Now that colder weather is returning to the Greater Indianapolis area, you’ll be ready to start using your fireplace more often. You may enjoy lighting a fire in your fireplace and reading a book on a cold winter night, and the crackling of burning firewood likely makes you think of the holidays and all that the cold season entails. You may also be tempted to burn things in your fireplace other than wood specifically seasoned for burning, but this would be a mistake.
Don’t Put These Things In Your Fireplace
Following is a partial list of items you should not burn in your fireplace. your fireplace should be used as a secondary heat source in your home, and should not be used as a disposal unit for items. These are common things people tend to burn in their fireplaces that they shouldn’t.
- Christmas Tree Scraps. It may be tempting to burn your live Christmas tree scraps in your fireplace, but this is not a good idea. The wood is still green and will cause a significant amount of smoke and soot.
- Cardboard or Paper. You do not want to put cardboard in your fireplace as it often is treated with chemicals that are hazardous to inhale when burned. Cardboard and paper ashes also may float in the air while burning and can cause fires to start outside of your fireplace.
- Unseasoned wood. Unseasoned wood is too green and will cause too much smoke and soot. Properly seasoned wood was cut at least a year ago, has a grayish color, the bark falls off easily, and is cracking.
- Trash (including plastics). You do not want to burn trash in your fireplace as it will cause dangerous emissions while burning.
- Treated wood, particle board, etc. These have chemicals added to them that are dangerous to breathe when burning.
For more information on proper care and use of your fireplace, and many other home comfort topics, contact our experts at Mowery Heating, Cooling and Plumbing. We have been serving the Greater Indianapolis area for more than 40 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Brownsburg, Indiana and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Alexander-Raths/Shutterstock”
