Alas, no grapevines around here.
We are only using the Invicta a few days a week usually in the evenings, but currently the Evergreen every day, so the Invicta isn’t lit first. They are at opposite ends of the house.
If your house is well-sealed then it may struggle initially to draw against the pull of the other stove, even if it’s at the far end of the house.
We have no problem with smoke… we seem to have got things right…
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I’ve just read this part again…
I make a small wigwam of kindling… and being an ex-Akela… I rub 2 boyscouts together to start the fire…
with the airvents fully open it’s lovely to watch the kindling catch and the flames gradually increase and warm the chimney… once the chestnut kindling is almost finished I top up with small chestnut and oak logs… wait until I see flames licking around these newcomers, then slowly reduce the airflow until the “you’ve got it just right” sign lights up over the mantlepiece…
this is what works for us… others will doubtless have their own little ways…
We’re all different and as varied as the logburners themselves… 
It makes no difference even if the windows are open.
As the link I posted earlier shows, the top down is the most efficient and effective way as the fire is loaded and doesnt require the door to be opened to feed a bit bigger wood and then a bit bigger still.
That reduces any like smoke in the room from opening the door.
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Interesting.
I have just lit our stove - when I put my hand inside to load wood and kindling I could feel the cold air falling down the chimney onto my hand. When first lit, smoke lazily drifted out of the door and the flame bobbed gently, but when I opened the window the airflow reversed and smoke went up the chimney plus the flame became more animated. Sometimes the window doesn’t work, and I have to open the front door instead. Perhaps a cowl like @Corona suggested would help you?
About 2-3 minutes after lighting the fire I was able to close the window when the flow was established.
I was referring to the Godin that was mentioned.
I’m not sure what you mean by “top down”…
I don’t have an upper opening to load wood… I have to open the front door… and with the airflow properly organized… no smoke comes into the room…
Thoroughly agree. I stack the wood and the stove doesn’t get opened again until the wood is roaring nicely and the fans on top of the stove are whirring like crazy. Then, I shut the stove right down but it is so warm by then that any new wood goes in and ignites immediately and there is no smoke coming from the stove.
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OH and I have studied the video.
It seems that the mixture/layers of wood used are actually very similar to our way of lighting… although I should say, we don’t light from the top, more from the middle.
Although our logburner is nothing like the one in the video, we are going to have a go at the “top down” idea once OH has cut the wood sufficiently small enough for that layout…
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The top down method looks like it’s going to require a lot of prep of different sizes of kindling. I’d be interested to know if @Vitesse has tried it and found it helped.
It looks like an interesting idea BUT given the random nature of our wood/kindling, which are certainly not in nice neat little sections like that (!), I’m not sure I could get it to work as they do on the video. However, I’ve been telling my partner for years that he’s got it wrong because it was “the wrong way up” in my view.
Question is, do I tell him and apologise or just keep quiet… 
It is not necessary to be as anal as that video, just posted that as it was shorter and detailed.
Its the way you load the fire box more than anything else but leaving some air gaps is necessary.
does it make a difference, that our fire has a grate at the bottom with an ash pan below (the 2 adjustable vents are situated at the front (behind closed door), between ash pan and grate…)
So I’m building on a grate… which has air racing through it from bottom up…
I notice that the fire in the video was a solid “flat floor”
No matter how the fire is laid it is essential to create heat without smoke as quickly as possible so that the flue is warmed asap thus removing any cold bung that has accumulated further up the flue.
Build the kindling around a fire lighter to create a small chimney that the flame of the fire lighter can pass through without causing smoke fumes and within a minute or two the flue will be warm enough to draw at the same time as the kindling starts to burn. Job done!
Wood burners dont need a grate, the grate is there as is a multifuel stove, for coal/coke/anthracite etc.
Took my grate out and put a piece of fire brick lining on the base to protect it and keep it hotter in the fire box.
Alternatively just allow the ash to build up and fill below the grate, wood burns with air from the sides and above.
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Ah… actually, the instruction manual definitely says NOT to let the ash build up…
I think we are talking about chalk and cheese… and perhaps I had better leave well alone.
It works very well, thumps out the heat… couldn’t ask for more…
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