It your fireplace has a damper it will typically be located within the top area of your fireplace. Dampers can be closed between fires to help prevent heat loss from a home, but must be opened prior to each fire to ensure that all waste gases and smoke can be safely vented from a home.
To further help reduce the potential for smoke to be produced by as much as possible, warming up the air within the chimney before starting a fire can help to start the draft on your fireplace. A strong draft is essential for maintaining the continuous cycle of waste gases and smoke being removed from your home, while also sucking fresh air into a fire from the room.
To help start the draft we always warm up our chimney before each fire. We take a single sheet of newspaper, roll it up and light it at one end.
We then place the newspaper under the chimney inside the top of our fireplace and leave it to burn for a short while.
You can find out more ways to help warm a chimney in another one of our articles here. A smaller but hotter burning fire can provide a much cleaner burn with less smoke compared to a larger struggling fire. Building a large fire in your open fireplace can overwhelm the fire as it tries to burn through all of the initial bits of wood.
Building a smaller fire can help the fire to spread to the logs more quickly. A hotter burning fire can provide a cleaner burn, and so getting temperatures up within the fireplace as quickly as possible can help to reduce the amount of smoke being produced throughout the fire.
A smaller fire can get going more quickly, and even though the fire is small at the beginning, we can always add more logs to make the fire bigger once higher temperatures have been reached. As the fire progresses the higher temperatures make it easier for logs to catch alight without producing smoke. Chimneys should be cleaned at least once per year in line with recommendations.
A dirty or blocked chimney can cause a fire to produce more smoke than usual due to a reduction in draw on the fireplace. Air supply to a fireplace can be more problematic in newer homes that are built to higher standards and more airtight.
We have an external air vent in our living that we open before each fire to help maximize air supply to the fires. To help prevent your fires from smoking, try not to start fires during very windy weather or when temperatures outside your home are higher than inside. Windy weather can cause a backdraft, which is where air is forced back down your chimney and can affect how well the usual draft works.
For the draft to be started and for there to be movement of air up the chimney the temperature of the air within the chimney needs to be higher than that of the outside air temperature. Only mm high. Installation Manual Brochure. Jetmaster Features year guarantee Hand-built solid steel construction and a clean, contemporary design No-smoke guarantee: Smoke goes up the chimney, not into the room Convection efficiency: Heat goes into the room, not up the chimney The only approved inset open fire by HETAS The official body recognised by UK Government to approve biomass and solid fuel domestic heating appliances, fuels and services.
Two-Way System. This allows fire by-products to exit the flue as the outside air enters it. However, in a house with negative air pressure—usually newer, energy-efficient homes that are well-sealed with weather stripping or caulking—more air enters the home than exits it, so outside air pressure is higher than that indoors. The greater influx of air from the outdoors pushes down smoke in the flue until it enters your home.
To determine if this is the case in your house, next time the fireplace is smoky, open a nearby window or door while the fireplace is in operation. If this seems to reduce or eliminate indoor smoke, your home probably has negative air pressure. To address an issue of negative air pressure, consider having a mason install an air supply vent at the back of the firebox. This rectangular grate supplies air from the outdoors to the fire, balancing indoor-outdoor air pressure and encouraging fire by-products to escape the flue.
If none of the above problems are behind your smoky fireplace, the culprit may be the chimney or fireplace itself. Proper drafting requires chimney and fireplace components to be built in a certain size. While having these structural components altered is often cost-prohibitive, a workaround is to install a smoke guard in front of the fireplace e. This bar at the top of the fireplace opening limits the fire by-products that enter the home, minimizing your exposure to smoke. Stave off a smoky fireplace the next time you light up by following these fireplace operation and chimney maintenance tips:.
Disclosure: BobVila. You agree that BobVila.
0コメント