Start with Wood That Wants to Burn

The single biggest difference between a fire that roars and one that sulks comes down to the wood you put on it. Wet wood is a thief: it steals heat from the fire to dry itself off, sending most of your energy up the chimney as steam rather than into the room. Seasoned wood, by contrast, lights willingly and gives back far more than it takes.

Look for logs with a moisture content below 20 per cent. If you have a moisture meter, push the pins into a freshly split face rather than the end grain, and test a few logs rather than trusting one. Without a meter, knock two logs together: a dry log rings sharp and hollow, while a damp one thuds. Dry wood also shows splitting at the ends and loose, curling bark.

• Season for at least a year — ideally 18 months to two years for hardwood, stored under cover with the sides open to the wind.
• Keep logs off the ground on a pallet or rack, stacked loosely so air moves between them.
• Bring a day's worth indoors to finish drying by the hearth, but never stack damp wood directly against a stove or chimney breast.
• Choose dense hardwoods such as ash, oak, beech, hawthorn or apple for long, steady heat, and keep softwoods like pine for kindling and quick morning blasts.

Split logs thicker than about 10cm (4 inches) down to size — a split log dries faster and burns more cleanly than a round one of the same weight.

Build Small and Bright, Not Big and Smouldering

The instinct when the room is cold is to load the grate to the roof and hope for the best. Resist it. A small, fierce fire reaches temperature quickly, warms the flue, and establishes the draught that will carry smoke away cleanly. A packed firebox starves itself of air, smoulders, and coats your chimney with tar.

Try the top-down method, which has become the standard advice for good reason. Lay four or five small splits in the firebox with a little space between them. On top, place a loose handful of kindling, then one or two natural firelighters. Light the top. The flame burns downwards through the kindling and ignites the logs below, and because the fire starts hot and clean, there is very little smoke at the beginning — the part of the burn that usually causes trouble.

• Use three or four pieces of kindling, roughly finger-thickness, criss-crossed rather than jammed together.
• Never use wet or glossy paper, and avoid coal on a wood fire unless your appliance is designed for it.
• Leave gaps. Fire needs air between the fuel, not just underneath it.

Open the Vents Gradually, and Read the Fire

Control is everything. Open the primary air — usually the lower vent, or the one beneath the grate — when you light the fire, and leave the door slightly ajar for the first few minutes if your stove allows it. This initial rush of air heats the flue and gets the chimney pulling. Once the flames are established and the kindling has caught, close the door and begin easing the primary vent down.

Now bring in the secondary air, the vent above the door. On most modern stoves this feeds the airwash that keeps the glass clear while supplying oxygen to the gases above the fuel. It is where a great deal of your heat actually comes from. Aim for a fire that is lively but not frantic: bright orange flames, no black tips curling out of the firebox, no smoke drifting from the chimney. If the room is hazy or the glass soots over, you have closed things down too far.

A stove thermometer on the flue pipe is a cheap, honest guide. Somewhere between 150°C and 250°C is the sweet spot — hot enough for a clean burn, not so hot that you are throwing heat away.

Feed Little and Often

Once the fire is established, add one or two splits at a time rather than filling the box. Logs roughly 7–10cm thick burn best: thick enough to last, thin enough to catch quickly. Rake the embers level before each reload so the new wood sits on a bed of glowing coals rather than on ash.

Do not be tempted to slumber the fire overnight by shutting every vent. That low, creeping burn produces creosote, wastes fuel and is the main cause of chimney fires. If you want the fire to last, load a couple of larger splits, keep the vents open enough for visible flame, and accept that the room will cool by morning.

Ash, Glass and the Annual Sweep

Leave a thin layer of ash — a centimetre or so — on the base of the firebox. It insulates the grate and helps the embers hold heat. Clear the excess when it builds up, and empty the ash pan when cold, never while the fire is lit.

Clean the glass with a damp cloth dipped in wood ash while the stove is cool; it works better than most things you can buy. And book a chimney sweep once a year, more often if you burn a lot of softwood or burn every evening through winter. A clean flue draws better, and a good draught is the foundation of every efficient fire.