How to light a stove at home with raw wood quickly, how to light a stove

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When stove heating was the only way to heat a home, the question of how to light a stove did not require writing instructions, because everyone learned this art from childhood. But current city life, with its abundance of “smart” technology that “can do everything for us,” suggests that it is enough to buy a modern stove with all possible technical innovations in its design, so as not to worry about how and what will be in it. burn. Unfortunately, this is not the case - not knowing how to properly heat the stove, owners often operate it with errors, losing up to 20% of the fuel burned in vain and significantly reducing the service life of the purchased - often expensive - equipment.

General recommendations

Loading and lighting the stove correctly is not just a sign of the homeowner's skill with the fireplace. In case of efficient kindling, the efficiency of the stove will be maximum.

Before lighting wood or charcoal, factors to consider include:

• furnace structure;
• its location;
• what and how much fuel is used for kindling;
• experience in handling the firebox.

How to light a stove with wood:

The first thing you need to do is clean the cast-iron grate (grate), designed for free access of air under the fuel, and also remove all the ash from the ash pan. This is required to ensure that air flows equally evenly to all fuel. If you plan to heat the stove with wood, then they must be dry, of the same size, 8-10 cm in diameter.

Good to know: the combustion temperature of different types of wood in a stove is in Celsius.

The best firewood is birch and oak. With their help you can quickly heat a room. It is necessary to fill the internal cavity of the stove with firewood, taking into account that there should be a distance of at least 20 cm between the top of the firewood and the ceiling of the firebox. It is necessary to lay all the firewood at one time, so as not to constantly open the firebox, adding fuel and thereby cooling the fireplace.

In order for the firewood to ignite, you need to set fire to a splinter, paper or birch bark, placing it all under the fuel. The use of gasoline or similar flammable substances is strictly prohibited, so as not to deform the firebox.

How to quickly dry firewood

If you did not take care of the preparation of logs in advance, and you need to heat the constructed structure right now, then you can get out of the situation:

• The raw material is sawn and split to the size needed for your system.
• We stack the finished dies next to or above the heating structure so that air easily circulates between them (a well or a thin layer).
• Please remember that the drying material may ignite! Therefore, safety precautions must be observed. Direct contact with very hot parts of the heating device must not be allowed. A tree can catch fire even at a distance from infrared radiation!
• Such actions will allow you to quickly solve the ignition problem.
• Logs, without direct contact with precipitation, dry in wet autumn and severe frosts. The conclusion from this is to store logs indoors.
• Soft woods such as pine, spruce, aspen, and poplar are most suitable for ignition. It must be kept in mind that they burn very poorly when wet. But they are easier to dry than oak, ash or birch.

Fuel types

For kindling, the type of fuel for which the stove is intended is recommended. When choosing or independently building a fireplace, you need to take this factor into account. It is better to make a device that can be melted in different ways.

The most high-calorie type of fuel is anthracite coal. When it burns, 7200 Kcal is released. For comparison, hard coal is up to 7000, brown coal is 4000-4500. Firewood produces the smallest amount of heat, only 3000 Kcal/kg. But they are absolutely environmentally friendly. It is worth considering that well-dried firewood produces more heat - up to 4500 Kcal/kg, raw firewood - half as much.

How to light the stove:

When lighting with coal, you need to take into account that coal powder burns just as long as large pieces of coal. Therefore, you need to add it gradually, 1-2 packets at a time.

As already noted, firewood remains the most environmentally friendly fuel, despite the development of modern technologies for the production of fuel for stoves. The demand for wood-burning hearths continues to this day. Therefore, information on how to properly heat a stove with wood is still relevant .

Ways to speed up kindling with wet wood

Damp wood can be made to burn better.

There are a couple of time-tested methods to speed up the process:

• Take regular coarse salt and sprinkle it on the firewood. You can use salt before kindling and during the heating process. It absorbs moisture, making it easier to light wet wood.
• Use an ax to cut off the top layer - the bark and a little more. Finely chop and later use as a torch. The inside of the wood is much drier and it will be easier to light it. Chop the peeled log lengthwise as finely as possible.
• Make lighter fluid. Mix alcohol and laundry soap in a 1 to 1 ratio and use at the beginning of the process.

