Are you ready to welcome a particularly cold Winter? You’ll be sure to be set if you follow these simple guidelines to help you have a fireplace that’s bright, efficient, and safe.
Burn only well-dried logs that have been cut, stacked and dried for eight to twelve months. There are special firewood moisture meters on the market, which you can get at low cost, to check the moisture content of the wood. Cover the pile of wood with some tarp on top only, leaving the sides open for air. Hard, dense woods such as walnut, beech, oak and olive burn longer, but are more difficult to ignite and therefore more important than others to be well dried. Lighter woods such as spruce or pine catch faster, but burn more easily, so you’ll need to add more wood to the fire more often.
Burn firewood and only firewood! Crates, pallets, chipboard, plywood, kitchen furniture panels, painted wood or other treated wood, when burned, release chemicals that impoverish or even damage the air quality in the home environment.
Try to clean the walls of the fireplace after each grilling. Solid fats from food create bad odors but also pose a risk of fire in the chimney.
Close the chimney vent when the fireplace is not lit, to prevent the warm air of the house, as well as the money you spent on heating it, from escaping from the opening.
Keep the folding glass guard open when the fireplace is lit to allow the heat to dissipate into the space. For energy fireplaces (closed type with air recirculation system), the guards must remain closed to prevent unnecessary heat loss.
Place a protective cap on the chimney to prevent rain, snow or other objects from falling into it and reducing its efficiency. The caps are provided with side openings to allow the smoke to escape.
Replace vent seal when worn to reduce unnecessary heat loss. A chimney flue with a vent that doubles as a cap provides a better seal than a traditional vent.
Install carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors near the fireplace and in the bedrooms.
The chimney must be cleaned once a year. If you consume more than 25 cubic meters of wood per year, the chimney must be cleaned twice a year.
Light the fire in the fireplace safely by adding wood gradually as the temperature rises. Open the vent fully at first to get good smoke extraction from the early stages. Light a strong fire, at least occasionally, with the vent fully open, to prevent delayed removal of smoke from the combustion chamber and the simultaneous accumulation of tar oil on the walls of the fireplace.
