Wood Stove Safety

Acquiring the knowledge to correctly operate your new wood stove safely is important to insure the safety of your home and family. Every year during the heating season, it is not uncommon to read about chimney fires that some home owner has experienced. Every chimney fire can and should be prevented with the correct operation and maintenance of the wood stove appliance. What you don't read about is all the burns to children and pets that may have come in contact with the hot stove. Therefore it is critical to learn about correct operation of the stove.

Wood Stove Safety starts even before the stove is selected to purchase. There are still some old out dated stove that can be bought either used or in a few states that have less restrictive emission laws. I would like to emphasize these stove are not a bargain, cheap is not the same as smart. These old or uncertified stoves burn at least 30 to 50% more wood fuel to heat the same area in your home. Perhaps you cut your own wood, frankly I have better things to do then spend unnecessary time in the wood lot. The second problem with these old or uncertified stove are, they cannot burn the creosote, which is a tar like substance that can adhere to your chimney walls and is very flammable, as completely as the newer stoves, therefore you increase your risk of a chimney fire. Next choosing the right size stove is necessary for the stove to function or heat the best. If your stove is to large for the area you are try to heat, you will dampen the fire down so low that the stove will once again creosote. A fire need to burn hot. To understand this better, you need to know how a stove works. The fire heats up the metal or material then the metal or material radiates the heat into the room. The more mass e.g. the bigger the stove there is more metal or material to radiate the heat. Of course a stove to small is a poor choice as the stove just does not have enough mass to heat the room. Don't look at the total area of your home in determining what stove is best. Most homes have walls and door way that will restrict the heat from flowing into these area. Choose the size of the stove that will heat the area that the stove is placed in, and be sure to account for cathedral ceiling and loft as the heat will rise up into these areas and must be included.

When you unpack your new stove. Start by reading the owners manual thoroughly. There is complete instructions and advice on how to install, maintain and operate your new wood stove. We will start with the installation, again everything is covered in your owner manual, The steps that are covered are not general guide line, but very critical instructions that need to be followed exactly. The reason for these instructions are not for the every day use of your stove, but are designed to protect your home family in a worst case scenario e.g. chimney fire, or earthquake for two examples. The chimney is not the place to be taking short cuts, trying to save a buck as the old saying goes. Wood stove chimney is very expensive and has to be made to with stand a very harsh environment. A chimney fire can reach a temperature of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. If the chimney cannot contain the fire, the fire will spread to the rest of the home. I personally have seen the aftermath of a severe chimney fire. The chimney was totally destroyed, but for the most part the home was spared. One word of wisdom, even if you have the stove installed professionally, yes they can make mistakes, it is always a good idea to have the installation inspected by your local building inspector, to make sure all codes have been adhered to, and insure that your insurance will have to pay any claim arising from the stove installation.

Maintenance: Always you have heard, get your chimney sweep once per year. Here is the problem, out of sight out of mind, or maybe I will throw in a couple of those chimney sweep logs and burn them instead. Sorry folks neither system works, You need to run a brush down that chimney once per year minimum and if you try to burn unseasoned wood, well you are just asking for trouble.

Operation: Well what can go wrong here, right. The number one error is to purchase and use unseasoned fire wood. See my article on preparing your wood stove fuel. As I mentioned earlier, you are just asking for trouble if the fuel has not been thoroughly seasoned. Green wood does not product much heat, all the energy of the wood goes to drying the wood. You literally can hear and see the wood sizzle. No heat, lot of creosote, high chance for a chimney fire. Last for this section, a wood stove gets very hot, if there are small children in the home, do get a guard to help prevent them from accidentally tripping or falling onto the stove, children will play and they can have accidents.

Following these tips, not only will you have a nice warm home, you and your family will have many years of safe heating experience in your home.