A regular question we get asked here at Homefire is “Are wood burning stoves safe and can I leave them on and go to bed?”. The simple answer? Yes - you just need to make sure before leaving your fire unattended that you make the necessary steps to make sure it is safe to do so.
In this article, we are going to tell you all the steps you need to take to ensure you can go to bed worry free, instead of staying up until the early hours waiting on your wood burner completely go out.
Limit the air intake for the fire
When you go to bed you want to ensure your fire goes out consistently and over a period of time. Don’t shut off the air vents completely but close them right down as this will limit the amount of air that gets into the chamber so the fire will slowly die out.
Once the embers in the fire start to go orange then you then it will start to die and you can sleep without worrying.
If you are unsure about this, have a read about how to use the air vents on your wood burner correctly. We wrote an article to help you, just click here.
Remove any flammable objects nearby to your wood burner
This should be something to make sure of at all times, not just when you are going to bed.
Before you decide to go to sleep, check around your fireplace to make sure there isn’t anything that could easily catch light whilst you’re in bed. These would be things such as; candles, paper or cardboard, logs or spare firelighters you didn’t get around to using. All of these things could potentially catch fire so to prevent that from happening make sure that anything flammable is placed far away from the fireplace.
Don’t let us scare you, the chances of this happening are low if you have the door on your wood burning stove closed but it is always better to be safe than sorry, right?
Another handy tip to ensure everyone and everything is kept safe during the night is ensuring any pets or children cannot get near your fireplace during the night - having a fireguard is a sensible idea to stop this happening.
Have your chimney swept once a year
Do wood burning stoves need a chimney sweep? There should be general upkeep of your wood burning stove, but to ensure you can safely leave your fire to burn out at night, this step is vitally important.
Getting your chimney swept at least once a year, removes deposits and other things that build up every time you light a fire. The risk of a chimney fire is very real if you don’t have it swept at least once per year.
HETAS recommends having your chimney swept at least once annually if you are burning smokeless fuels and twice per year for other types of wood and coal. If you’re wondering how to clean your wood burning stove chimney, there are plenty of small businesses out there solely focused on cleaning chimneys.
Some things you SHOULDN’T do
So now that we’ve given you a list of things you should do if you wish to leave your wood burning stove and go to bed, we also want to make you aware of a few things you should avoid when leaving your stove on overnight.These include:
- Throwing water over the fire - Doing so can cause an outburst of smoke and can also lead to steam burns. Water should only be used as a way to extinguish a fire in a fireplace in an emergency situation where there is nothing else available.
- Trying to smother the flames - Never try to smother the flames with a blanket, as you risk having it catch fire as well.
- Leaving the wood burning stove door open - This way, air is able to get to the fire and potentially ignite the embers of the fire.
There you have it! You probably know this anyway, but as long as you practice some common sense with your wood burner you shouldn’t have any issues leaving it to burn out overnight.