To speed up the kindling, you can sprinkle salt on wet firewood.

It is better to heat the stove with wet rather than damp wood...

Yes, that's true, but it's a joke. It is better, of course, to heat the stove with dry wood. Let's take a closer look at what dry, wet, wet and damp firewood is...

Wet firewood

Freshly cut firewood is considered damp. The relative humidity of such firewood is 50-100%. In such firewood, not only the intercellular space is filled with moisture. The pores through which moisture is delivered to the foliage - “channels”, “tracheids”, whatever you want to call them) - are also filled with moisture.

Damp firewood will not give the required temperature, if at all it burns and does not smolder. The fact is that for rapid evaporation of moisture in firewood, a significant temperature is needed. If you put a raw log in a hot firebox, it may even increase the intensity of the chemical processes of oxidation - combustion. After all, water begins to burn at high temperatures. But this is a topic for a separate article.

So, damp firewood will not provide the required temperature for ignition - there will be problems with melting it. Even if you melt such an armful, the moisture from the firewood will not go anywhere, but will fill the stove channels and can form an air lock. A combination of factors - low temperature of burning gases (in wet wood) and air humidity in the stove - will cause problems with draft.

Wet firewood

We accept firewood dried outside as conditionally dry, its relative humidity is 20-30%. But such firewood is quite hygroscopic. They can both quickly gain moisture and quickly release it.

Firewood with a relative humidity of 30% or more can be called wet, although it may appear dry. The fact is that moisture in the tracheid canals of wood evaporates faster than intracellular moisture. Therefore, firewood with a moisture content of up to 30% is conditionally dry firewood. This is the moisture content of firewood that is normal for outdoor drying.

Firewood that has been exposed to rain or soaked in anything is wet firewood. But this does not mean that they are raw. Firewood exposed to rain, if it was not damp, is still better than raw firewood, even if it appears dry. Well, something like this…

Now about dry firewood.

About firewood

Those who have installed wood-burning stoves in their home will first have to ensure that only dry firewood gets into the firebox. Damp wood takes a long time to burn and does not burn completely. Water vapor in combination with combustion products produces a lot of soot that pollutes the chimney, and drying damp logs in the firebox uses up the heat that could warm the room. Therefore, it is recommended to purchase firewood long before the start of the heating season and dry it outside under a canopy in the summer. It is also good to place a small amount of logs next to the stove for final drying, designed for one or two bookmarks. Tiled stoves are often equipped for this purpose with built-in compartments for firewood; heating and cooking stoves with or without a water circuit can have a drawer for them, and if there is neither one nor the other, you can use a separate firewood rack.

It is advisable that firewood from the same type of wood be used in one kindling, since different types will burn unevenly. Birch and oak firewood are considered the best in terms of their calorific value. Firing a stove with resinous rocks is not recommended, since the resin deposited on the walls of the chimney will be almost impossible to clean off. The logs should be 5-10 cm shorter than the length of the firebox and not too massive - 6-8 cm thick.

Stages of the combustion process

The heat entering the room appears as a result of the combustion of wood. It is important to organize the combustion process in such a way as to achieve maximum efficiency and safety at each stage. Combustion does not occur instantly. This is a fairly long period that can be divided into two stages.

Ignition

The wood is placed in the combustion chamber and set on fire. First, the wood is heated or pyrolyzed, during which flammable or pyrolysis gas is released. Gradually it ignites, heating the fuel material even more.

Combustion

The temperature of firewood heated by burning pyrolysis gases increases to the combustion level. The entire bookmark ignites and burns evenly.

You need to know that without a sufficient supply of oxygen, pyrolysis gases burn out very quickly and exit through the chimney. In order for the combustion to be long and uniform, it is necessary to maintain an optimal temperature in the firebox, ensure the supply of oxygen, and ensure that the pyrolysis gas burns out completely.

What to heat with?

Choosing the right type of wood also matters when lighting a heating device. Different types of trees burn differently and produce more or less heat energy. In addition to heat, some tree species can produce too much smoke or even resin, which will gradually clog the chimney.

