EPA certified stoves work best if you being with a hot fire. This initial hot fire starts the chimney, providing enough heat to the chimney to start the draft which in turn provides ignition to the kindling and the small wood used to start the fire. The chimney is the primary engine driving the stove. In addition, both catalytic and non-catalytic stoves require that the stove reaches certain hot temperature to burn cleanly and efficiently. If this is your wood stoves first fire, you should open a window due to fumes from the stove pain as it cures; as noted in your owner’s manual.
So, how do you build this first hot fire? Use only dry seasoned wood. As we’ve said before, using wet or green wood is equivalent to throwing water on the fire. Make sure all of your wood is dry and seasoned for at least six months and never burn trash or treated wood. All wood burns, but not all wood burns the same. Some burn hotter, slower and cleaner than others. Some smoke a lot and some have a lot of sap or resin that clogs your chimney quickly. The best types of firewood for a wood stove or fireplace burn hot and relatively steady. These woods tend to be hardwoods, such as hickory or ash, rather than softwoods such as pine and cedar.
Use plenty of kindling. When you are splitting your wood, make sure you also split a large amount of small kindling pieces. Enough kindling when added to wadded up newspaper for the initial lighting is essential to building a hot fire. To get your fire started quickly, use more kindling.
Click on the video for the rest of the tips and more information!
