Fireplace Mantel Designs Keeping the Space Warmth with Beautiful Decor Traba Homes

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

Also during the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were devised to stop smoke from dispersing a room and vent it outside through a wall or roof. These can be put against rock walls, rather than taking up the center of the space, and this enabled smaller rooms to be warmed.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe in the 11th or 12th centuries and mostly fixed the issue of fumes, more reliably venting smoke outside. They made it possible to give the fireplace a draft, and also made it feasible to put fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings conveniently. They did not come into general use immediately, however, as they were more expensive to develop and maintain.

The 18th century saw two important developments in the history of fireplaces. Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that greatly improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he enhanced the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a longer place on very top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace using a tall, shallow firebox that was better at drawing up the smoke and from the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the amount of radiant warmth projected into the room. Rumford's design is the basis for modern kitchens.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took to a more traditional spectra based on stone and deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Instead it depended on simple designs with little unnecessary ornamentation. From the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was still placed on providing quality stone. Stone fireplaces at this time have been a sign of wealth, which to some degree remains the idea today.A fireplace is a construction made from brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for its relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces change in heat efficiency, depending upon the plan.

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

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On the exterior there is frequently a corbeled brick crown, in which the casting courses of brick act as a drip route to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A cap, hood, or shroud functions to keep rainwater from the exterior of the chimney; rain at the chimney is a far greater problem in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metallic liners compared with the traditional masonry chimney, which divides up all but the rain. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor incorporated 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 good, but it is not good for you.

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

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 restricting these types of fireplaces. They must be suitably sized to the area to be heated. Additionally, there are air quality control problems due to the amount of moisture that they discharge in the room atmosphere, and oxygen sensor and carbon dioxide sensors are security 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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AccessoriesFor the inside, common in recent Western cultures include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, and fire dogs, all which cradle gas and quicken burning. A grate (or flame grate) is a frame, usually of iron bars, to retain fuel for a fire. Heavy metallic firebacks are sometimes used to catch and re-radiate warmth, to safeguard the rear of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames set in front of the fireplace to contain embers, soot and ashes. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and instrument stands. Other wider accessories may include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and much more.

Over time, the purpose of fireplaces has transformed from one of requirement 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 functioned as a gathering place inside the home. These fire pits were usually centered 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 big scale housing developments, requiring a standardization of fireplaces. The most famous fireplace performers of the period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a kind of fireplace design which has been used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly colored, with a emphasis on the quality of the materials used in their construction, as opposed to their size.

From the 1800s most new fireplaces were composed of two parts, the surround and the insert. The encircle consisted of the mantlepiece and sides supports, typically in wood, granite or marble. The insert was fire burnt, and was constructed of cast iron often backed with ornamental tiles. As well as providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were thought to bring a cozy ambiance to houses.

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Some fireplace components include a blower that transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the atmosphere via convection, leading to a more evenly heated space and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be enhanced with the use of a fireback, a sheet 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 efficiency tests consider only the effect of heating of the air. An open fireplace isn't, and never was, intended to warm the atmosphere. The best method to gauge the output signal of a fireplace is if you notice you're turning the thermostat up or down.

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency rating. Standard, modern, wood-burning masonry fireplaces though have an efficiency rating of at least 80% (legal minimum necessity such as in Salzburg/Austria). To improve efficiency, fireplaces can also be modified by adding special heavy fireboxes designed to burn much cleaner and can reach efficiencies as high as 80% 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 provided through a large glass window while the fire is burning. During this time period the structure, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This warmth is then evenly radiated for many hours during the next phase. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window just offer heat radiated from the surface. Based on temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.wood fireplace mantels