Creative Outdoor Fireplace Designs and Ideas

Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the ground, in caves, or at the middle of a hut or home. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires is present on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of premature indoor fire pits was that they generated hazardous or annoying smoke within the house.Fire pits developed into raised hearths in structures, but venting smoke depended on open windows or openings in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally situated hearth, where a open fire burnt with the smoke rising to the vent 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.

Additionally during the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to prevent smoke from spreading through an area and vent it out through a ceiling or wall. These can be placed against rock walls, instead of taking up the middle of the room, and this allowed smaller rooms to be warmed.Chimneys were devised in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and mostly fixed the problem of fumes, more reliably venting smoke out. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and also made it feasible to place fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings handily. They didn't come into general usage instantly, however, as they were more expensive to build and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace which greatly enhanced the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. He also improved the airflow by pulling air from a cellar and venting a longer area at the top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox which was better at drawing up the smoke and from the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the amount of radiant warmth projected to the space. Rumford's design is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took on a more conventional spectra based on rock and deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Instead it depended on simple layouts with little unnecessary ornamentation. From the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way to the Arts and Crafts movement, where the emphasis was placed on supplying quality stone. Stone fireplaces now have been a sign of wealth, which to some degree remains the notion today.A fireplace is a construction made from brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance that they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, based on the plan.

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

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On the exterior there is often a corbeled brick crown, in which the projecting courses of brick function as a drip route to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A hood, cap, or shroud functions to keep rainwater out of the outside of the chimney; rain at the chimney is a far greater difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metal liners than with the standard masonry chimney, which soaks up all but the most violent rain. A few chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the cap or crown.

Organizations such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology warn that, according to various studies, fireplaces can pose a significant health threat. The EPA writes"Smoke may smell great, but it's not great for you.

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

Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by wood, natural gas, biomass and propane fuel sources. In the United States, several states and local counties have laws limiting these types of fireplaces. They must be suitably sized to the area to be heated. There are also air quality management issues due to the amount of moisture that they discharge in the room atmosphere, and oxygen sensor and carbon dioxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces have been fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed in the place that's heated, and port all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesA wide range of accessories are used with fireplaces, ranging between countries, regions, and historical periods. For the interior, common in current Western civilizations comprise grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, and fire dogs, all which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or flame grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to retain fuel for a fire. Heavy metallic firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate heat, to protect the rear of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metal frames placed before the fireplace to include embers, soot and ashes.

Over time, 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 have been used for warmth on chilly days and nights, in addition to for cooking. They also functioned as a gathering place inside the house. These fire pits were usually based within a space, allowing more people to collect around it.

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Many flaws were found in early fireplace designs. The most famous fireplace designers of this period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a style of fireplace design that was used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly lit, with a emphasis on the quality of the materials used in their construction, as opposed to their size.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were composed of two components, the surround as well as the insert. The encircle consisted of the mantlepiece and sides supports, usually in wood, granite or marble. The insert was fire burned, and was constructed of cast iron often backed with decorative tiles. In addition to providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian era were thought to add a cozy ambiance into houses.

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Some fireplace units include a blower that transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the air via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated space and a decrease heating load. Fireplace efficiency is also increased by means of a fireback, a piece of metal which sits behind the fire and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally made from cast iron, but are also manufactured 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 heat the air. The best method to gauge the output signal of a fireplace is in case you notice you're turning the thermostat down or up.

Most elderly fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency score. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces still possess an efficiency rating of 80% (legal minimum necessity for example in Salzburg/Austria). To boost efficiency, fireplaces can also be altered by inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn much cleaner and may reach efficiencies as high as 80 percent in heating the atmosphere. These modified fireplaces are often equipped with a large 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 flame is burning. In this time the construction, constructed of refractory bricks, absorbs the warmth. This heat is then equally radiated for many hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window just offer heat radiated from the surface. Depending on outside temperatures 1 to two daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.patio fireplace