How to properly heat a sauna with wood?

For several millennia, firewood has been considered an ideal fuel for heating a bath. Despite the seeming simplicity, the firebox is an art and requires certain knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, if you follow the simple rules, the heating of the bathhouse will become a simple and familiar thing.

Obviously, you cannot heat the bath with damp wood - they must be dry. It is recommended to purchase or procure high-quality firewood for the heating of a bath. Rotten wood does not warm up the bath well. Boards treated with various compositions leave behind unpleasant and pungent odors.

In order to calculate the exact required number of logs, you need to write down how much firewood was needed for kindling 1 time. On average, 15 cubic meters of wood is sufficient for 7 months (winter period). However, this figure can change depending on the frequency of kindling, the type of wood and much more. On average, one kindling can take from 1 to 5 kg of firewood.

It is undesirable to heat the bath with coniferous wood. As you know, such wood contains a lot of resin, which makes the wood burn faster, and also remains in the smoke exhaust ducts.

You cannot heat the bath with pine, but you can use fruit wood. But usually they are practically inaccessible. Hardwood firewood is considered ideal. The most famous trees in this category are oak, ash and others. However, they are also not easy to get - they are very expensive. Such wood cannot be stored for more than 2 years. These types of wood fill the bathhouse with the scent of the forest.

Heating with alder wood is recommended for those who are prone to various colds. Alder has a bactericidal effect and a pleasant aroma. Another advantage is the long shelf life. People with asthma or other respiratory diseases can use a linden tree to heat the sauna.

A good and affordable kindling material is birch wood. It does not leave behind unpleasant odors, does not form soot and keeps heat well. However, during combustion, tar is released, which can then remain in the furnace and settle in the chimney.

You cannot heat the bathhouse with various household waste or painted boards.... They can give off pungent smoke, and soot can remain in the stove, chimney, and even in the bath itself.

Kindling the bath with coals is allowed, but it is not entirely desirable. They have no aroma, but keep warm for a long time.

Before the firebox, the bath room must be washed. Bath cleaning should be carried out using antiseptic agents. You need to clean not only the shelves and the floor, but also all other surfaces, including the ceiling. After that, you need to let the surfaces dry, and ventilate the bath room.

Cleaning should also include the removal of ash, as well as cleaning the ashtray, grate bars. And also, if necessary, you need to wash the stones from soot or other plaque. In conclusion, it is necessary check the draft in the pipe. This can be done with a lighted match. You need to bring it to the stove.

At the end of this process, several firewood is placed in the oven, a lit paper rope is brought to them. It must be remembered that try to put firewood in the center of the stove. Logs should not touch the door and should not interfere with closing it. After they start burning, the oven closes. This will be discussed in more detail below.

Sometimes it is not possible to light the stove quickly. The reason for this may be severe frosts or rare use of the bath.

Let's figure out how to light up the stove step by step.

1. After the sauna has been cleaned after the last visit, it is necessary to fill the boiler with water. It is impossible to light the stove with an empty boiler.

2. Next step blower open completelyas well as a smoke damper.

3. Several crumpled sheets of newsprint are placed on the grates, and on top - from 4 to 6 small logs... Sprinkle wood chips on the wood to make it burn better. Quite often, part of the firewood is stacked in the form of a "well" structure, and another part around this structure.

4. You need to take a piece of paper and twist a tourniquet out of it. Next, the paper is set on fire. We bring it to the newspapers, set them on fire, and close the door tightly.

5. Later you need to listen. If the sound of burning logs is heard, then we can assume that the bath has begun to heat up, but if not, then it is necessary to set fire to the wood again. The sound may sound like a hum, and sometimes include crackling sounds. If you cannot light the firewood with paper, then you can use dry alcohol in a small amount. It is strictly forbidden to use gasoline or other similar flammable liquids for kindling a bath.

6. Some time after the firewood began to burn, it is necessary to close the blower, open the valve on the boiler, and also close the exit to the chimney.

In general, the entire procedure should take less than 15 minutes. In the summer, you can heat a sauna in 5 minutes. The kindling time also depends on the dryness of the wood. It is undesirable to water the stones during kindling. This will "slow down" the process of warming up the room.

In order to learn how to properly heat the bath, you need to master the skill of keeping warm in the bath room. The (initial) laying of firewood alone is not enough.

After a certain amount of time, the firebox door opens, the coals in it are leveled. After that, a few firewood is put on top. This should be done as far as possible from the chimney and closer to the door.

The second batch of firewood can be loaded about 15 minutes after the first batch of firewood has turned to coals. The same applies to all subsequent bookmarks. There is no need to wait until the wood burns out completely. If this happens, the temperature in the bath room immediately drops.

The heating of a sauna usually lasts from 2 to 5 hours. In summer, the bath is usually heated for no more than 3 hours, in winter this time is almost doubled.

The firebox can be considered complete if the water is boiling, the temperature in the room has reached at least 60 degrees, and all the logs have turned into red coals (with stirring) without blue flames. The presence of blue tongues indicates that the carbon dioxide has not yet completely escaped, and you still need to wait. You can enter the bathhouse after the end of the furnace.

It is important not to allow the boiler water to boil off completely. If it has noticeably decreased, then it is necessary to top it up.

After the completion of the firebox, you need to go into the bath room and wash away traces of soot from the walls and shelves. This should be done with open doors and vents.

As a rule, if the bath was built wisely, then it should not cool down in this short period.... After that, only the window in the steam room remains open. After that, you can already go to the bathhouse.