There's something about heating with a wood fire. The heat is penetrative, and soothing to body and mind. Watching the flames directly is mesmerizing. Watching their shadows dance against the dark is magical. It's alive. There's something else about fire though. Something primal. Something far more abstruse.

These lures have popularized fires for the wealthy, not so much as an instrument of heat but rather as a luxury used on special occasions for its ambiance. At the same time, there is a notion that the use of fire for heating purposes is a means utilized by those on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. The practice conjures up images of watery eyes, fits of coughing, and plumes of smoke going into the atmosphere. Environmentally irresponsible and socially unacceptable in the eyes of many. Sadly, in many cases, there is truth to these perceptions. The reality can be far different though.

Poor burning practices, old technology, and careless harvesting has given wood heating an undeserved reputation. This is unfortunate, as contrary to popular belief, when everything is accounted for, wood combustion has the potential to be the most environmentally friendly heating source available. This, of course, is not considering simple passive solar heating (heating with the sun) which outshines every other option, in every way. Outside of passive solar though, heating with wood, if done properly, is the cleanest over all option.

"When the contributions of all the components of energy production for residential space heating and the atmospheric fate of pollutants are taken into consideration, wood combustion has the lowest greenhouse gas and acid precipitation impacts per unit of heat delivered among the energy options". From the proceedings of the U.S. EPA and Air Waste Management Association Conference, 1998. http://www.omni-test.com/publications/neworlpap1.htm

However, realizing this potential requires diligence and a fundamental understanding of physics. Below are some things learned after a lifetime of observation... using stoves old and new, in sheep camps, sheep sheds, wall tents, homes, shops, yurts, hot tubs, and a sauna and water heater. The first thing that should be considered is the fine particulate emissions. To a large degree, this can be managed through proper burning practices and new technology. Below are a few not so obvious but critical tips:

NEVER BURN:

• green wood
• wet wood
• salted driftwood
• plastics
• any kind of paper including magazines
• cardboard
• treated wood
• railroad ties
• painted, stained, & varnished wood
• plywood, particle board, OSB or any other pressed &/or laminated wood

  Why? Green and wet wood both create excess smoke (pollution) and a build-up of creosote which can lead to chimney fires. Salted driftwood, plastics, papers, cardboard, ties, plywoods and painted and treated woods create dangerous poisons.

Additionally:

Need to sweep or vacuum around your wood stove? Wait until you have a fast hot fire & crack the door open. The resulting draft will pull much of the dust in to the stove. Your lungs will thank you & your house will stay cleaner.

• Use a modern and certified wood stove with a glass door for easy fire monitoring. Remember: more flames = more heat, less smoke and less pollution. Vigilantly watch the fire. A glass door makes this considerably easier. The flames also create an unmatched ambiance, particularly at night when their reflections bounce off the walls.
• Limit the time the damper is closed or better yet, leave it wide open all the time. Closing it starves the fire of oxygen causing the wood to smolder and smoke (see below right photo). You'll have to feed it more often with the damper open but you'll be producing more heat and polluting less.
• If natural tinder isn’t available, start fire with as little

  Control the heat with the size & positioning of wood. If you want lots of heat in a hurry, once you have a fire established, stack on several or more pieces of wood in a random crisscross manner. This allows airflow under & around the wood. To intensify this, use smaller & more pieces. For the hottest fires, do that while using less dense hardwoods such as those from the genus Populus species, or a conifer such as pine... all in the range of 2”-4” in cross section. BE CAREFUL though! Doing this over a thick bed of red-hot coals can have synergizing effects causing fires to get intensely hot very quickly. Regardless, mix & match with different sizes, shapes & wood species for desired effect. Just start out small & treat your inner most pyromaniacal tendencies to lots of observation.

