I made the mistake of burning pine when OH was at work over a few months and the resin caught fire in the flue pipe with bits dropping down behind the stove. I called the pompiers who ripped out the flue pipe, made sure the chimney itself was ok and also checked in the roof space for any signs of smouldering. Never again and was chastised by all the neighbours for burning it and it was quite old too, not recently cut.
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We swear by the Norwegian approach, so top down burning, as being less polluting. So 2 big bits on the bottom, a small amount of easily burnable stiff between them (cheese box, pine cones that sort of thing and then a few bits of kindling on top. Fire burns downwards so this work brilliantly for us. Prepare the fire, light a twist of paper at the top, and donât need to do anything else for a few hours!
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may be to do with accumulation of pine resin being considered to be a fire hazard
in my childhood we burned mostly pine from trees which had fallen, well seasoned. In a normal log fire in a house with chimney regularly cleaned I canât see why it would be a problem.
Tell that to Sweden and Norway. But they do have better stoves than crappy Godins.
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What you describe is indeed what we do successfully with our Godin cylindrical wood burner but the OP has a different style of wood burner which requires a different approach.
I just think he has to experiment and find which method suits him best. It can be a trial and error thing really and much does depend on the burner itself.
And the small fire at the top pre heats the flue quicker so everything works better.
Caveat is some people do not have flue liners, register plates or a decent stove and possible huge old chimneys that take an age to warm up to cause the updtaft.
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My old mum used to put a newspaper spread out over the front of the open fire once lit (Manchester Evening News was favourite) and that used to make the thing go like billy-o 
Need to be careful that the paper is not sucked up the chimney though and sets fire to it 
Bit difficult with a huge open fronted Charentaise fireplace thoughâŚ
My Mum would fully open the fireguard and lay it flat across the open fireplace, then laying the newspaper across that⌠thus avoiding (she hoped) what you describe⌠
the times the paper would begin to scorch before sheâd drag it away⌠beyond belief now⌠but as a child it seemed amazing/interesting/funâŚ
why did she use the times?
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Thicker paper, unlike the Star that had thicker readers 
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Snap. Thatâs one of my memories of lighting open fires in the distant past. The problem wasnât just the newspaper being sucked up the chimney, but the paper spontaneously combusting if tou took it too far 
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prepare to hibanate with dozens of duvets and pray that EDF and co do not make you broke,
My winter bill was 4000 euros to heat 2 rooms and generate hot water for all cleaning purposes and machines.
Can not imagine what this year will bring,
Good lord Barbara, that is not normal 
. We pay 120/month!
Sounds like you need to look at your insulation, and source of heating. At times (in the past) we had up to 8 bedrooms/3 houses being heated and our electricity bill was never more than âŹ200/month. Energy prices are tightly controlled here, think electricity only increased by a maximum of 4% - be very grateful youâre not living in the UK!!
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Wow that is an enormous bill for elec - after alot of optimizing, my elec bill is approx 35 euros/month, with a wood burning stove, and I reckon I could even shave off a couple of euros off that without too much effort. Sounds like youâve got alot of opportunity to reduce your bill.
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No it is not normal Nothing about this house was normal especially the electrics and the electrician is another story.
But apart from all the blemishes found it is a lovely property,
Too true, up 5% per month on a talk from LBC radio.
presumably, you had regard to the statutory Energy Efficiency report before your purchase of this property and have a plan to rectify any shortcomings? Your choice of course, as always
Some friends years ago had a huge electricity bill and discovered that they were rated as a farm and were on some ridiculously high tariff. Able to take as many kw as they wanted (but didnât need). Are you on a sensible tariff?
Is that the standard 9KW supply or do you have triphase which I believe is more expensive and you may not realise it - someone please confirm this is right as do not have experience of triphase except in a house I used to look after but that was a five bed/five bath with two water heater property and old fashioned. That is a horrendous bill and I never paid more than âŹ150/2 months with continuous radiators on/chauffe-eau and all the electromenager and lighting in a 450+ year old property including a second building. You can get the various local agencies like HEOL etc that are government sponsored to come and give you a diagnostic into getting that reduced which includes advice and estimates for insulation, replacing single glazed windows and leaky doors etc.
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