Come on Baby, Light My Fire

[doctorcoug]

Top down

here is the sequence of photos. Damper all open, intake air all open.



After thirty seconds



after one minute



After five minutes.



I've now closed the damper 90% and I'll see how it goes.



via a galaxy s3 far far away

[doctorcoug]

The last photo has the glass closed.

via a galaxy s3 far far away

[ERCougar]

Anyone else still reading this metaphorically?

[pelagius]

I'm trying to decide how much wood I need to split (I'm going to split it myself, as I feel a great sense of pleasure with an ax.

You're really splitting wood with an ax? If you are going to split wood by hand, then you're a lot better off with something like a 6 pound maul if you're slightly built or an 8 pound maul if you're bigger. Much better than a ax for splitting.

[wuapinmon]

You're really splitting wood with an ax? If you are going to split wood by hand, then you're a lot better off with something like a 6 pound maul if you're slightly built or an 8 pound maul if you're bigger. Much better than a ax for splitting.

In your part of the country, they probably call it a godevil.

[Viking]

By the way...this home cost not much more than the average home price in America. I was exceedingly lucky. Enough of ripping on the humble brag, I wanna talk about fires!

"lucky"? DC lives 100 miles away from BFE. Whatever he paid for his palace, it was an overpayment by precisely the total cost of the place.

[Viking]

You're really splitting wood with an ax? If you are going to split wood by hand, then you're a lot better off with something like a 6 pound maul if you're slightly built or an 8 pound maul if you're bigger. Much better than a ax for splitting.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

[fusnik]

Do people still have wood burning fireplaces in primary residences?

I can't stand the smell and figured most people felt he same.

[Green Monstah]

Do people still have wood burning fireplaces in primary residences?

I can't stand the smell and figured most people felt he same.

That's the drawback of having a woodstove as your primary source of heat. We had a fireplace in our living room growing up. We'd light it up in the evenings for a couple of hours before bed. It was cozy, and the smell didn't permeate the whole house.

DC, I was in charge of splitting wood, cutting kindling and lighting all of our fires growing up. A few tips:

1. I'd buy a splitter if I were you. There are electric and gas powered varieties. Using a maul is fun, but it's damn hard work, especially if you're just now getting to it.

2. I've never seen the top-down method. If it works, though, why not. I always used newspaper, and some dry, small cedar kindling. Our logs were always very small (we'd get the wood cheap from a guy who clears forested land in Maine...lots of small birch, etc), so when the fire got larget enough, I'd throw some logs on it and we were good. It worked like a charm and got the fire burning hot in no time at all.

[cowboy]

Talking just fireplaces, and not stoves or inserts, here are a few tips from someone who builds a fire every night from mid October to mid March. Mine is an open fireplace with no doors, and the only thing I ever put in front of the fire is a spark screen.

1. Your fireplace should have an outside air source. Otherwise, it will suck outside air in through your windows, etc. and leave you no net heat increase. Also, it won't draw as well and probably cause you to smoke up the room.

2. Leave your flu damper open all the way while a fire is burning. The hotter the chimney, the better it draws, and the less creosote buildup you'll get from cold smoke in your chimney. Also, never burn pine if you can help it, unless you know a good chimney sweep. No need to run your furnace blower to circulate the air. It will likely suck smoke into the room anyway. If you don't have a ceiling fan, get one.

3. Build your fire any way you want, but this is how I build mine. I build a pyramid of six logs sideways on the grate, three on the bottom, two on the next layer, and one log on top. In between each layer, I place three or four small sticks, usually chips left over from splitting, across the logs sideways. These kindling pieces just act as spacers so there is space between every log. Also I place a sheet of newspaper in between each log in a layer. Light the newspaper, and it will take off burning in a matter of seconds. Having space (not too much, at least 1/4" but no more than 2") between all the logs allows the fire to burn everywhere, and stacking the logs draws the fire up and stokes it.

4. Select logs that are uniform in size so they will all burn down to coals at the same time. Once you have nothing but coals (there still may be a slight clear or bluish flame coming off of them) shut your chimney damper. This will force all the heat out into the room, but the coals will give off almost no smoke, so it won't stink up the house. If there is visible smoke or yellow flame anywhere in the coals, don't shut the flu because it will smoke the house up. You'll be amazed at how much heat this will produce.

5. Split wood burns faster but it catches fire faster and easier. On really cold nights, I'll start a fire with split wood, and then once it dies down I add three or six unsplit logs stacked in the manner described above. You don't need a splitter if you have one a Fiskars splitting ax. These things are awesome, and I split a full chord of wood in one morning with mine the other day. Just remember that dry wood splits much easier than green wood.

[PaloAltoCougar]

cowboy's information just above is of no practical use to me whatever, and yet I found it very interesting. We turned our heat on for a few minutes a couple of days ago, though.

[clackamascoug]

cowboy's information just above is of no practical use to me whatever, and yet I found it very interesting. We turned our heat on for a few minutes a couple of days ago, though.

I think it's his quality writing and attention to concise detail. He would be a good technological writer for a Nuclear Power Plant operations manual. Or Penthouse.

In Oregon, I'm still sleeping with a window cracked. We do turn on the heat for 15 minutes in the morning, but that's it for the day.

[cowboy]

I tried to make a video of me building a fire, but when I bent over, my underwear was showing, so I captured some frames of the process. The whole process from start to full-fledged fire was 5 minutes and 21 seconds.

Here is everything you need to start: six split logs, some kindling, and newspaper.


Line the three bottom logs up as shown, with newspaper between them.


Lay kindling across the bottom row, and place two logs on the next row.


Kindling on top of the second row, with newspaper in between the logs.


With a single log on the top row, the logs are stacked and ready to light


Light the newspaper between the logs on the bottom row.


The fire will catch on to the kindling and the newspaper on the second row will draw it up through the stack.


About 1-2 minutes after lighting, the fire will be set. You'll know you've got fire on the wood and not just the newspaper when you start to hear it crackle. Note the fresh air vent on the lower left. When I can feel a good draft coming through that, I know my fire has a good draw.