Why does smoke come into the room when I first light my
fireplace?
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This question is asked so many times during the burning season. The
initial reaction of a lot of homeowners is that there is something blocking
the chimney. Sometimes it is something as easily rectified as opening
the damper. Yes, this is sometimes the answer.
The most common reason for this problem is that the air in the chimney
is cold. Cold air is dense and heavy. Warmer air is lighter. When you
light a fire, there is not a tremendous amount of heat immediately going
up the chimney, but the fire does have smoke. There is a 1 or 2 story tall
column of heavy cold air pushing down on the fire. (Remember the cold
air that came into the room when you opened the damper?) The air
inside the room is much warmer and lighter. Which would you choose?
Would you rather (figuratively speaking) try to push 1000 lb., or would
you rather push 10 lb.? The smoke chooses the least path of resistance.
Until the air in the chimney is warm, it is easier for the smoke to come
into the room.
To correct this problem, you could leave the damper open long enough
for the warm air of the room to rise up the chimney and warm the flue
before you start the fire. Of course, you may get quite cold while
waiting for this to happen.
You could use a hair dryer to warm the flue, but this could make a mess
if you have any ashes in the firebox, or light soot in the chimney.
Cleaning up the mess might discourage you from lighting a fire.
If you twist a sheet or 2 of newspaper into a tight wand, light it, then
wave it above the damper, you may be able to get enough heat up the
flue to start the draft for the smoke to follow.
I've also been told that if you put the twisted sheets of newspaper on top
of your logs and light it, then start your fire, it should also work. You
don't want a flaming piece of paper going up the chimney, so you might
want to anchor it down with a log.
