I recently installed a new fireplace in the basement of my house. I had two estimators come by and tell me that the placement was no problem. However, on the first light up, I had smoke pouring into the room for at least a minute or two before the smoke was going up the chimney.

At first, I thought it was my fault, that I hadn't started it properly for whatever reason. I know the chiminey was working properly because once the stove was hot, the draw up the chiminey was excellent. So I tried another time, making sure that the baffle was open and everything else was ready, and again, tons of smoke coming into the room

So, I started to ask people what was going on, and did some reserch about it. Well, apparently there is something called the 'stack effect', which probably applies to my wood stove installation in the basement of my house. The stack effect is created because the warm air in the house tends to rise. The taller the house (and the chiminey) the stronger the stack effect pressure will be. The lower you are in the house, the more negative pressure there will be as the warm air in the house tends to move upwards.

Bottom line, a wood stove in the basement is very susceptible to backdrafting due to this negative pressure. You have to counter balance this pressure, otherwise air gets pulled down the chiminey and pushes the smoke of a newly lit fire back into the room. When the stove and chiminey are hot, there is enough pressure from the hot air in the stove to push its way up the chiminey instead of going into the house.

So my problem when first lighting the fire is to make sure that there is no cold air being drawn down the chiminey by stack effect pressure in the house. I was suggested a number of ways to do this.

Burning a loosely rolled up newspaper near the opening of stove chiminey to warm it up. This gets warm air going up the chiminey. I tried this, and in my case it didn't really work, which resulted in another smoke filled room. At this point by basement was pretty much fumagated.

Opening a window in the room that has the wood stove before you light a fire. Not just cracking it open, but toattly open, enough to get the room cold. Getting enough cold air in to the room to replace the warm air will annul the problem of warm air being drawn up into the house thereby negating the stack effect, at least near the floor where the stove is located. It sucks that you have to get the room cold, but after the fire is lit, it takes only a few minutes to warm it up again.

I am happy to say that doing these two things before I lit a fire pretty much kept my house free of anymore smoke.

You should always check the air flow before you light a fire. Just put your hand in the stove where the damper is or as near to the chiminey opening as possible. You will feel if cold air is coming down.

In summary, to keep smoke from coming into the room when you first light it, especially in the basement, you want to stop warm air in the house from escaping upwards and outwards pulling cold air down the chiminey. Closing windows and not running the dryer are a good start. Turn off your central air if you have a return vent near the stove. Open windows near where the stove is located to equalize pressure. And lastly, burning a loosly rolled paper near the damper to warm it up, and also to verify if smoke is going up the chiminey.

I hope this information helps you from having your house smell like smoke.

I would love to hear your comments regarding this issue.