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The Wrong Way to Burn Wood.

Bad technique can boost your fuel consumption and burn out grate bars and deflector plates. It can even burn out the stove itself and create a major fire hazard. Keep an eye open for the warning signs, all listed here.

The air-supply to a stove should be controlled to produce a mild brightening of the embers and a slight disturbance of any flames produced. If the stove is roaring away and is filled with leaping flames you are flooding it with cold air which is carrying most of the heat straight up the chimney. This is a mistake nearly everyone makes when they first buy a stove – particularly if they have bought one too small for the job in hand. There is a strong instinct to produce a mass of crackling flames much as you would in an open hearth – and an even stronger instinct to believe that the more flames you produce the more heat the stove will produce.

To an extent this is true, but look at the diagram. The deflector plate is glowing bright cherry red, as is the flue connector. And the chances are that the bottom section of the chimney will fail soon under the assault of constant 'combustion-chamber' temperatures. Meanwhile there is no charcoal in the fire-box, and no prospect of any being created. The logs are burning straight onto open grate bars so that as soon as glowing embers are produced they fall through into the ashpan which is emptied at regular intervals in the mistaken belief that this is 'correct procedure.' It is for solid fuel, but not for wood.

If you suffer any of the problems highlighted in this section, click on here to remind yourself how things should be!

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