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3.4 LIGHTING A FIRE
Place enough crumpled balls of newspaper or other paper into the stove to cover
the bottom of the firebox.
Place small and dry kindling on the crumpled paper.
Place larger and dry kindling on top of the small kindling.
Open the air intake control fully.
Light a fire at the bottom of the crumpled paper and close the door. If the fire
tends to go out momentarily, hold the door slightly ajar to activate the fire. As
soon as the fire catches hold, close the door.
Ideally the large kindling should be burned until a thick bed of red embers is
obtained. At that point, add cord wood fuel and continue to operate the draft
control wide open until the fire is well established. Once the firebox is hot, the air
control can be partially closed. After 30 minutes to one hour, you can close the
air control completely. In order to have the best indication of when you should
close the air control completely to operate your stove the most efficiently, use a
chimney (flue) thermometer. If you are using a probe thermometer, you can
close the air control completely when the temperature on the thermometer
reaches 900
o
F (482
o
C). If you are using a magnetic thermometer, you can close
the air control completely when the temperature on the thermometer reaches
475
o
F (246
o
C). Closing the air control down too soon will lower combustion
efficiency and may cause the fire to die out. Over a period of time, it may also
result in creosote build-up in the chimney (which could lead a chimney fire).
FIGURE 3.1 Air control