Wood burning stoves and fireplaces give your home a warm, cozy feel. Although a renewable source of energy, wood is not very environmentally friendly due to the air pollution it produces.

Splitting wood is very important for wood burning stoves. A big log will not catch fire too well and will not burn well either. You must split the wood. Quartering is best, but even just in half will do. The finer splinters will catch fire and keep the fire going until the rest of the log catches on.

A regular log will burn for only a few hours, so if you are using wood burning stoves as your main source of heat, keep this in mind before you go to bed. You might have to get up several times during the night to put in more wood. You can fill the stove to the top the night before, but it still will not last through the entire night.

Keep a stack of wood beside the stove, not too close of course, for ease of refueling. It is a good idea to have at least ten split logs close at hand. You do not want to go out and chop wood in the middle of the night. A small room will heat up quickly. If your stove is too large for your room, you be sweating in no time, no matter how cold it is outside. There are some simple calculations to help you decide the size of stove you need for a particular room.

Your wood needs to by dry. Not just moisture wise, but aged. A tree should dry at least one year before it is ready for your wood burning stove. Green trees will produce more smoke than heat. Cut the tree into manageable lengths, about one foot sections. Then you need to split these sections with an axe. Spitting not only makes it easier to load into the stove, it will burn better.

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