The best option for use with stove and fireplace equipment is firewood made from oak, birch, beech, ash, willow and linden. These are hard varieties: they burn for a long time, releasing a large amount of heat. Varieties of fruit trees - pear, cherry, apple trees - are also suitable for heating. Cedar, elm, aspen, and alder are also suitable for heating purposes, but, like fruit varieties, these types of wood burn for a little less time. The least suitable species of coniferous trees are considered to be pine, fir, spruce: they burn out quickly and provide little thermal energy; when burning, they emit resins, fumes and soot, which can lead to clogging of the smoke duct.

Experts recommend using several types of trees simultaneously for heating purposes: a combination of different types of firewood will help increase heat transfer and save fuel.

How to light the top logs

• After the firewood has already been placed in the firebox, you need to remove one log.
• Then, in the resulting area, create a hill of dry wood chips.
• Next, just set it on fire.
• Then, the fire ignites the top logs, and then the rest of the firewood in the firebox.

How to quickly light a stove if the wood is not completely dry

Of course, it is best to prepare firewood for the winter starting in the summer so that it has time to dry out. to significantly reduce the time spent chopping wood . So, the combustion process will not be problematic. But if it already happens that the firewood was prepared late and did not dry out completely, you need to have a stock of dried wood chips. There is one trick that will help you light wet wood . The bottom line is that ignition should not start from the bottom of the firebox, but, on the contrary. It won’t take much effort to light the top logs, and they will already warm up and ignite the rest of the logs. Now that it is already clear how to quickly light a stove with raw wood , you need to decide on the issue of maintaining the fire.

Nuances of ignition

Our ancestors also advised that anything that burns can ignite a heating unit. Take the materials that you have available: hay, straw, old newspapers and magazines, birch bark from sawn dies, plastic dishes, plastic bottles, sawdust and shavings.

By the cold season, you should carefully check the condition of your stove, clean the chimney of last year's soot, remove ash and old coals from the furnace, check the serviceability of the grate, and check the draft with lit paper. Make sure your latches and lids open and close smoothly, so there are no unnecessary gaps. Only after all the manipulations can you begin the heating process.

Lighting a heater or stove does not require fuss or acceleration. Be patient, otherwise you will not only have to sit near the unit for a long time, but also ventilate the entire room from carbon monoxide. If you lit a “hut” of wood chips and started to smoke, do not panic. Open the ash pit, close the firebox and wait until the accumulated smoke stops the fire and leaves through the hole, simultaneously warming up all the pipes. After a few minutes, try again, just add more dry material. Alder or aspen are best suited for cleaning a chimney, as they will help burn off last year's resinous deposits. When the combustion has stabilized and draft has appeared, you can start laying wet firewood. Just watch the intensity of the fire so that the water does not extinguish it.

You must remember that the filling of the firebox at the initial stage does not exceed 30 percent of the volume of the chamber itself. After the temperature of the brick becomes optimal, that is, the heater is warm at hand, you can add wet logs every 2 hours. In this case, it is strictly forbidden to close the damper and vent completely. They should be slightly open to increase the heating time.

Principles and rules of kindling

The rules for lighting a stove have been passed down from generation to generation. Over the centuries, the technology has been refined, and today it has reached perfection. Many stove operating procedures form the basis for servicing modern heating equipment, such as pellet boilers

Preparatory work

Before lighting the stove for the first time after completion of construction work, you will need to wait until the solution has completely dried. The first stage is an external inspection, paying attention to the following points:

• Corresponding thickness of seams;
• correct execution of brick ligation;
• compliance with vertical angles;
• ensuring the accuracy of tile installation.

In this case, deviations are allowed: for masonry without cladding - up to 5.0 mm, and up to 2.0 mm when facing with tiles, vertical - no more than 2.0 mm per 1.0 m height.

Next, check the density of the masonry. Typically, a material with a high emission of black smoke is used for this. A trial fire is carried out for several days in a row with a normal load of firewood. When the furnace is operating, not only the uniformity of heating along the outer walls is determined, but also the uniformity of cooling. Next, the structure is checked for cracks and, if found, they are promptly repaired.

