Billowing white smoke from rural chimneys may well be a welcoming, homey sight when winter arrives, but according to Ivan Pacak and John Irwin, who sell and install Italian and Slovakian fireplaces and cookers, white smoke means the fire is being lit incorrectly.
“Everyone assumes you light a fire from the bottom but in fact it is better to light it near the top and let it burn down,” John said.
“That release of white smoke means that you’re wasting energy.”
Ivan explains that white smoke is a mix of vapour and wood particles being broken down which means the wood is not being fully combusted.
“Heat from the top of the fire has you heating the chimney right from the start,” he said.
“That’s the first task, to heat the chimney to get a draw so the fire gets a lot of oxygen and energy released.”
John and Ivan have operated Maison Fireplaces at Mansfield for eight years and have loaded their portable container showroom yet again with a range of heaters and cookers for this year’s expo.
Their knowledge of fire box design, the heat retention of imported Italian soapstone and efficient burning of wood is encyclopedic, and they will pass on their expertise to visitors.
One cooker on display is “Milly“, which burns wood with 90 per cent efficiency from a relatively small amount of wood.
And all of the heaters and cookers seem to have female names.
“Italians give them their names, not us,” John said.