16
FUELS
APPROVED FUELS
Your appliance has been designed to burn the following approved fuels:
Recommended solid fuels: beech wood, birch, oak, ash, hornbeam and wood from fruit trees.
Non-recommended solid fuels: conifer, damp wood, chemically treated wood, shavings, wood pellets, coke. It
is prohibited to burn refuse or fl ammable liquids (petrol, solvents or motor oil) inside the stove.
CHOICE OF WOODS TO BURN
The best wood to burn is very dry wood which will be easier to light and will cause less tarring/sooting in the chimney.
Ideally the wood will have been left to dry for 18 months, and even in that case the logs will still have a moisture
content of 20%!
Damp wood not only has a lower calori
fi
c power, which lowers the combustion temperature, and therefore is less
ef
fi
cient, it is also dif
fi
cult to light, extinguishes easily and gives off smoke. Above all, the use of damp wood can lead to
soot being deposited in the smoke ducts (tarring and sooting) of the chimney.
Some woods are more reactive than others. Those that are best are hornbeam, beech and oak. Aspen, birch and lime
tree burn well but do not last as long. After them are soft leaves and conifers. The diameter of the log is important for
the heat. However, this classi
fi
cation is only an indication as the best
fi
re wood is always the driest.
Wood provided at a ready-to-use length, stored immediately in a well aired place, dry quicker than those left in steres.
Blocks dry quicker than logs. Wood chucks that are too small to be split must be drained. To do this, remove a portion
of the bark.
Drying the wood will take between 18 months and 2 years. This time can be shortened (12 to 15 months) if the wood is
cut to a ready-to-use length and immediately stored in a well aired place
TARRING AND SOOTING
When the smoke reaches a low temperature in the chimney, part of the water vapours that it contains condense. The
heaviest components of this are deposited on the inside of the
fl
ue. This is TARRING. The mix oxidizes in contact with
the air and forms brownish marks. This is SOOTING.
To avoid this inconvenience four things must be done: use only dry wood, connect the stove to achimney with thick sides
and at an even section (the bushel 20 x 20cm system is often used) and make sure that the connecting tubes are as
short as possible.
The chimney
fl
ue must be inspected frequently during the heating season (i.e. summer months) to determine if a build-
up of creosote is forming. If a creosote deposit of 3 1/8” (3mm) or more forms, it must be removed to reduce the risk of
chimney
fi
re.
