Ok so our new (old) house has a couple of open fires in it. Has the chimney checked by british gas etc and it all seems good.

So tried it out with first little fire the other night to see what it was like before i go throwing loads of wood on it.

It actually looked like it was almost going up the chimney. Im thinking this is very bad? is it? Its only a small fireplace.

Basically i have no idea what im doing with this. Any tips to avoid burning the house down / enjoying it

its one of these if it manes any difference / sense

http://www.c20fireplaces.co.uk/parts/baxi-burnall

errr…. looks like a totally normal fire to me?

It actually looked like it was almost going up the chimney.

Well you wouldn’t want it in the room; now would you?

That’s fine, though you won;t get much heat from it. Pick up some smokeless fuel/coal and use that on top of some wood once the wood is well away and glowing inside. Start with just a dozen or so bits of coal, if the grate will take more, then you’re grand. The fire needs to be big enough to radiate and heat the fireplace, but not so big that the flames actually are raging up the chimney. Get a footstool and fireguard, then pull the sofa closer in and settle down…

Buy a fireguard and use, especially when you aren’t in the room.

All great sage advice by 3 fish. Nothing more to add. Oh, just one thing. Wine open fires go great with red wine.

Rolled up newspaper on the bottom, a couple of small firelighters in between then a layer of kindling then top off with coal (lots of it). Smokeless is much harder to light than house coal and doesn’t burn with such a big flame but it burns for much longer. Make sure that the flames from the fire lighters are touching the coal, move lumps around until they do.

fab guys cheers

The stove boys and girls will be along soon, to tell you how inefficient it is, but they look braw 🙂

The stove boys and girls will be along soon, to tell you how inefficient it is

Open fires are very inefficient and yes all your heat is going up the chimney.
Get it sorted, put a stove in and join the niche (actually I think open fires are more niche now!).
Even better, wait a couple of year so you can be totally amazed at the difference.

BTW…. your fire looks fine.

We’ve just had an open fire replaced with a wood burner. Much as I loved the Victorian fireplace, 85% of the heat went up the Chimney, whereas now we get 85% in the room. Still think the Victorian looked nicer…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pjV13B]Original Victorian Open Fire[/url] by brf, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pjV1he]New wood burner[/url] by brf, on Flickr

An ex of mine had a thing about getting down in front of an open fire, handily I had one in my bedroom at the time. Much better than a stove!

Is it possible to fit a wood burner into a Victorian type opening whilst retaining the cast iron surround?

Is it possible to fit a wood burner into a Victorian type opening whilst retaining the cast iron surround?

Depends on the model, the surround is normally attached to all the rest of it though.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pBsT1U]Untitled[/url] by brf, on Flickr

we were going to get a wood burner/stove in both rooms but decided to keep the fireplace in one, inefficient but nice.