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Historical fire pits were sometimes built in the ground, in caves, or in the middle of a hut or home. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five inhabited continents. The drawback of early indoor flame pits was that they produced hazardous or irritating smoke inside the house.Fire pits developed into elevated hearths in buildings, but ventilation smoke relied on open windows or openings in roofs. The medieval great hall typically needed a centrally located hearth, where an open flame burned with all the smoke rising to the port in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout 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 devised to prevent smoke from spreading through a room and vent it out through a ceiling or wall. These can be placed against rock walls, rather than taking up the center of the room, and this enabled smaller chambers to be heated.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and mostly fixed the problem of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke outside. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it feasible to put fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings handily. They did not come into general use instantly, however, since they were expensive to develop and maintain.

In 1678 Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I, increased the grate of the fireplace, improving the airflow and venting system. The 18th century saw two important developments in the history of fireplaces. 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 out a longer place at the very top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford made a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox that has been better at drawing up the smoke and out of the building. The shallow design improved greatly the amount of radiant warmth projected to the space. Rumford's design is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

Instead it relied on simple designs with little unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, where the emphasis was placed on supplying quality stone. Stone fireplaces at this time have been a sign of wealth, which to a degree is still the notion today.A fireplace is a construction made from brick, stone or metal made to include a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, based on the design.

Historically they have been utilized for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for domestic and laundry uses. A fireplace may have the following: a base, a hearth, a firebox, a mantelpiece; a chimney (used in laundry and kitchen fireplaces), a grate, a lintel, a lintel pub, home overmantel, a damper, a smoke room, a throat, a flue, and a chimney filter or afterburner.

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On the exterior there's often a corbeled brick crown, in which the casting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the outside walls. A hood, cap, or shroud serves to keep rainwater out of the outside of the chimney; rain at the chimney is a much greater problem in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metallic liners than with the traditional masonry chimney, which divides up all but the rain. A few chimneys have a spark arrestor incorporated into the cap or crown.

Organizations like the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology warn that, according to various studies, fireplaces could pose a substantial health threat. The EPA writes"Smoke may smell good, but it is not good for you.

Types of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made with sheet metal or glass fire boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for either gas or wood or retrofit with log inserts or electrical fireboxes.A couple of types are, wall mounted electric fireplaces, electric fireplace stoves, electric mantel fireplaces and fixed or free standing gas fireplaces.

Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by wood, natural gas, biomass and gas fuel sources. In the USA, several states and local businesses have laws limiting these types of fireplaces. There are also air quality management problems due to the quantity of moisture that they release in the room atmosphere, and oxygen detector and carbon monoxide sensors are security essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed in the place that's heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the interior, common in current Western civilizations include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, and fire dogs, all of which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or flame grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel to your fire. Heavy metallic firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate heat, to protect the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metal frames set in front of the fireplace to include embers, soot and ash. Other wider accessories may include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and much more.

As time passes, the intent behind fireplaces has changed from one of requirement to one of visual interest. Early ones were fire pits compared to contemporary 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 home. These fire pits were generally based within a room, allowing more people to collect around it.

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Many flaws were found in early fireplace designs. Along with the Industrial Revolution, came big scale housing developments, requiring a standardization of fireplaces. The most famous fireplace performers of the period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a style of fireplace design which was used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly lit, with a emphasis on the level of the materials used in their construction, instead of their size.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were made up of 2 components, the surround as well as the insert. The surround consisted of the mantlepiece and sides supports, usually in wood, granite or marble. The insert was where the fire burned, and was constructed of cast iron frequently backed with ornamental tiles. In addition to providing warmth, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were thought to bring a cozy ambiance into homes.

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Some fireplace components include a blower that transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the air via convection, leading to a more evenly heated area and a decrease heating load. Fireplace efficiency is also increased by means of a fireback, a sheet of metal which sits behind the flame and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally produced from cast iron, but can also be manufactured from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complicated notion though with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficiency tests consider just the effect of heating of the atmosphere. An open fireplace is not, and never was, intended to warm the atmosphere. The ideal way to estimate the output of a fireplace is if you detect you're turning the thermostat down or up.

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency score. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces still possess an efficiency rating of at least 80% (legal minimum necessity such as in Salzburg/Austria). To improve efficiency, fireplaces can also be modified by inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn cleaner and may reach efficiencies as large as 80% in heating the atmosphere. These altered fireplaces are usually equipped with a massive fire window, enabling an efficient heating process in two stages. During the first stage the first heat is provided through a large glass while the flame is burning. In this time period the structure, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This heat is then evenly radiated for many hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window just provide heat radiated from its surface. Based on temperatures 1 to two daily firings are enough to ensure a constant room temperature.electric fireplaces