Adventures in Decorating: Our Fall Mantel

Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the floor, within caves, or in the center of a hut or dwelling. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five inhabited continents. The drawback of premature indoor fire pits was that they generated toxic and/or annoying smoke inside the house.Fire pits developed into elevated hearths in structures, but venting smoke depended on open windows or openings in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally situated hearth, where an open fire burned with the smoke rising to the port in the roof. Louvers were developed during the Middle Ages to enable the roof vents to be covered so rain and snow would not enter.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to stop smoke from spreading through an area and vent it outside through a wall or roof. These could be put against rock walls, rather than taking up the middle of the space, and this enabled smaller rooms to be heated.Chimneys were devised in northern Europe in the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the issue of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke outside. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and also made it feasible to place fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings conveniently. They did not come into general usage instantly, however, as they were more expensive to build and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection room for the fireplace which greatly enhanced the efficacy of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a cellar and venting a longer place at the very top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace using a tall, shallow firebox which has been better at drawing up the smoke and from the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the quantity of radiant warmth projected into the room. Rumford's layout is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took to a more conventional spectra based on rock and deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Instead it depended on simple designs with little unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was still placed on providing quality gems. Stone fireplaces at this time have been a symbol of wealth, which to a degree is still the notion today.A fireplace is a construction made of brick, stone or metal made to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a space. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, depending on the design.

Historically they were utilized for heating a home, cooking, and heating water for domestic and laundry uses.

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On the exterior there's frequently a corbeled brick crown, where the casting courses of brick act as a drip route to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A hood, cap, or shroud functions to keep rainwater from the outside of the chimney; rain in the chimney is a much greater difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metallic liners compared with the standard masonry chimney, which divides up all but the rain. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor incorporated into the cap or crown.

The EPA writes"Smoke may smell great, but it is not good for you.

Kinds of fireplacesManufactured fireplaces are made out of sheet metal or glass flame boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.

In the United States, some states and local businesses have laws restricting these types of fireplaces. Additionally, there are air quality management problems because of the amount of moisture that they discharge into the room air, and oxygen sensor and carbon monoxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed in the area that's heated, and vent all exhaust gasses into the exterior of the structure.

Adventures in Decorating: Our Simple Fall Mantel

AccessoriesA vast range of accessories are used with fireplaces, which range between states, regions, and historical periods. For the inside, common in recent Western civilizations include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, pellet baskets, along with fire dogs, all of which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or fire grate) is a frame, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel to your fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate warmth, to protect the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames placed in front of the fireplace to include embers, soot and ash. Other wider accessories can include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and much more.

As time passes, the purpose of fireplaces has transformed from one of requirement to one of interest. Early ones were more fire pits compared to modern fireplaces. They were used for warmth on chilly days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also served as a gathering place inside the home. These fire pits were usually based within a space, allowing more people to gather around it.

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Many defects were found in ancient fireplace designs. Together with the Industrial Revolution, came large scale housing developments, requiring a standardization of fireplaces. The most famous fireplace designers of this period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a kind of fireplace design which has been used for generations. It was smaller, more brightly lit, with a emphasis on the level of the substances used in their construction, as opposed to their dimensions.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were made up of two components, the surround and the add. The surround consisted of the mantlepiece and sides supports, typically in wood, marble or granite. The fit was where the fire burnt, and was constructed of cast iron frequently backed with decorative tiles. As well as providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian era were believed to add a cozy ambiance to homes.

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Some fireplace units incorporate a blower that transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the air via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated space and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be enhanced by means of a fireback, a sheet of metal that sits behind the flame and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally produced from cast iron, but can also be made from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complex concept though with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficacy tests consider just the impact of heating of the air. An open fireplace isn't, and never was, intended to warm the air. The ideal way to estimate the output signal of a fireplace is if you detect you're turning the thermostat up or down.

Most elderly fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency score. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces still possess an efficiency rating of 80% (legal minimum requirement for example in Salzburg/Austria). To boost efficiency, fireplaces can also be altered by adding special heavy fireboxes designed to burn much cleaner and may reach efficiencies as high as 80 percent in heating the atmosphere. These altered fireplaces are usually equipped with a massive fire window, allowing an efficient heating process in two phases. During the first stage the first heat is offered through a large glass window while the fire is burning. In this time period the construction, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the warmth. This warmth is then equally radiated for several hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window only offer heat radiated from the surface. Based on outside temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are sufficient to guarantee a constant room temperature.fireplace decor