You got questions? We got answers. If you’ve always lived with a heat pump and a knob on the wall that you twist to make things get hotter, using a fireplace might carry visions of primitive tools—splitting wedges and pokers—and a whole bunch of flaming, smoky, insurance-policy-canceling danger. Yes, managing a fire in your house is more complicated than other forms of home heat, but it can be well worth it. After all, nobody writes Christmas songs about heat pumps.
 Don’t forget about the chimney: You’d better have it cleaned now and then, or it will remind you of its presence by catching on fire. |
Here’s everything (well, a lot of things) you need to know.
How do I build the fire, anyway?
Obviously you weren’t a Boy Scout! Here’s the basic idea.
You’ll need three main materials to start your fire (well, besides a match.) The first is crumpled newspaper. The second is kindling, which means small twigs, sticks and other thin scraps of wood. The third is split logs.
After checking inside and around the fireplace for anything you wouldn’t want to catch fire (duh), make a loose pile of crumpled newspaper in the fireplace, then stack kindling above it (lean pieces inward to form a pyramid, or stack like Lincoln logs). Leaving space for air to flow, stack a couple of smaller split logs over the pile.
 When it comes to efficiency, woodstoves have it going on—at least compared to open fireplaces. They’re less polluting, too. |
Light the newspaper in two or three spots around the perimeter of the pile. These will light the kindling which in turn gets the logs going; this process might take about 10 minutes and a watchful eye on your part. Once the logs are burning, you can begin to add more and heavier logs. Pour yourself a nice glass of Cabernet and enjoy.
Does it matter what species of wood I burn?
Yep, it does—both in terms of clean burning and in terms of getting the most BTUs for your buck. (That’s British thermal units, a measure of heat produced by your crackling fire or any other heat source.) Stay with harder woods; Bryan Parlee, a salesman with Acme Stove Company, tells us that hickory, locust, white oak and apple are good bets, while pine and cedar are no-nos.
Can I cut down a tree on my property for firewood?
Hold on, Tex. "It’s always good to burn dry seasoned wood," says Parlee. "It burns cleaner and hotter." Seasoned wood has been split and dried for at least six months; season your own or, if you’re buying firewood, ask when it was cut. "When you burn damp or green wood," Parlee explains, "it will create more creosote in your chimney."
Creosote? What’s that?
"When the gases burn off your wood," Parlee says, "they cool down and solidify." The resulting substance, when it builds up inside your chimney, can catch fire. And nothing ruins a cosy night around the hearth faster than having to call 911.
So, if I have a big buildup of creosote, what should I do?
Call a chimney sweep. According to Parlee, there’s no hard-and-fast rule about how often to have a chimney professionally cleaned, since every house is different. But a general guideline is to do it twice a year if you use your fireplace quite often; if you’re a recreational user, once a year is probably enough.
O.K., the chimney sweep came over and told me I need to have the chimney lined. What does that mean?
"If you have an older chimney, and you’ve had a chimney fire or had a chimney sweep tell you you have a cracked liner, it’s a good idea to have your chimney relined," says Parlee. A chimney liner, he explains, is essentially a 6" or 8" flexible stainless steel tube wrapped in insulation, which installers feed down into your chimney from the top. "If you have a cracked liner, it keep the creosote from settling in [the cracks]," says Parlee, who estimates the cost of relining at $1,600 or more.
Meanwhile, down in the fireplace, I’ve got tons of ashes building up. What should I do with them?
Well, you definitely shouldn’t just dump them at the edge of the yard. Warns Parlee, "When you take the ashes out of your fireplace, they can stay hot for a couple of days. Put them in a closed metal container with an air space underneath it"—for example, elevated on a couple of concrete blocks, to allow circulation. "It’s not a great idea to put them on a wooden porch," he continues, "because if wind were to blow your ash bucket over, it could start a fire." A paved driveway, he says, is the ideal cooling location for the ash bucket.
And after the ashes are cool? Then what?
As luck would have it, if you are a gardener, you can make good use of the ashes to amend soil and protect certain plants from pests. Ash contains calcium and potassium—good for balancing acidic and low-potassium soils, but not so good for acid-loving plants, including rhododendrons and azaleas. Ashes are also a good addition to the compost pile, and some gardeners sprinkle ash around the base of their plants to discourage insects, snails and slugs.
Not a gardener? Ashes on icy sidewalks make a safer walking surface. And there’s always this not-too-green option: When they’re completely cool, simply throw them away.
Speaking of green, am I causing air pollution with this thing or what?
If it’s an open fireplace, the answer’s yes. You’re sending particulates into the atmosphere through your chimney (up to 50 grams per hour, according to experiments by Canada’s Combustion and Carbonization Research Laboratory (CCRL)), and you also may be contributing smoke and carbon monoxide to the indoor air that you’re breathing.
 Behold the insert: a 500-pound way to make your fireplace work harder. |
Because they burn hotter and are meant to be airtight, enclosed woodstoves are much less polluting and come with fewer hazards to indoor air quality. Parlee tells us that newer stoves are built better: "Stoves now have new regulations they have to meet. No stove can emit more than six grams of particulate an hour. All of your newer woodstoves and inserts have a reburning system that burns extra gases a second time, reduces creosote and grams of particulate."
Inserts? What are those?
Essentially, says Parlee, they’re a way to retrofit your fireplace and make it act like a woodstove. "An insert slides into the fireplace opening and weighs 200-500 pounds," he says. The insert has doors and looks like a woodstove whose front is flush with the front of the fireplace. "Typically those are installed with blowers," he says, which push the heat into the room. Getting an insert for your fireplace can cost $1,500 or more.
Sounds kinda weird.
O.K., Picky, you have another option: a freestanding woodstove. "[You] place it on the hearth right in front [of the fireplace]," says Parlee. Blowers aren’t necessary here: instead, heat radiates outward from the stove.
If I decide I don’t want to burn wood at all, could I convert a wood fireplace to gas?
Yes, you could. "You call a certified gas technician, they run a gas line from natural gas or from propane tank into that fireplace," says Parlee. From there, you have options: gas stoves, gas inserts or decorative gas logs.
Let’s get down to brass tacks. Can I actually heat my house solely with a fireplace or woodstove?
Trying to heat your house with only a fireplace will probably end in tears. "When you burn wood in a fireplace it’s fun," Parlee says, "but all of your heat’s going up your chimney." Indeed, the CCRL study found that fireplaces have an efficiency rating of between 10 percent and negative 10 percent—meaning that they may actually make your house colder, as they draw warm air from throughout the house to feed combustion.
The efficiency picture gets rosier with woodstoves. "[Inserts and woodstoves] are designed to heat your home," says Parlee; advanced combustion systems, says the CCRL, can approach 70 percent efficiency. "Woodstoves will heat from 300 square feet up to 3,000 square feet, depending on the layout of the home," says Parlee. "If you have a large open floor plan with cathedral ceilings, it’s tough to keep that heat." A more closed-in house plan will work better with a woodstove.
So are you saying I should never use my fireplace? What was all that about how much fun they are?
Well, they are fun. And there’s no reason not to enjoy the occasional flaming log on an open hearth (just try roasting chestnuts inside a woodstove!). Just don’t think of it as clean-burning or efficient.
Got a light?