Stacking firewood

Before laying firewood, clean the ash chamber to allow the blast air to flow without resistance through the ash pan to the flame. The stove is lit only with dry wood.

After cleaning the stove from any remaining ash, they begin to place logs in the firebox. This is done in two ways: • a hut with a cone for a large combustion space; • in parallel, maintaining clearances of 8 to 10 cm.

Firewood is placed in the center of the firebox or closer to the door until approximately 2/3 of the firebox is filled. The top of the combustion space must remain free at least 18–25 cm. Firewood should not be stacked against the back wall.

Methods of igniting a flame

Next, push the view to the desired level and push the blower door a little. The paper is lit with matches in front of a pile of firewood. After igniting the wood, close the combustion door. When burning evenly, cover the view. The combustion process is adjusted by opening/closing the viewer and the blower.

The firebox door must always be closed. Open it only if you need to stir the coals with a poker or add firewood.

Combustion control:

1. White flames and noise in the smoke ducts indicate a high draft; it is reduced by using the blower door.
2. A red flame with dark smoke from the chimney indicates low draft and you need to open the vent slightly.
3. The yellow color of the flame characterizes the normal process of fuel combustion.

Nuances of choosing fuel

A home stove is actually a universal heating device, since it can operate on different types of fuel: wood, coal, peat. In modern conditions, fuel manufacturers offer new types, so-called Euro-firewood, and various options for pressed briquettes.

The traditional fuel for the stove is birch, which has a high lower calorific value. Its logs burn out completely, do not shoot or spark. The only drawback of birch is that if it is placed in a firebox higher than normal, a strong fire can lead to a fire.

In terms of calorific value, the best fuel is oak, which burns for a long time and produces a lot of heat. Its net calorific value is almost 20% higher than that of birch. But since the price of oak is also much higher, before choosing, you need to make a simple calculation of what will be more profitable for heating in a given climatic region.

Oak firewood

Pine and spruce firewood have a heat transfer even lower than that of birch and oak. For the heating season, they are purchased 20-30% more. The presence of resin in the logs not only causes a strong crackling sound, they also shoot and can throw pieces of ash onto the floor; if it is wooden, a fire may occur. Therefore, when using this type of firewood, it is recommended to place a metal sheet in front of the stove.

Aspen and alder firewood are highly valued because in addition to providing heat, they clean the chimney of soot, which is why they are rightfully considered “royal” firewood.

Euro firewood performed well when firing a Russian stove, with a complete combustion process and low ash yield. Their price remains high, equal to the cost of coal, but their calorific value is approximately the same.

Stages of kindling

For kindling, take birch bark, wood chips and shavings from dry firewood. Lighting the stove with flammable and explosive substances is prohibited!

The prepared kindling is placed on pre-crumpled paper, and several logs are placed on top. When filling for the first time, the fuel chamber does not need to be filled to the limit; it should be filled to a third of its height. If you immediately load the firebox, it will be difficult for the stove to reach operating mode. In addition, the height of the stack depends on the quality of the firewood. The damper the logs, the lower their layer should be.

Firewood for the stove

As soon as the kindling flares up, close the fuel door and fully open the ash chamber. We wait until the bookmark burns out.

We stack the first main portion of firewood tightly, over the entire area of ​​the grate, so that at least 100 mm remains to the top of the fuel chamber. We regulate combustion by partially closing/opening the valve and the ash door:

• Normally, the flame should be straw-colored.
• If the fire turns red and soot appears, you need to increase the access of fresh air (i.e. open the valve or ash door).
• The flame becomes almost white and the stove begins to hum - the draft is excessive, you need to cover the vent.

The main batches of firewood should be laid as tightly as possible to ⅔ of the volume of the firebox, so as not to unnecessarily open and cool the firebox. If one load is not enough, subsequent bookmarks are performed after the first one has completely sunk.

There may be several floods, but it is worth remembering that a brick stove “does not like” overheating. And a long time of heating will ruin it. Therefore, do not make more than two bookmarks.

