If you are burning wood, please ensure it is well seasoned, any water in the timber has to boil away before the wood will burn, and this will reduce the net energy released as useful heat (as opposed to steam up the chimney). If you can get them to light at all, logs that aren’t dry will result in a fire that smoulders and creates lots of tars and smoke. These tars can be corrosive, potentially damaging the lining of the flue, reducing it's life considerably and increasing the danger of a chimney fire. Wet logs will tend to blacken glass in stoves even if the stove is designed to keep the glass clean. Well seasoned logs can have approximately twice the energy of green logs. Also do not burn man made wood such as mdf, plywood, chipboard etc or anything which has been treated eg railway sleepers, old wooden windows, fencing etc, these will all reduce the life of your liner considerably, I've had liners failing after only 3 years of use due to the incorrect use of fuel.
You should always take care to burn only dried (seasoned) wood, either by buying it dry, or by buying green logs and drying them yourself. Radial cracks and bark that comes off easily suggests well-seasoned wood.
Once you get tar in your chimney or flue it can be very difficult and expensive to remove, if it catches fire then it is very likely you will need to replace your liner and at an average cost of £1,000 it is something you want to avoid.
A fire in a metal liner can destroy the liner, a fire in clay lined chimneys can crack and badly damage the liners and even in brick chimneys, bricks can be badly damaged by fire to the point they need to have expensive relining work done, this is why it is important to have your chimney swept regularly, whatever fuel you burn.
You would be well advised to invest in a moisture meter, a simple device that gives you a digital readout of how much water is contained in the wood, they are cheap to buy (they start at less than £10 on ebay) and a good investment to help you judge the moisture content of your wood, you should aim to burn wood that has a moisture content of 20% or less and a moisture meter will help you achieve this.
You should always take care to burn only dried (seasoned) wood, either by buying it dry, or by buying green logs and drying them yourself. Radial cracks and bark that comes off easily suggests well-seasoned wood.
Once you get tar in your chimney or flue it can be very difficult and expensive to remove, if it catches fire then it is very likely you will need to replace your liner and at an average cost of £1,000 it is something you want to avoid.
A fire in a metal liner can destroy the liner, a fire in clay lined chimneys can crack and badly damage the liners and even in brick chimneys, bricks can be badly damaged by fire to the point they need to have expensive relining work done, this is why it is important to have your chimney swept regularly, whatever fuel you burn.
You would be well advised to invest in a moisture meter, a simple device that gives you a digital readout of how much water is contained in the wood, they are cheap to buy (they start at less than £10 on ebay) and a good investment to help you judge the moisture content of your wood, you should aim to burn wood that has a moisture content of 20% or less and a moisture meter will help you achieve this.