Keeping the stove warm

Heating with wood: what you should pay attention to now

There are a few simple tips to keep your wood-burning stove warm and cozy.

(Bild: K.-U. Häßler - stock.adobe.com)

The cold season will soon be upon us and many households are already firing up their stoves more often. So it's time to check whether the firewood is really dry.

In the fall and winter months, fireplaces and tiled stoves are increasingly being used again. However, you should only burn untreated, dry wood that has been stored correctly. This is because wood burns poorly when damp, causing more fine dust and smoke.

Allow to dry in the sun and air
To prevent this from happening, it is best to stack the firewood in a sunny and airy place that is protected from rain and snow - and without direct contact with the ground. Otherwise the wood can draw moisture from the ground. This can be prevented, for example, by erecting a ventilated base consisting of two crossbars.

Incidentally, wood moisture meters (available from DIY stores) are a good way of checking how dry the wood is. Firewood may have a maximum moisture content of 25 percent. This corresponds to less than 20 percent water content. The difference: The value for the moisture content refers to the dry mass of the wood, the value for the water content refers to the total mass.

How you light the fire is also important
Also important: find out how best to light the stove in question. For optimum combustion, high temperatures should be reached as quickly as possible in wood-burning stoves. And to achieve this, it is better to light logs with wax-soaked wood wool from above rather than from below.