The firebox is considered complete if the flame completely disappears in the chamber. However, you should not close the valve or view if there are still smoldering coals in the stove. This is life-threatening! You must first wait until they burn out completely and only then close the chimney.

Safety regulations

A brick oven is a fire hazardous structure. Therefore, when operating it, first of all, it is necessary to adhere to fire safety rules. There should be no flammable substances or materials near the structure. When opening the oven, make sure that no coals fall out.

The stove is a fire hazard

The second danger is the formation of a significant amount of carbon monoxide when burning fuel. That's why:

• do not operate the structure if there is no traction;
• light the stove long before bedtime and do not leave it running unattended at night;
• do not close the valve until the coals have completely burned out;
• if the structure has not been used for a long time, first inspect it for cracks through which carbon monoxide can enter the room.

In addition, a furnace is a structure with an increased risk of injury, and it is easy to get burned on the heated elements (furnace doors, cast iron stoves, side surfaces of individual structures). When working, be careful and keep children away from the structure.

Reloading

Long-burning solid fuel devices are designed in such a way that one fill lasts for a long time. With regular wood-burning stoves, one serving doesn't last long. At best, not 6-8 hours. Therefore, to maintain the operating mode, it is necessary to re-bookmark. It is performed when the wood is almost burnt out, but a bluish light flame remains.

In the process of laying a new portion, two important conditions are met. First, carbon monoxide must not be allowed to enter the room. Secondly, you need to keep the temperature high, which will make re-kindling much easier. Therefore, they do everything as quickly as possible. They begin by carefully raking the smoldering remains of firewood and coals into the center of the chamber. So that they are in the middle of the new bookmark. Then everything is done the same way as the first time.

Nuances and methods of starting a fire in wet weather

To make a fire in wet weather, it is advisable to know some subtleties and features. Even experienced tourists cannot always cope with this task. Damp branches and wet logs often simply begin to smoke. Achieving a hot, consistent fire takes a little effort.

Selecting a location and preparing the area

Scheme for preparing a place for a fire
A correctly chosen place for a fire is one of the conditions for successfully starting a fire. Holes and depressions in the ground must be avoided. It is advisable to find a mound or build a hill yourself. At higher elevations, the fire will ignite more easily and will be protected from moisture.

If the soil is too damp, it is necessary to lay a layer of stones or thick logs under the future fire. The place must be protected from strong winds. You can cover the fire with a homemade shield. If it rains, a canopy made of film or branches should be stretched over the fire. But not too low to avoid fire.

Materials and means for ignition

To make a wet fire, it is advisable to use coniferous wood. Pine or spruce work well. The resin (resin) contained in such wood species burns quickly and easily. You just need to remove the damp bark from the branches. Dry wood is usually preserved under the protective layer.

To light a fire, you must split the logs lengthwise into thinner pieces. Small wood chips ignite much faster. It is possible to find a dried tree in the forest. Its wood is usually kept dry from the inside and ignites quickly.

A good use of tinder is dry dead leaves and small branches that can be found in the forest. This handy material, located in the middle of the kindling, will make starting a fire much easier.

Lighting a winter fire

When lighting a damp fire, it would be a good idea to use easily flammable materials or liquids at the beginning:

• dry alcohol in tablets;
• special gel for ignition;
• pieces of dry rags or crumpled paper;
• balls rolled from cotton wool.

How to heat “problem” stoves

These, for example, include heating devices that have not been used for a long time. In addition, in winter it is more difficult to flood any stove appliance. First, let's figure out how to heat a bathhouse or house with wood after a long break.

Step-by-step instruction

1. We inspect the equipment to make sure it is in good working order.
2. We warm up the chimney. To do this, set the maximum thrust, open the views and the blower door. Roll a tube out of cardboard or paper. We introduce it into the cleaning window and set it on fire. We warm up the pipe until a characteristic hum appears.
3. We close the cleaning window and put flammable material into the chamber: sawdust, paper scraps. We set fire until they burn out, and once again check the quality of the chimney exhaust.

