Wood Burning Fireplaces & Wood Stoves

By Roger Frost


As a renewable natural resource wood has become a popular alternate fuel of choice for many environmentally conscious people. The cost of energy has also driven many people to supplement their home heating with wood.

Wood stoves have been in use since the 1800's and were the many source of heat for a home. Many wood stoves were also used for cooking and heating water. With a small firebox these units were invaluable for heating, cooking and boiling water.

Many of the larger older homes also had one or two fireplaces, usually one per floor. These fireplaces were open hearths and were very inefficient as there were no glass doors or fireplace inserts available.

Cutting and splitting wood can be hard work and you will need a large area to store and season your firewood. Moving wood into the home is a continual chore and wood may contain fungi or insects. Buying wood can eat up any savings you were anticipating by using wood as an alternate energy source.

Considering the many advantages for those who live at the urban fringe and beyond, wood heating is worth doing right. "Done right" means making sure the wood heating system is installed exactly to safety codes, preparing good quality firewood and operating the system using techniques that will produce the best efficiency and effectiveness.

Chimney installation is very important to operation of your wood stove or fireplace. If not properly installed you may not have a good enough draft to have smoke free fires and you also could have a potential fire hazard if clearances are not maintained. Installing your chimney without any unnecessary elbows will allow your wood burning unit to perform at its peak efficiency.

Burning wet or un-seasoned firewood can create harmful build ups of creosote which can lead to a chimney fire and even burning down your home. As much as half the weight of freshly cut logs can be water. This water content must be reduced to 15 to 20 per cent before the wood can burn efficiently. How you process and store the wood is critical to achieving this moisture reduction goal.

Splitting you wood is an excellent way to achieve hotter fires when burning your wood. The hotter the fire reduces the harmful buildup of creosote which is the main cause of chimney fires. Softwood fires will burn hotter than hardwood and can help burn of off and harmful deposits in your chimney. Using soft wood in mild weather is useful for quick hot fires and save your hardwood for the colder days.




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