After some practice, you'll get a sense of how many logs to add in the evening and how long burning coals and embers will last before retiring for the night. Then, by fully closing the damper, you can prevent the loss of warm air from your home up the chimney when the fireplace is not in use.
Ya as long as you leave the damper open and close the doors you're fine to go to bed.
The damper should be kept closed when there is no fire or coals burning. Warm air from your home will not be lost up the chimney when the fireplace is not being used. Fully open the damper before your start a fire and keep it fully open until all embers and coals have burned out.
As the air is closed down, more air is pulled through the secondary tubes. That starts burning waste wood gas for better and hotter combustion. So closing down the air actually makes the stove hotter. Running it wide open sends more heat up the flue liner.
First, ALWAYS ensure the damper is fully open BEFORE lighting the fireplace. Otherwise, you and your home may be covered in soot and ash if the chimney back puffs. The damper has notches, so you can partially close it (throttling), like a manual stick shift in a car.
HVAC Damper Open Or Closed In Summer/Winter
In most homes, dampers going to the upstairs are open in the summer and closed in the winter. By closing the dampers to the upstairs in the winter, it allows for the heat to rise naturally after first being introduced into the lower levels of the home.
Use the Damper to Control Heat
Depending on how far open or shut you have the damper, your fire will be smaller and cooler (and burn for longer), or larger and hotter (and burn more quickly). The damper is usually located at the bottom of the stove.
By not creating an airtight seal, these dampers minimize the strain on the system. In summer, you can close the dampers downstairs so cooler air reaches upstairs rooms. But in winter, closing upstairs vents halfway allows heat to rise.
Evenly distributing small pieces of wood throughout the fireplace will increase air circulation and speed up the burning of the wood. This creates a sustainable fire, but the wood burns faster. Placing large logs closer to the fireplace will keep the fire burning longer between refills, maximizing heat output per log.
Proper Damper Use
It's important to open the damper all the way when you're using your fireplace, a partially open damper can allow smoke and gases to escape, but can also cause a backdraft that can bring cold air into the home. When you're not using your fireplace, it's important to close the chimney damper.
A closed throat damper will cause smoke to fill your house immediately when you start a fire. If you have a chimney with a closed top-mount damper It might take a few minutes for smoke to start filling the house, but you will eventually notice that there isn't enough airflow.
The handle on the left-hand side is for your combustion air intake; think of this as a gas pedal in a car but is used for controlling the intensity of your fire. The handle on the right-hand side is for your flue damper; this control is used primarily to slow down the chimney draft.
In the winter, closing the dampers on your HVAC system to the upstairs allows for heat to rise naturally as it is distributed throughout the home. In the summer, the lower level is naturally cooler, and most people report having hot rooms.
The damper to your fireplace must be completely open when a fire is burning. If you close the damper even slightly, you risk allowing smoke and other dangerous contaminants from the combustion process into the house. And remember, the most dangerous by-product of combustion is carbon monoxide.
Leaving a wood-burning fireplace on overnight is unsafe due to the risks of house fires, carbon monoxide poisoning, and creosote buildup. Always extinguish the fire before bed using water or sand to cool the embers completely.
Warm air from your home naturally rises, and an open chimney provides an easy escape route. In fact, it's estimated that up to 30% of your home's heated air can be lost through an open chimney when the fire isn't in use.
✓ Damper position.
The damper is a movable plate inside the venting system which helps to regulate airflow. While your fireplace is in use, the damper should be fully open, otherwise the restricted airflow can reduce the heat and intensity of your fires.
Keeping fireplace doors open results in a more lively fire but can lead to heat loss and safety concerns. Closing fireplace doors improves efficiency, enhances safety, and directs heat into the room. Oxygen is vital for a healthy fire, and closed doors draw air from outside to maintain an efficient burn.
Keep the fireplace damper closed unless you have a fire burning. It can be easy to forget to close it when the fire has burned out, but keeping the damper open can cause drafts and heat loss in the rest of the house. But be careful, it can also be easy to remember to open it when you start a fire.
The damper is designed to be shut when the fireplace is not in use and can be easily opened when it is. It's common to forget to close the damper after a fire goes out, however, and that leaves a big hole through which heated or cooled air can escape the house.
To create fires that produce more heat, open the damper as wide as possible when lighting a fire. A wide-open damper will increase the amount of air reaching the fire and improve combustion. As a result, the fire will burn hotter.
Excessive static pressure inside an HVAC system is never a good thing. Closing too many air supply dampers could put you in the static pressure “danger zone.”
One common myth about chimneys is that leaving the damper open during the summer helps “air out” the chimney. However, the opposite of true. Leaving the damper open just fouls up the rest of your home, and does nothing to clean your chimney.
Hardwood burns the slowest, produces the most intense fires, and produces hot coals that remain hot long after a fire has gone out. When hardwoods are burned in good conditions for a fire, they produce very little smoke or unhealthy particulate matter.
The damper and flue are two different parts, but they are related and involved in the same function. The flue is the inside tunnel of your chimney that brings gases from your fireplace out of your home, while the damper closes or opens the access to the flue.