Due to the unique charm of Western culture and the fact that fireplaces can meet people's demand for heating, more and more high-end consumers begin to add wood-fired fireplace elements to the decoration of villas. Just as we need to comply with the corresponding safety operation requirements when using electricity and natural gas, we also need to obey a series of rules when using wood fireplaces. As long as you understand and abide by these rules, you can use firewood as safely as you use electricity, natural gas or gasoline. For the first time contact fireplace friends, there are four principles must be understood and observed, which is related to your personal and property safety, must not be taken lightly. These four basic principles are:

1. It must be installed by professionals. 

Chinese consumers are still relatively unfamiliar with the fireplace culture originating from the West. They are often at a loss when choosing fireplace products, and they are easily misled when consulting businesses. Sellers, considering their own interests, are bound to deliberately avoid problems that are not conducive to sales and even give completely wrong answers. Unfortunately, this misleading is extremely harmful and will put fireplace users in danger without knowing it.

2. The chimney must be cleaned regularly by professionals. 

True fire fireplaces have been used in the West for hundreds of years and are still alive today. On the one hand, it embodies the strong charm and vitality of fireplace culture. On the other hand, it is closely related to the establishment of a set of strict and perfect regulations concerning fireplace installation, use, maintenance and fuel supply in European and American countries. These regulations are very complicated and detailed, covering a wide range of areas, the author can not explain them thoroughly in a small space. The main idea of this paper is to provide for the four aspects mentioned at the beginning of this paper.


Firstly, the installation of fireplaces is a highly specialized work, which must be operated by professionals. The regulations of fireplace installation in European and American countries are often dozens of pages thick. In the United Kingdom, the so-called professional refers to the installation personnel who have obtained HETAS certification qualification, and in the United States is the NFI certification. Fireplace installation involves a range of fire knowledge and must use special chimney assemblies with safety certification. Without professional installation of fireplaces, insurance companies do not insure houses, which is a big thing in foreign countries.

Secondly, according to the frequency and intensity of fireplace use, fireplaces and chimneys must be cleaned once or twice a year, and must be operated by professional chimney sweepers (HEATAS certification in the UK and CSIA certification in the USA). Sweeping removes pomegranate oil and other foreign objects that may obstruct the chimney, such as bird's nests, attached to the inner wall of the chimney. Wood pomegranate oil is the main cause of chimney fire. Its formation is related to water content of wood burning, habit of using fireplace, layout of flue, heat preservation of chimney and other factors. In any case, at least once a year professional fireplace and chimney cleaning will ensure that you are safe from fire hazards.

Thirdly, it is necessary to burn fully dried wood. The so-called full drying refers to wood with moisture content less than 20%. Under natural conditions, the logs felled must be placed in a dry, ventilated environment to air for at least one year. Wood with moisture content of more than 20% will inevitably produce pomegranate oil when burning (as mentioned above, this is a flammable oily substance) and attach to the inner wall of chimney, which will increase the risk of fire over time. In addition, firewood that is not fully dried can not release the heat when burning, which greatly reduces the combustion efficiency of firewood, wastes money and pollutes the environment. When wood with high moisture content is burned, a lot of smoke will be produced, which is the result of insufficient combustion of wood. In addition, the following wood should not be burned: pine, cypress, camphor, sycamore, pillow, plywood or chemically treated wood!

3. Burning wood that meets the burning standards must be used. 

However, we find that most of the customer service staff of fireplace sales companies are providing similar misinformation to customers at present: fireplace installation is simple, and can be done by two decoration workers; fireplace is made of cast iron or steel plate, which is strong and does not require any follow-up maintenance; any wood can be burned without restrictions; smoke; The chimney doesn't need cleaning... Here, I want to remind my friends who like fireplaces, fireplaces are a very special product, this is really different. Fourth, if fireplaces are used in cities and suburbs, they must meet the emission requirements. The United Kingdom is the DEFRA standard, the United States is the EPA standard, substandard products are prohibited from selling in cities. A fireplace that looks the same may be very different. At present, fireplaces sold in Europe and the United States are not ordinary stoves in our traditional impression, but high-tech products with very advanced multi-point combustion theory. The combustion efficiency of traditional fireplaces is less than 30%, and the efficiency of high-end fireplaces has reached 80% or even higher, which is a great progress. It is important to know that few devices can make use of almost unprocessed renewable resources so efficiently. This efficient fireplace can hardly see any smoke discharged from the smoke cap when it works. The more efficient the stove is, the more fully it can burn firewood, maximize the heat contained in firewood, and effectively reduce exhaust emissions.

4. Choose the fireplace with high efficiency as far as possible.

Efficient and safe use of wood fireplace can not be separated from professional services, fireplace is not plug and play equipment. It is true that there are many companies selling fireplaces online in Europe and America, but unlike China, European and American countries have formed a well-organized fireplace industry in the long process of using fireplaces, with clear division of labor and numerous service providers. There are specialized fireplace installation companies, professional chimney sweepers, supermarkets can buy all kinds of specifications and dry wood, there are also a large number of wood suppliers. However, in China, such a business environment has not yet been established. A fireplace sales company either provides a full range of services, from installation, maintenance, cleaning to wood-burning supply, or only conceals these information and whispers "pro, very simple, easy". Actually, it's not easy.