How to light a fire correctly in your wood burning stove
It’s not hard to light a fire correctly in a wood burning stove. You just have to know a little about how it’s done. With a correct firing process, you’ll reduce the particle emisssions in the firing phase with up to 80 %. (Source: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency)
For the perfect firing you’ll need:
- Two logs
- Kindling
- Two-three firelighters for example Aduro Easy Firelighter (for example Aduro Easy Firelighter)
- Matches/a lighter
Step-by-step guide:
How to light a fire correctly in your wood burning stove:
- Make sure that there is plenty of air supply by opening the secondary and primary air inlet controls in your wood burning stove
- At the bottom, you’ll place two logs so they are parallel to each other
- Place a firelighter between the logs and put some kindling across the logs. Light a fire.
- Place some small logs on the top and place one or two firelighters on the top and light them.
- It’s important that air flows through the fire while at the same time the logs are placed so closely together that they’ll “heat” each other up. During the first 5-10 minutes the door should be slightly ajar so steam from the glass evaporates.
- When the flames are bright and the glass is so hot that you can no longer touch it, you can close the door and adjust the air supply.
Tip: Always leave a layer of ashes of two to three centimeters at the bottom of the wood burning stove. It helps insulate – the same way the insulation tiles do in the fire box. This way you’ll get a higher combustion temperature which is important for complete combustion.
When should you put more firewood in the wood burning stove?
When you put more firewood in the wood burning stove, you have to open up the primary air inlet control, which is situated under the door, until the new logs have caught fire.
To get the most out of the firewood, you can put off putting new logs in the wood burning stove until the layer of embers is so small that it’ll take about 1 minute for the fire to catch on to the logs.
Always remember to open the primary air inlet control when adding more wood to the fire.
Wood burning stoves don’t make a mess
To reduce the risk of ashes coming out of the wood burning stove when you open the door, it is a good idea to open the primary air inlet control under the door about a minute before you open the door. This way you’ll increase the draught in the wood burning stove and reduce the risk of ashes falling out.
Here you can read about scientific tests of wood burning stoves.
