There is nothing better than getting up in the morning to the glare and the heat from a woodburning stove although sometimes it is a little frustrating when lighting your stove first thing in the morning. For us, we have a very strict regime when looking to light our woodburning stove which seems to work for us although there are different variations which work just as well.
For those who are interested I will now walk you through our process and hopefully you will get your woodburning stove fully functional in a very short space of time and be able to lie back and enjoy.
Stage one
In order to ensure as much airflow as possible gets through your woodburning stove you need to remove all ash from the ash pan and we find it very handy to have a metal container close by in which to tip the ash. Once the ash has been cleared then simply open the bottom air vents and your flue damper, if you have one, to ensure that the fire has an air supply on which to feed.
Stage two
This is the interesting part, actually getting the fire going! When we first bought our woodburning stove we thought it would be a simple case of placing the larger logs within the stove and setting alight. How wrong we were, there is a skill to lighting your stove!
The simplest way to get your woodburning stove burning as quickly as possible is to use scrunched up newspaper as an initial firestarter. We then place a number of smaller kindling over the top of the newspapers because these will catch fire when the newspaper itself is lit. On top of the smaller kindling we then place a number of larger logs and simply set fire to the paper.
Stage three
Once you can see that the newspaper is burning it is simply a case of closing the stove door and waiting until the fire gets hold. Once you consider the kindling wood and the larger wood are part of the fire and the wood is burning then, if you have air vents on the top of your stove, gradually close the bottom air supply and open the top vents. As the fire become stronger you will gradually be able to add more wood and ensure that it is topped up to keep the fire burning.
This is just one of many ways which you can start your woodburning stove in the morning as some people use a different method placing the larger logs at the bottom of the fire, kindling in the middle and the newspaper at the top. Each and every woodburning stove will come with its own set of instructions and advice and it is highly advisable to read these so you fully understand your machine.
Despite the fact that we have had our woodburning stove for many years now, there is nothing better than getting up in the morning to a rip roaring fire and a heat which is very different to that created by central heating. We could never go back to more traditional heating systems!