Leaving a wood burning stove and going to bed

A regular question we come across at Logs Near Me is “can I leave my wood burning stove on and go to bed?”

The simple is as yes - as long as you take the necessary steps to make it safe. This is what we are going to tell you about in this blog post.

Instead of making yourself sit up to the small hours waiting on your wood burner completely going out, follow these tips so you can sleep soundly knowing your house isn’t going to catch fire during the night.

Limit the air intake for the fire

When you go to bed you want to ensure your fire goes out consistently and over a period of time.

Don’t shut off the air vents completely but close them right down. This will limit the air that gets into the chamber so the fire will slowly die out. Once the embers in the fire start to go orange then you then it will start to die and you can sleep without worrying.

Have a read about how to use the air vents on your wood burner correctly.

Remove any flammable objects nearby to your wood burner

You shouldn’t have any flammable objects around your wood burner anyway but you never know what you set down beside it before you go to bed.

Just before you head off for a night's sleep, have a quick check around the vicinity of your wood burner. Just make sure there isn’t anything - candles, aerosols, logs, papers or that pack of firelighters you forgot about - lying nearby that could potentially catch fire.

The chances of it happening are low if you have the door on your wood burning stove closed but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Also, ensure your pets or children can’t get near it during the night - having a fireguard is a sensible idea to stop this happening.

Have your chimney swept once a year

This is actually vitally important so you can leave your wood burning stove at night.

Having the chimney swept removes deposits and other things that build up every time you light a fire. The risk of a chimney fire is very real if you don’t have it swept at least once per year.

HETAS recommend having your chimney swept once annually if you are burning smokeless fuels and twice per year for other types of wood and coal.

It is a relatively small thing to have done by a professional but is necessary from a safety perspective.

Some things you SHOULDN’T do

Use these tips so you can go to bed safe in the knowledge that your wood burner isn’t going to set your house alight.

We should make you aware of some things that you definitely shouldn’t do to your wood burner before you go to bed. This includes:

• Throwing water over the fire
• Trying to smother the flames
• Leaving the wood burning stove door open

You probably know this anyway but as long as you practice some common sense with your wood burner you shouldn’t have any issues leaving it to burn out overnight.