A very middle aged question about our fire and why it’s not working..

[PardontheFrench]

We have moved into a new house and one of the most exciting parts for me was it had an open fire which we have never had before.

It has had its yearly safety check and certificate done in November so in theory should be good to go but when we lit it last night the smoke didn’t go up the chimney but out into our room.

Google tells me it’s likely a nest but as it’s nesting season there is nothing we can really do to the end of this month.

DD has had a look up and said she can feel and hear the wind from the chimney and I’ve read that sometimes there is a switch/lever that need to be turned to open it up however that doesn’t seem obvious..

I guess I’m just hoping someone more knowledgeable than us might be able to give us some advice on what to try.

Ordinary open fireplaces can be a bit of a mixed blessing which is why people switch to log burners or Jetmaster type fireplaces, which are much easier to control.

We have both an open fire and a stove. For the stove we often find that a column of cold air that sits in the chimney can be shifted by lightning newspaper first - it burns quickly and effectively pushes the cold air out of the chimney, after which we can light it (we're in a bungalow though and next door is very close and much higher than us, so can get down-droughts on windy days particularly).

For the open fire, agree with others to get it checked and swept: we always use firelighters to get it going with dry kindling and then add dry logs - don't crowd the logs as they need space and air to burn. Opening a window can help as you need ventilation of some kind. Bear in mind that the fireplace you showed a picture of was likely designed to burn coal rather than logs, so you might need to experiment with sizes of logs. Enjoy it - even thought they're hugely inefficient, I love our open fire