How to keep a wood stove burning overnight using night briquettes

One of the greatest comforts of owning a wood-burning stove is waking up on a freezing morning to a house that is still comfortably warm. However, keeping a fire burning safely throughout the night requires a specific technique and the right type of fuel.

Standard kiln dried logs or everyday heat logs are designed to provide rapid, intense heat, meaning they will quickly burn to ash if left unattended. To achieve a long, steady slumber, you need to use a specialised product: the night briquette. Here is exactly how to set up your stove for an overnight burn.

Also known as bark briquettes, night logs are a highly compressed, dark-coloured fuel made predominantly from tree bark rather than inner wood shavings. Bark burns entirely differently from regular wood; it smoulders very slowly and generates a steady, low-level heat. A high-quality night briquette can glow for up to 8 hours without needing to be touched.

You cannot place a night briquette into a cold stove and expect it to work. Before going to bed, build a normal fire using traditional logs or standard heat logs. Allow this fire to burn down until the bright yellow flames disappear, leaving behind a thick, glowing red bed of hot embers. This intense base heat is crucial to ignite the dense bark briquette.

Place one or two unbroken night briquettes directly onto the glowing embers. Unlike standard heat logs, which you should break into pieces to prevent aggressive expansion, night logs should be left whole to maximise their burn time.

Leave the air vents open for a few minutes until the night log catches fire and develops a solid flame. Once the briquette is burning, shut down the primary air vent completely and reduce the secondary air vent (the airwash system) to a bare minimum.

By starving the stove of oxygen, you stop the briquette from burning with a rapid flame. Instead, it transitions into a slow, hot smoulder.

In the morning, the briquette will look like a block of grey ash, but it will still be radiating heat. Fully open all the air vents, use a poker to gently break the remaining core of the briquette apart, and place some dry kindling on top. The sudden rush of oxygen hitting the hot core will instantly reignite the kindling, allowing you to build a fresh morning fire in seconds without needing firelighters.