After this, you can light the stove. In cold weather, burning the warming material is added to the actions described above. To do this, approximately half of the usual amount of fuel is put into the chamber. It is burned at maximum draft until coals are formed. After this, full loading is carried out with kindling and entry into operating mode.

If you have glass smoking near the stove door...

In any oven there are times when glass smokes. This often happens during kindling, when the stove is still cold or the air lock has not been “broken.” The combustion temperature is not yet high, and there is a lot, a lot of unburnt gases, smoke, which does not have time to escape and can swirl around the glass of the door.

Glass blowing measures do not always help, although we try to make fireboxes with glass ventilation. It may be trivial to have damp firewood (among other things).

What to do in such a situation?

Just try for the first 15-30 minutes of the fire, while the wood is burning, open the fire door 0.5-1 centimeter, this is enough to cut off the smoke from the glass. This will also provide additional oxygen for lighting the stove. With this calculation, you can open the blower a little less.

Which firewood is better?

Heating a stove to heat a home or bathhouse with wood is the most economically efficient way. However, different types of wood produce different efficiency indicators. The duration of burning of logs depends on the density of the tree, therefore, the denser its structure, the longer the logs will burn and the more thermal energy they will release into the room. This is important to consider when choosing firewood.

Which tree species is the hottest?

Of course, oak is an ideal fuel in terms of efficiency, but this type of wood is very expensive and heating a stove with oak wood is an unforgivable luxury. That's why

In the middle zone and northern regions of the Russian Federation, it is most acceptable to use birch. Wood of this type optimally combines price and quality. In the southern regions, it is better to use white acacia to fire stoves.

At the same time, in order to heat buildings as efficiently as possible, you need to carefully prepare for the heating process.

Types of fuel for stoves

The most commonly used fuel for home stoves is:

• firewood;
• coal;
• peat.

The choice of a particular type of fuel resource depends on its three main characteristics - energy efficiency, availability and cost. Let's take a closer look at how each of the listed fuel types corresponds to these indicators.

Firewood

Advantages:

1. They burn for a long time, giving an efficiency of up to 85%.
2. Almost complete combustion with the release of only 1% ash.
3. The combustion of one kilogram of wood produces 4500 kcal.
4. Environmental Safety.
5. Low cost.

Flaws:

1. The wood must be cut down, sawn into logs or split into small fragments.
2. Firewood absorbs harmful substances, so logs from forest belts that are located close to large cities are harmful.
3. Chopped firewood needs special storage conditions - they need to be placed over a large area in an area with the least humidity.

Coal

Advantages:

1. There is no danger of spontaneous combustion.
2. The percentage of ash formation is relatively low - from 25% to 40%.
3. High calorific value - approximately 6,000 kilocalories per 1 kg.
4. Easy to store.

Flaws:

1. Difficulty igniting. Without firewood it is almost impossible to light coal.
2. Not every stove can be heated with this type of fuel. To fire coal, the stove must have an additional channel for supplying secondary air.

Peat

Advantages:

1. Has a high degree of thermal conductivity.
2. It burns for a long time.
3. Ease of use.
4. Does not create a spark.
5. After combustion, it leaves peat ash - a useful fertilizer.

At the same time, peat has one, but very serious drawback - easy flammability. Therefore, you need to be careful when using the cake for heating, and do not store it close to a heating device or open fire. In addition, peat produces a lot of surface moisture.

In addition to the listed fuel resources, briquettes, which are a wood processing product, are often used for stove heating. They are environmentally friendly, retain flammable properties for a long time, and do not require special storage conditions.

Preparation and storage of firewood

When preparing firewood, use trees growing in dry places; they contain less moisture, therefore, they will burn with greater heat transfer. If there are no dry stands, then the fallen logs must be thoroughly dried. The best period of time for harvesting wood for fuel is November-December.

You should not leave cut trees for a long time; if possible, cut them into several parts. The logs that are intended for heating the stove should be of medium size - 8-10 cm in diameter, the length depends on the dimensions of the combustion chamber.

After cutting the logs, it is better to split them and stack them in a special well-ventilated room, without excess moisture, protected from rain or snow. Therefore, you cannot store firewood in the cellar; it is better to store it in a shed or under a shed with good ventilation.

