How to Start a Fire in Your Fireplace

It is common knowledge that lighting a fire in a brick or wood-burning fireplace may be difficult.

Building a fire in a factory-built fireplace or a masonry fireplace
It is essential to keep in mind that cold flues do not provide a suitable amount of airflow. It is necessary to heat the chimney and get the gases moving upward before you can get a fire going. After the draw has been created, the fire will begin to take on a life of its own. Until that moment arrives, the world will remain a frigid place for the tiny flame that is resting on the tinder. A solitary match pitted against twenty cubic feet of frigid air that was pressing down on its little existence.

If the fire is going to be constructed properly, this is an absolutely necessary step. Some people try to light the kindling with a match, but this can be difficult unless everything is going in an upward direction. Therefore, we strongly suggest making use of a tiny newspaper torch in order to assist in accelerating the cold flue gases and getting them to push that chilly column of air upward and outward to the top of the chimney. The blaze then begins to spread!

The Process of Combustion
As the firebox warms up, the heat is reflected back onto the kindling fire, which in turn begins to warm the wood.

Drying is the first step in the combustion process. The moisture must be drawn out of the wood before it can be used. The moisture percentage of good firewood should be between 15 and 25 percent. This indicates that it need to be hacked up and piled for a period of one year before being burned.

Pyrolysis is the second stage of the combustion process. This indicates that the wood has reached such a level of dryness that it has undergone a chemical transformation. As a result, the usual combustible temperature of wood, which is 450 degrees, has dropped to somewhere between 250 and 300 degrees. At this point, the wood is releasing carbon and combining with oxygen in the burn chamber. Additionally, the fire is visibly producing heat in the range that is visible to the human eye. If you look closely, you’ll see that the fire is burning about a 32nd of an inch above the wood rather than on it.

Charcoalization is the third and last phase in the combustion process. At this point, the fire has progressed to the glowing ember phase, during which the open flame is sometimes but not always visible. Because of the extreme heat and the fragmentation of the wood, air is being drawn in closer and closer to the gases that are being emitted from the extremely heated carbon-based wood. It emits a noticeable light.

As you embark on your journey to start your own fires, we really hoped that this post was both educational and beneficial to you. Give Local Chimney Sweep Cleaning a call now to schedule an appointment for Chimney Cleaning Arnold or repairing. During your consultation, we will demonstrate how to start a fire in your own fireplace.

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