Wood Stoves and Inserts — Preston Trading Post

Historical fire pits were sometimes constructed from the floor, within caves, or at the middle of a hut or home. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made flames exists on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of early indoor flame pits was that they produced toxic and/or irritating smoke within the house.Fire pits developed into elevated hearths in buildings, but ventilation smoke depended on open windows or openings in roofs. The medieval great hall typically had a centrally situated hearth, where a open fire burned with all the smoke climbing into the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed during the Middle Ages to enable the roof vents to be coated so snow and rain would not enter.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to stop smoke from dispersing an area and vent it out via a ceiling or wall. These can be put against stone walls, rather than taking up the middle of the room, and this enabled smaller rooms to be warmed.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the issue of fumes, more reliably venting smoke outside. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it feasible to place fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings conveniently. They didn't come into general use instantly, however, since they were expensive to develop and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that greatly improved the efficacy of fireplaces and wood stoves. He also enhanced the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a longer place on top. In the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace using a tall, shallow firebox that was better at drawing the smoke up and out of the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the quantity of radiant warmth projected to the space. Rumford's layout is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took on a more traditional spectra based on stone and also deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Instead it relied on simple layouts with little unnecessary ornamentation. From the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was placed on supplying quality gems. Stone fireplaces at this time have been a symbol of wealth, which to some degree remains the notion today.A fireplace is a structure made of brick, stone or metal made to include a fire. Fireplaces are utilized for its relaxing ambiance they create and also for heating a room. Modern fireplaces change in heat efficiency, based on the plan.

Historically they have been utilized for heating a home, cooking, and heating water for laundry and domestic uses. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or alternative flue allows exhaust to escape. A fireplace might 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, house overmantel, a damper, a smoke room, a neck, a flue, and a chimney filter or afterburner.

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On the exterior there's often a corbeled brick crown, where the casting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A cap, hood, or shroud functions 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 compared with the standard masonry chimney, which divides up all but the most violent rain. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the cap or crown.

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

Kinds of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made out of sheet glass or metal flame boxes.Electric fireplaces can 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. Ventless Fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the USA, some states and local counties have laws limiting these types of fireplaces. They must be properly sized to the area to be heated. There are also air quality management issues because of the quantity of moisture they discharge into the room air, and oxygen detector and carbon dioxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed from the place that is heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the inside, common in recent Western civilizations comprise grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, pellet baskets, and fire puppies, all which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or fire grate) is a frame, usually of iron bars, to retain fuel to your fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to catch 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 ash.

As time passes, the intent behind fireplaces has changed from one of necessity to one of visual interest. Early ones were more fire pits than contemporary fireplaces. They have been used for heat on cold days and nights, in addition to for cooking. They also served as a gathering place inside the house. These fire pits were generally based within a room, allowing more individuals to gather around it.

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Many defects were found in early 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 style of fireplace design that was used for generations. It was smaller, more brightly colored, with a emphasis on the quality of the substances used in their construction, instead of their size.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were made up of two components, the surround and the insert. The encircle comprised of the mantlepiece and sides supports, typically in wood, marble or granite. The fit was fire burnt, and was constructed of cast iron frequently backed with decorative tiles. In addition to providing warmth, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were thought to bring a cozy ambiance to homes.

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Some fireplace components include a blower which transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the atmosphere via convection, leading to a more evenly heated area and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be enhanced with the use of a fireback, a sheet of metal that sits behind the flame and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally made from cast iron, but are also manufactured from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complicated notion though with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficacy tests consider only the impact of heating of the atmosphere. An open fireplace is not, and never was, intended to warm the atmosphere. A fireplace with a fireback is a toaster, and has done so as the 15th century. The ideal way to estimate the output signal of a fireplace is in case you detect you are turning the thermostat down or up.

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency rating. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces though have an efficiency rating of 80% (legal minimum necessity such as in Salzburg/Austria). To improve efficiency, fireplaces can also be altered by inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn cleaner and can reach efficiencies as large as 80% in heating the atmosphere. These altered fireplaces are often equipped with a large fire window, enabling an efficient heating process in two phases. During the first phase the initial heat is offered through a big glass window while the flame 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 next phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window only provide heat radiated from its surface. Based on outside temperatures 1 to two daily firings are sufficient to ensure a constant room temperature.fireplace insert