Burning wood, especially when it isn’t dried sufficiently, leaves dangerous deposits in your fireplace chimney which reduce the efficiency and could potentially cause a chimney fire! Therefore it is important to remove these deposits.

A fire not lighting properly could be due to many things such as using unseasoned wood, a dirty chimney, not preparing the fire well or an insufficient draft. It is important to use lots of small, dry kindling and have lots of air to feed the fire. There are some differences whether you are using an open fireplace or a closed stove or fireplace. Open fireplaces tend to draw a lot of heat up the chimney and are more likely to let smoke out into the room due to their design so it is important to use a lot of thin pieces of wood when lighting the fire and also if you need to build it up again once it dies down. If using a closed fireplace or stove, you will need to regulate the primary and secondary air intake and might also want to keep the door slightly open to get enough air into the fire until the fireplace and chimney heat up enough.

With any type of fireplace, we prefer to use the top down (upside down) method but you can also use the more traditional bottom up method. This video shows an easy way to light your stove or fireplace using the top down method.

A pellet stove or fireplace is an automatic stove which runs on 6mm wood pellets, can be set to switch on and off at preset times and there is an integrated storage tank for the pellets which automatically feeds the fire. Most pellet stoves or fireplaces also have a fan to distribute the hot air more evenly. A log burning stove or fireplace runs on solid fuel such as logs and briquettes which needs to be manually fed and usually heats by radiation.

This depends on the site and your preference. Overall, a log burning stove or fireplace gives you a more traditional atmosphere compared to a pellet stove. Some people prefer the convenience of a pellet stove which needs to be filled much less often than a log fireplace or stove. A pellet stove can also distribute the heat better than a log burning fireplace since it uses a fan.

A traditional open fireplace is very inefficient as a large percentage of the heat is lost out of the chimney whereas a modern closed fireplace insert is designed with a glass door, baffle plates and insulation which all help to retain as much heat as possible in the fireplace, making it more efficient and therefore reduces firewood consumption and is also better for the environment.

Yes currently there is no tried and tested technology for chimneyless wood burning stoves and fireplaces.

New fireplace designs are making use of convection to transfer the heat from the stove into the room to better spread the heat around the room.