Page 275 - The Lost Ways

doing it for an emergency situation, not a permanent modification to your home.
Hopefully, there won’t be any building inspectors running around then checking people’s
chimneys.

There are two types of chimney pipe. In olden times, they used a single-wall chimney.
Today’s fireplaces and wood-burning stoves, however, use a triple-wall chimney. This is
done for safety, with the spaces between the walls creating a draft to ensure that the
heat from the rising smoke doesn’t heat up the outer layer of the chimney pipe and start
a fire. But for our temporary installation, this is not what we want.

By using a single-wall chimney pipe and running it across the room to the window, the
chimney becomes a big radiator, radiating the heat from the smoke out into the room.
That increases the overall heat you are getting from the wood-burning stove without
having to burn any more wood.

In order to do this, not only will you need single-wall chimney pipe but you’ll need a piece
of aluminum flashing or sheet aluminum to replace the glass in the window. The pipe
should pass through this sheet aluminum as close to the top of the window as possible,

and then the chimney should bend upward, with the top being above the roof of the
home. Secure it in place so that the wind cannot knock it down.

It is important that the chimney pipe angle upward from the stove to the window,
although it doesn’t have to angle upward by much. A rise of 1/4" per foot should be
enough to ensure that the draw continues. Be careful to attach the sections of chimney
pipe together so that they seal against each other well, especially the part that is running

horizontally.
Heating with Wood

Good hardwoods will provide more heat per cord than softwoods will. Basically, the
denser the wood, the more heat energy it contains. Buying hardwood firewood may be
more of an investment than buying softwood firewood is, but it is actually cheaper to heat
your home with the hardwood.

Most firewood providers cut the firewood to about 16 inches in length. If you cut your
own, check the amount of space you have in the firebox of your wood-burning stove.
Typically, there is a lot of space that is unused because of using wood that is too short. If

your firebox is 22 inches long, then you want your wood to be cut to about 20 inches.

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