How to light a good fire?

guideanna

Haven't a clue if this is the right place to post this.
I recently put in a big multifuel stove and haven't found it to be that hot when lit. It's a 14kw output so should be plenty warm for the space.
Can anyone tell me whats the best way to start and build a fire. I'm burning coal and wood together so which should go on first and which give off the better heat?

DaveTwenty7

I use tis metod in our open fire link
I would think you need to start with wood first and then add coal when the fire gets going if you don't use the above method

dlambirl

What I do is:

Use 2 firelighters and put them at each side of stove and then use a couple of the firelighting sticks you can get (Super Valu, petrol forecourts - they are about €2) and put a few of them on top.
I open the damper and the bottom vents so that the fire gets going and them put coal (doubles) on it.
Again I leave the damper and bottom vents open to give the coal a chance to light and then I pop a stick or two on top and close the vents and damper down.

When you close the damper it doesn't let the fire/heat go up the chimney and it lets the heat come out to the room and the back boiler (if you have one)

guideanna

Thanks guys,
the upside down fire sounds interesting but not sure i could build my fire with no gaps because the base is curved not flat so it's harder o sit things into.
dlambirl still getting my head around the dampners but what your saying makes sense i will try that tonight leave open until fire gets going then close.

How often do you find yourself putting coal on the fire? I think i have to top it up every hour?

King Mallie

Hi Op,

I put firelighters in the bottom then add some small pieces of wood and leave them for a few mins then i would add some turf (easier to get started) and then finally some coal and the hot should be excellent if you follow them steps :rolleyes:

Goodne

I use Zip individually wrapped firelighters. Slightly more expensive but they always lite. I found when I used cheaper firelighters that I ended up using loads of them.

vibe666

i'm going to give that upside down fire a go and see if it will work with coal on the bottom as the last layer.

BUT, up to now i've always started off with peat briquettes laid out in the following way and it gets a great fire going very quickly.

stand 2 briquettes on their sides parallel to each other so that their outside edges are a briquette length apart at their outside edge. you basically want to have them the right distance apart so that you can lay 3 more evenly spaced briquettes at a90 degree angle across them (also on their sides).

before you put the 3 briquettes on top, put 2 firelighters on top of each other in between the two bottom briquettes and then stack those 3 on top and then put 3 more briquettes on top of those again (all on their sides) at a 90 degree angle so you end up with a block of flats type structure but with spaces between them for the flames to come up through the centre whilst the briquettes all catch light.

i wouldn't recommend going higher than that unless you have a really big fireplace though, as they can fall once they've started burning through. with them stacked 3 high in my very small fireplace, even when they do eventually fall down, they always fall within the confines of the fireplace.

no all you need to do is poke them a little bit and throw on some coal or logs or more briquettes (your choice obviously ) and you're sorted with a roaring fire in about 20 minutes.

elieve it or not, i actually got the idea from the 'making of' the movie Reign of Fire which was partly filmed in Dublin. one of the scenes near the end called for lots of flaming debris and some of it was manufactured on set using lots of briquettes and you could see them all stacked up just like that in some of the interview shots they did with the cast on set. i tried it and it worked a treat.

also as a side note, it doesn't work with hand cut turf, it's not as flammable as the briquettes.

lovelace77

I use the zip firelighters too. More expensive but no mess. Start the fire with kindling and few broken wood briquettes. Open fully both air controls. Give about 20 minutes, till the wood briquettes light up properly. Then i use one wood briquette at a time with the air dampers closed and we get about 2 hours of great heat. I find using coal burns out the inside of the stove too quickly and its messy.

vibe666

well, the layer of coal on the bottom of the fire did an amazing job at making sure everything else on top was well utilised and made it all last for hours before i needed to put anything else on.

from top to bottom it was.

hand cut turf (my brother in law has a patch of bog)
sticks, which i cut up out of a couple of old pallets
balled up newspaper & firelighters
coal

after about 3 1/2 hours i put on one more layer of coal and a couple of logs and that did us for the whole night and it looks like there's still hours left in it. i wouldn't be at all surprised if there's still hot embers in the morning.

good night for it as well, its blowing a gale outside.

Treeplanter

Never used a fire lighter in my life..... start my fire every day with 2-3 sheets lightly compressed newspaper, shredded carboard, softwood kindling (in that order). when the kindling is going i add small logs, then large ones. If i was using coal, i would add after the large logs had caught. works every time for me.. i live in the woods and havent spent any money on fuel (ever).

goat2

how do you make a fire last longer, i use slack, but i would like to find a cleaner way of doing it, i use one of those small black stoves

dave1982

Kidling wait for it to catch fire then ad blocks,then coal

dlambirl

vibe666 wrote: »

well, the layer of coal on the bottom of the fire did an amazing job at making sure everything else on top was well utilised and made it all last for hours before i needed to put anything else on.

from top to bottom it was.

hand cut turf (my brother in law has a patch of bog)
sticks, which i cut up out of a couple of old pallets
balled up newspaper & firelighters
coal

after about 3 1/2 hours i put on one more layer of coal and a couple of logs and that did us for the whole night and it looks like there's still hours left in it. i wouldn't be at all surprised if there's still hot embers in the morning.

good night for it as well, its blowing a gale outside.

Do you use a stove or open fire??

Putting the coal on first, then the firelights then the logs sounds interesting!!

vibe666

it's a small open fire in one of those crappy thrown together modern houses that have been popping up all over the place in housing estates in the last 10 years or so.