One of the effective ways of laying logs is in criss-cross cells:

The editors of the site santehnikportal.ru recommend drying firewood before using it for 2-3 years. During this period, most of the moisture will evaporate from them, leaving only about 10-15%. Well-dried and split logs are easy to ignite; they burn with great heat transfer, without forming condensation on the constituent units of the stove structure and chimney.

Preparing kindling for the fire

When preparing kindling and firewood, it is important that they are dry, since it is almost impossible to start a fire from wet kindling.

During rain, you can find the brushwood needed for kindling in the forest under natural canopies or under stones, where water cannot soak natural materials. In addition, dry kindling is always available in a forest anthill. To extract it, you need to carefully remove a little of the top layer, take out a bunch of dry grass and put the removed layer in its place.

Birch bark is considered an excellent option for tinder. Due to its hydrophobic properties, this natural material remains flammable even after precipitation.

Birch bark is perfect as kindling

Lighting for a fire

Fire starter is a liquid or solid substance that can be used to light a fire quickly and easily. Tourists often use ignition to create fire in the forest. Especially after it rains. The substances most popular among lovers of active forest recreation include:

• special factory-produced ignition fluid;
• vegetable oil;
• paraffin or wax candle;
• rubber strip or plexiglass.

Ignition must be purchased before going into the forest. However, if the purchase was not made or the product does not help for some reason, then you can find ignition in natural conditions. Thus, the most popular and well-known option for natural ignition for a fire is pine resin. The list of popular fires that can be found in the forest includes birch bark, nut kernels rich in fat, plastic bottle caps, and pieces of rubber tires.

It is worth noting that starting a full-fledged fire in rainy weather in the forest is quite difficult without a lighter or matches. For this reason, it is necessary to take care of the supply of these ignition products in advance and pack them hermetically in a backpack. In addition, it is necessary to master several techniques for starting a fire in various conditions and practice producing a flame by friction.

Conifer resin can replace ignition

How to light the stove after a long break?

In early spring, when you arrive at your dacha, you will have to light the stove to warm up. But after a long period of inactivity, it is worth lighting a fire in it so as not to damage either the heating structure itself or the residential building.

First of all, check the stove outside and inside for the presence of:

• chips;
• cracks;
• foreign objects;
• small animals and birds;
• soot deposits.

The presence of these inclusions can become a serious obstacle to the normal operation of the device.

Fill cracks and chips with mortar and get rid of foreign objects. To clear the chimney duct of soot accumulation, use a special metal ball on a long rope. The ball can be equipped with a wire brush, then lower it down the chimney and lift it up, repeating these manipulations several times, shaking off the soot after each rise.

Be sure to check for draft if the stove has not been fired for a long time. Light the wood by fully opening all the doors, then close them, adjusting the degree of exhaust. Lay two logs parallel to each other at a short distance, then place the other two on top of them, placing them perpendicular to the first row. Place paper inside and set it on fire.

After a long period of inactivity, do not heat the oven at full power at once. The first combustion should not exceed half an hour; after 4 hours, the kindling can be repeated, increasing the combustion time.

Reviews

Lyubov, 60 years old, Taganrog

“In the 90s there was no gas. You wake up early in the morning, it’s cold, you add firewood. Annual maintenance gets boring. In the summer, you gather your strength and rake out soot all day. Once you’ve done everything, it’s time to take up the woodpile. At first it didn’t work, but then I got used to it. Now there is gas in the house, but I remember those times with warmth. Life felt different then.”

Konstantin, 45 years old, Moscow

“I bought a dacha. The house is small. The most important thing is that it is heated with a Russian stove. The owner sold it at a discount only because he didn’t know what to do with the beautiful stove. It's already 20 years old and hasn't been cleaned in that long. So I started smoking. But I'm glad."

Nowadays it seems that everything is mechanized, civilization is everywhere, and every problem can be solved by video. But as soon as you leave the city, you plunge into a world of tilting houses with black chimneys. You need to know how to use old structures. To get the maximum effect from a solid fuel stove, learn how to operate it - heat it correctly and manage the kindling process.

