Guidelines for Efficient use of Wood-Burning Appliances

News and Blog

A properly installed, correctly used wood-burning appliance should be smoke free. If you see or smell smoke that means you may have a problem. Practice the following guidelines to for an efficient fire, and reduce smoke inside and outside your home.

Upgrade to an efficient, CSA/EPA-approved wood-burning appliance.

* Today's wood-burning appliances burn cleaner and produce less smoke inside and outside your home
* Look for EPA labeling on your wood-burning appliance
* Efficient wood-burning appliances burn less wood, saving you time and money

Burn only dry, well-seasoned wood.

* Properly seasoned wood is darker, has cracks in the end grain, and sounds hollow when smacked against another piece of wood.
* Season wood outdoors through the summer for at least 6 months before burning it.
* Stack wood off the ground, with the top covered.
* Wood burns best when the moisture content is less than 20%. Test wood with a moisture meter before burning to ensure it is dry enough to give a clean, hot fire.

Items You Should Never Burn in Your Appliance

* Never burn household garbage or cardboard. Plastics, foam and the colored ink on magazines, boxes, and wrappers produce harmful chemicals when burned. They may also damage your wood-burning appliance.
* Never burn coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood because it releases toxic chemicals when burned.
* Never burn ocean driftwood, plywood, particle board, or any wood with glue on or in it. They all release toxic chemicals when burned.
* Never burn wet, rotted, diseased, or moldy wood.
* Never burn logs made from wax and sawdust in your wood stove or fireplace insert – they are made for open hearth fireplaces.

Have a certified technician annually inspect and service your appliance.

* A properly installed and maintained wood-burning appliance burns more efficiently, saving you money.
* If you smell smoke in your home then something is wrong. Shut down the appliance and call a certified chimney sweep to inspect the unit.
* Nearly 7 percent of home fires are caused by creosote build up in the chimney. Have your chimney annually cleaned by a WETT certified chimney sweep.

Follow safe wood-burning practices

* Keep all flammable household items—drapes, furniture, newspapers, and books—far away from the appliance.
* Start fires only with newspaper and dry kindling. Never start a fire with gasoline, kerosene, charcoal starter, or a propane torch.
* Build hot fires. A smoldering fire is not a safe or efficient fire.
* Keep the doors of your wood-burning appliance closed unless loading or stoking the live fire. Harmful chemicals, like carbon monoxide, can be released into your home.
* To maintain proper airflow, regularly remove ashes from your wood-burning appliance into a metal container with a cover and store outdoors on a cement or brick slab. You can use the cold ashes in your garden to add minerals and reduce soil acidity.
* Keep a fire extinguisher handy.
* Install and maintain a smoke alarm. Most people lose their lives in house fires due to inhalation of smoke and toxic gases, rather than from burns. Properly installed and maintained smoke alarms in the home are considered one of the best and least expensive means of providing an early warning of a potentially deadly fire.
* Install and maintain a carbon monoxide detector. When wood is not burned completely, the resulting smoke contains a number of chemicals, one of which is carbon monoxide (CO). CO is odorless and colorless. Exposure to CO reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen. A digital CO detector is recommended for any home using a wood-burning appliance. The detector displays the concentration of CO parts per million (ppm) and makes a warning sound that gets louder as the concentration increases.