One of my favorite past times in the winter of Crawley Down is to sit next to warm and pleasant fireplace fire. What’s more exciting than cuddling in a couch and reading your favorite piece of novel with glowing fire by your side?
If you are really fascinated to try my idea of relaxing after a hard day’s work, why don’t you kindle the glowing hearth? But, wait a bit? Do you know how to start a fire in a fireplace? If not don’t worry, here’s guide for you.
Lightening and maintaining fire in a fireplace in many respects is different to open log fire burn. The main differences for the need are as follows:
Chimney is to be Kept Clean
Before you start to light fire in your fireplace, it is a good idea to get your chimney sweep Crawly Down done. This is important to ensure the chimney is free from animal nests and dry leaves. Often, these cause blockages that can result in a house full of smoke.
It is better to go for a professional chimney sweeper who can do effective cleaning of your chimney. To avoid chimney fire occurring in your home, regular sweeping of chimney is crucial for every home.
Damper is Open
A damper is a device in chimney which controls the air flow. Don’t make the mistake of not opening the damper when you light the fire. If you do, be ready to have smoke-filled house. Didn’t like the idea? So stay safe and pop inside the chimney to take a look at your damper with a torch. If the damper is found to be open, get ready for the job.
Create an Ash- Board
Having ash bed will create hotter fire bed for the wood. You will have more warm and cozy experience. However, this will create problem if you don’t know how to create ash bed. You can take the help of someone who is better at making ash bed. One thing to note is to clean the ashes out of your fireplace time to time.
Add Big Logs of Wood
If you are trying to enjoy a long evening, make sure the fire goes for a long time without attention. You can do this by using big logs. The bigger wood requires time to catch, once it does, it will burn a long time without to have it attend.
Check the Flow of Air
When you light fire in a fireplace check the draft whether it is going up or down, if it is coming down, close the damper. This will stop the draft downwards and pushing the air towards your room.
Illumine the fire. Try to find a way to heat the upper part of the fireplace. This will slowly make the draft climb outwards. Now open the damper and you will find your skills have quite well paid off. Smoke is moving aggressively out of the chimney.
Open the Windows
If you are still having problem in lightening up your fireplace and smoke is coming back to your room, open the windows a little. This will break the vacuum and the air entering from the window will blow out the air from the chimney. It works best if you have a window opposite to your fireplace.
Author Bio:- Adrice White is an experienced chimney sweep working in England. He takes the interest in writing articles on chimney sweeping. He has been into this field for the last 10 years. You can avail more information about functioning chimney and fireplace or stove from his blog posts.
You can visit his Google+