Features of the furnace fire in the black sauna

Lighting a stove the black way is sometimes practiced today when heating a bathhouse, since this method produces more efficiency than the “white” method, and less fuel is consumed.

Combustion products in such devices do not exit through the chimney, but through the windows and door. A large amount of soot settles on the walls, acting as an adsorbent.

The procedure for firing a black stove in a bathhouse:

1. Open the windows and door to bring in fresh air and support the combustion process.
2. Fold the firewood into a “house” by placing paper under it and set it on fire.
3. Before adding wood for the second time, generously spray the walls and shelves with water.
4. Gradually add firewood, finishing the fire when crimson light appears above the stones.
5. Wait until the last portion of wood burns out and remove the coals.
6. Ventilate the room by opening the windows and door.
7. Rinse doors and shelves with cold water.
8. Splash a tub of water on the heater and close the doors.

Now you can enjoy all the delights of a steam room, melted in black!

How to avoid getting burned by the stove in your home

After the wood burns out, quite a lot of coals remain. They can smolder for quite a long time, while carbon dioxide is released no less than during combustion. Therefore, at this moment you cannot completely close the chimney damper.

Open chimney damper

On the other hand, if the view is open for too long, the stove will quickly cool down due to heat leakage through the chimney. This problem can be solved by afterburning coals:

• To do this, they are raked onto grates in the middle of the combustion chamber, the combustion door is tightly closed and the damper is half closed. Then open the blower door for free access of air. The coals will smolder on their own.
• If the design does not have a grate, the remains of burnt firewood can be raked to the stove entrance. In this case, the firebox door must be closed, and the holes in the lower zone of the door must be open. Air is blown through the lower holes.
• If the design of the furnace does not allow you to quickly burn out the fuel and there is no time, small-sized coals can be removed from the combustion area and collected in a metal bucket. The main thing is to close it tightly with a lid and immediately take it outside.

It is unacceptable to extinguish the coals in the firebox with water, this will lead to damage and reduce the service life of the heating device.

Only after complete combustion of the coals can the valve be closed. Following this simple rule will help preserve your health, yours and that of your loved ones. Or maybe even life.

How to properly heat a stove with coal?

The peculiarity of coal as a heating fuel is that it begins to gasify at a temperature much higher than that of wood, and when heated to less than 800-900 degrees, the combustion process is sluggish. But, if coal is quickly heated to 900-1000 degrees, it will produce a high temperature. In this case, the coal exerts a large thermal stress on the stove.

Since the heat capacity of the furnace is limited and the thermal voltage is greater, coal is loaded less frequently, and the number of fireboxes can be increased up to 4 times a day. But not every design is suitable for using this type of fuel.

The Russian stove is not at all suitable for burning coal. Great care should be taken when using this fuel to heat Swedish, Dutch and other duct structures by three or more turns. At the same time, the oven in a Swedish stove when fired with coal will not work efficiently.

It is not so important how to heat the stove with coal, but what type of fuel is best to use:

1. Young geological fossil lignite coal, which retains its woody structure, is not suitable for firing furnaces: it immediately turns into dust, completely clogging the grate.
2. Anthracite generates a lot of heat, rapidly but briefly gasifies and is difficult to ignite. It can be used to heat cast iron and heat-resistant steel devices, sometimes bell-type structures and ducts by no more than 2 turns with a fireclay firebox.
3. Brown coal can be used to heat any stove except a Russian one, but it is a very unenvironmentally friendly fuel. In addition, brown fuel cannot be stored in large quantities (more than 10-15 kg): it spontaneously ignites.
4. Ordinary coal is suitable for firing cast iron stoves and brick stoves with fireclay fireboxes. Coal from individual deposits can be used to heat brick kilns without fireclay and with fireclay, but in a layer of 12-18 cm.

Attention! To light a stove using a corner, it is better to use a special lighter that produces a strong flame that immediately warms up the load to 1000-1100 degrees.

Fuel cakes can be made from coal dust mixed with water, but they are a strong allergen and carcinogen and can spontaneously combust.

How to heat a stove with wood - instructions and useful tips.

First, prepare dry firewood...