Autumn is here and with it the cold days. You look forward to finally light the fireplace to bring coziness and warmth to your home. You light the fire as usual and then – only smoke or the fire goes out again after a first flare-up. But what is the reason for this?
Connection between weather and fire: why the smoke is pushed into the interior
The reason for this is often the weather, which in this particular form usually occurs in spring and autumn. In the so-called inversion weather conditions, the upper layers of air are warmer than the lower ones, which also affects the pressure conditions in the fireplace.
The colder air sinks to the bottom and prevents the warm air from the created fire to rise to the top. The opposite is the case: the smoke is pushed down into the house from above.
3 Tips against smoking stoves when lighting a fire
To keep your fireplace smokeless during inversion weather, here are a few tips:
1. Use kindling wood and fire cubes.
Use enough small kindling wood and fire cubes to create heat quickly. This will heat up the chimney and allow the smoke to escape upward.
2. Open the oxygen regulator
Open the air regulator as far as possible to allow sufficient oxygen to reach the fire. Only close the air regulator when the fire is blazing strongly.
3. Open a window
Open a window or door during lighting to help equalize pressure in the fireplace.
What else you should pay attention to when heating with wood
In general, there are a few tricks that are good to know about a wood stove.
The right wood plays a big part in the quality of the fire. It's a bit like cooking, in that the ingredients are also the basis for a successful meal. We recommend going for hardwood such as beech. It is also important that the firewood is sufficiently dry. The residual moisture should be less than 20% for a good and material-friendly burning.
You can read more about firewood on our website under Heating with Wood.
The fact that a fire burns well and efficiently is additionally related to the selected stove or fireplace system. Even if an old stove model theoretically still works, there are some advantages why you should replace the model with a new fireplace.
What are they? Click here to read this blog post.
