Monday, April 15, 2013

Wood Burning Fireplaces & Wood Stoves

By Roger Frost


Heating with wood can be a very rewarding experience. Wood is a renewable resource and it is considered environmentally friendly to heat 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.

Most insurance companies now require you to have your wood stove or fireplace inspected by a WETT Certified inspector. This will ensure you installation complies with the Manufactures installation instructions, the local Building Code and CSA or ULC standards.

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.

It is important to burn properly seasoned wood in your wood burning unit. Creosote can build up when burning wet wood and this can lead to a possible chimney fire and even the loss of 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.

To help in building proper fires you should split the wood into a variety of sizes for convenient fire building and maintenance. Large pieces are fine for large fires in cold weather but smaller pieces are needed in mild weather and for fast ignition of new fires or fires rekindled from coals.




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