5 Efficient Wood Burning Tips For Wood Burning Stoves
Equipped with the right appliances and wood fuels, anyone can start a fire with relative ease, even if it’s their first time manning the flame.
When it comes to lighting an efficient fire, however, things can get a little more complicated! Being mindful of your energy consumption is becoming increasingly important in today’s environment, both because of the increasingly strict emission regulations and the rising energy costs of running a wood-burning stove all year-round.
Now, it’s clear that creating an efficient fire is essential if you’re looking to save energy and money, reducing emissions while optimizing the performance of your fire at the same time. But how can you actually achieve that high-performance, no-fuss flame in the most cost-effective way?
Different wood-burning stove users might come up with their own unique methods to get the fire going as quickly and as efficiently as possible, but there are some tips and tricks proven to work wonders across the board.
So, here we list five of our best tips for easy and efficient wood-burning, perfect for keeping your fire going strong with fewer resources throughout the year!
1. Choose The Right Firewood
First things first, choosing the right firewood for your wood-burning stove is going to be the most crucial factor in ensuring efficient wood-burning.
The right kind of wood for the job is going to be extra-dry, seasoned firewood with a moisture content of below 20%, the ideal moisture level for burning wood efficiently, as well as for reducing emissions and soot production.
On top of burning more efficiently, using seasoned and extra-dry firewood will ensure minimal smoke and minimal ash for a healthier wood-burning stove, helping you maintain the appliance more easily and keeping it performing at the top of its game through every burn!
2. Choose The Right Firelighters & Kindling
At the same time, wood-burner users should make sure to use the right firelighters and kindling to get the fire going in the most efficient way possible.
The best course of action should be to leave the newspapers and chemical fuels at the door and invest in high-quality, natural kindling and firelighters instead. By using compressed firelighters and wood kindling, you can save precious time that would’ve otherwise been spent trying to light a stubborn fire, use less wood to maintain a powerful flame, and ensure efficient wood-burning through it all.
3. Use The Top-Down Fire Lighting Method
Another great way of ensuring fire-burning efficiency is to try your hand at the “top-down fire lighting method”, an ideal technique for both wood-burning stoves and fireplaces.
To build an efficient and time-saving fire with this method, start by placing your extra-dry firewood, like our Hardwood Heat Logs or Kiln-Dried Firewood, at the bottom of your stove first. Then, start stacking your wood kindling in either a pyramid shape or a grid shape, spacious enough to let air flow between and around the kindling. Finally, place a firelighter on top of the pile and light another firelighter up to place inside the stove — if using Lekto’s Natural Firelighters, they’ll burn for up to 10 minutes.
4. Carry Out Regular Stove Maintenance
From cleaning out excess ash to repainting your appliance, a wood-burning stove needs quite a lot of regular care to keep burning your wood as efficiently as it should.
Whether you need to replace faulty parts, get rid of dangerous rust, or even just brush off the interior of your stove, you should always make sure to keep your wood-burning appliances in tip-top shape before starting to use them more frequently. Proper maintenance and repairs will not only help you burn your firewood more efficiently and save precious energy but also save you a lot of money in bigger repairs down the road!
5. Keep The Chimney Clean
Finally, you can ensure more efficient wood-burning by cleaning your chimney well before the start of any heavy fire-burning period, once a year as a bare minimum.
Having your chimney professionally swept and cleaned will not only make your fire more efficient but also a lot safer: Creosote buildup and debris can, in fact, become a dangerous fire hazard in the long run, so it’s always in your best interest to ensure your chimney is as clean as it can be!
Efficient Wood-Burning Starts With The Right Fuel
Whether you use a wood-burning stove most days of the week or only casually when temperatures drop, making sure your fire-burning routine is as efficient as it can be is incredibly important to guarantee a powerful, clean, and safer burn.
As choosing the right firewood is always going to be the most important factor to consider for improving efficiency, we recommend only investing in high-quality, extra-dry firewood designed specifically for enhancing your stove’s performance.
And guess what, you won’t have to look that far: From firelighters to kiln-dried wood, Lekto’s wood fuel products are always seasoned to perfection to ensure the best wood-burning results in the least amount of time. Browse our extensive collection to ignite the most efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable fire today!