  newspaper as possible. Shiny slick paper works poorly.
• 3-4 smaller pieces of wood make for a hotter fire with less smoke than 1-2 large pieces. Remember also that the denser (heavier) the wood, the smaller the pieces need to be to get the fire burning strong and hot.
• When putting larger wood in the stove, try to get it elevated to promote airflow. This will insure full ignition, maximum heat, and the least smoke. If the coals aren't situated naturally to allow air circulation, place a shorter piece of wood under and perpendicular to the larger piece on one or both ends.
• For optimal burning with the least pollution and most heat, the wood needs to be thoroughly dried/cured and split smaller than most think. When using a stove sized for ~1000-1800 square feet, the bulk of the wood in the wood pile should be between the size of a forearm and calf on the average person. Pine and similarly resinous woods can be slightly bigger since it ignites and burns easier. Larger stoves heating more square footage can also accomodate bigger pieces of wood. As a guideline for a large stove, consider wood ~6” in cross section the maximum size for hardwoods and roughly 8" for pine and similar woods. Most stoves will create more smoke than heat with wood larger than this. Also, aways insert the largest pieces on a big bed of established red-hot coals only. Otherwise, the fire will not take a deep hold on the wood and will simply smolder (if it doesn't burn out entirely), producing little heat and lots of smoke in the process. If you are going to dampen the intake, make sure the burn on the newly inserted wood gets established.
• If split to these recommended small sizes, some woods can be ready to burn in as little as 6 months...assuming a warmer and drier locale. However, optimally, most woods should be cured for 12 months and some, such as Chinese Elm, should not be burned for 2 years. It can not be stressed enough how important it is that the wood be thoroughly dry. Properly cured wood, that is not wet from rain or snow, makes all the difference in both heat output and how clean it burns.
• How to tell if your wood is dry? Place your lips on a piece that's split. Wood with excess moisture will feel moist and cool to your lips. With experience, you'll be able to tell if wood is dry enough by simply picking it up. Wood with too much moisture to burn optimally will not only feel heavier, any blows to or with it will be dull feeling and sounding. Until you gain the expereince to discern this yourself, rely on the lip test. Also, with nearly all woods found in the western US, if the bark is still on and doesn't readily fall or peel off, you can pretty much be assured the wood is not dry enough to burn its best.
• Use your chimney for diagnostics. Though it is

  Nice fire inside & no detectable smoke outside = heat w/ minimal pollution. This is optimum & not difficult with some mindfullness.	Though some burners would not consider this a lot of smoke, it is still unnecessary pollution. Smoke can be caused from a number of things (see list to left). In this instance, it was from closing the stoves damper.

  normal for smoke to exit your chimney upon starting a fire, once a good fire is established, there should be little to no smoke (see photo at right), depending on the wood used. If there is excessive smoke (see far right photo), it indicates incomplete combustion (fire not hot enough) and means one of the following:
  • wood is wet from rain, snow, etc
  • wood is too green/not fully cured
  • wood is too big
  • damper not open
• Each stove and chimney set-up will have its own personality. Some burn slow. Some burn fast. Some will burn very fast! Some are more difficult than others to get a fire started in. Generally speaking though, the taller the chimney, the better the stove will draft which, will give you the ability to easily build a lively and hot fire on demand.

How to Start a Fire

Many people try to start a fire with kindling that is far too big. Below are seven easy steps.

1. Make sure the stove damper is wide open.
2. Tightly wad up 4-6 pages of news paper and place together in the stove.
3. On top of the paper wads, place several finger sized pieces of softer wood such as pine, cedar, redwood, etc...then, on top of that, several pieces that are roughly the size of two fingers followed by several pieces the size of three fingers. A less dense hardwood will work too such as poplar, aspen, cottonwood, etc. The more dense the wood, the smaller it needs to be. These finger sized pieces of kindling should be some where between 6" and 18" long. Keep all the pieces of kindling apart so air and flames can go between. Place in a criss cross pattern as much as you can.
4. Light the news paper in several places along the bottom.
5. Close the door but DO NOT latch it...yet.
6. Watch carefully and wait until the kindling is obviously on fire, then begin placing incrementally larger pieces of wood on. Do not get carried away and place more than 2-4 pieces on at a time, or pieces too large. Otherwise, you risk smothering the fire and you'll have to start over. The idea is to "build" the fire.
7. Once you have the fire established, and several forearm-sized pieces of firewood are burning well, you can latch the door. NEVER walk away from a fire with the stove door unlatched. Embers can pop out without you knowing and catch something outside the stove on fire.

Be patient! Although it's easy to "start" a fire, it takes patience to build it in to something you can place an actual piece of firewood on. It takes some practice to get proficient at this. Once you get the hang of things though, you should be able to get a good fire established within 3-5 minutes.

New technology and good burning practices are a great start to healthy wood burning but only 2/3’s of the picture. The remaining factor is practical harvesting. To learn more about this and how to obtain free firewood while helping the environment at the same time, click here.

Additional woodstove burning information can be found at the following sites:

http://www.epa.gov/burnwise/bestburn.html
http://www.deq.idaho.gov/air-quality/burning/wood-stoves/burn-better.aspx

WARNING: Don't start any fire until you know your chimney is free of creosote and the stove and pipe installation are to all applicable codes!