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Historical fire pits were sometimes built in the floor, in caves, or at the middle of a hut or dwelling. Evidence of ancient, man-made flames is present on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of premature indoor flame pits was that they produced hazardous or irritating smoke within the house.Fire pits developed into raised hearths in buildings, but venting smoke relied on open windows or openings in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally located hearth, where a open fire burned with all 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 wouldn't enter.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were devised to prevent smoke from dispersing a room and vent it out through a ceiling or wall. These could be put against rock walls, instead of taking up the center of the room, and this enabled smaller rooms to be warmed.Chimneys were devised in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the problem of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke outside. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it possible to place fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings conveniently. They didn't come into general usage immediately, however, as they were more expensive to build and maintain.

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

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took on a more conventional 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 to the Arts and Crafts movement, where the emphasis was still placed on supplying quality gems. Stone fireplaces at this time were a symbol of prosperity, which to some degree remains the notion today.A fireplace is a construction made of brick, stone or metal designed to include a fire. Fireplaces are utilized for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, based on the plan.

Historically they were utilized for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for laundry and domestic uses. A fireplace might have the following: a foundation, a hearth, a firebox, a mantelpiece; a chimney (utilized in kitchen and laundry fireplaces), a grate, a lintel, a lintel pub, 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 course to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A hood, cap, or shroud serves to keep rainwater from the exterior of the chimney; rain in the chimney is a far greater problem in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metallic liners than with the standard masonry chimney, that divides up all but the rain. Some 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 good, but it's not great for you.

Types of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made with sheet metal or glass flame boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for either gas or wood or retrofit with log inserts or electrical fireboxes.A couple of kinds 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 propane fuel sources. In the United States, some states and local counties have laws limiting these kinds of fireplaces. Additionally, there are air quality management issues because of the quantity of moisture that they release into the room air, and oxygen sensor and carbon dioxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces have been 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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AccessoriesA wide range of accessories are used with fireplaces, ranging between states, regions, and historical periods. For the interior, common in current Western cultures comprise grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, pellet baskets, and fire puppies, all of which cradle gas and quicken 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 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 ashes. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and tool stands. Other wider accessories may consist of log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and more.

Over time, the intent behind fireplaces has changed from one of requirement to one of visual interest. Early ones were more fire pits compared to modern fireplaces. They were used for heat on cold days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also functioned as a gathering place inside the house. These fire pits were usually centered within a room, allowing more people to gather around it.

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Many flaws were found in early fireplace designs. The most famous fireplace designers of the time were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a style of fireplace design which has been used for generations. It was smaller, more brightly colored, with a emphasis on the quality of the substances used in their construction, as opposed to their dimensions.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were composed of two parts, the surround and the insert. The surround consisted of the mantlepiece and sides affirms, typically in wood, granite or marble. The fit was fire burnt, and was constructed of cast iron frequently backed with decorative 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 air via convection, leading to a more evenly heated area and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be increased with the use of a fireback, a piece of metal that sits behind the fire 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 concept although with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficiency tests consider only the impact of heating of the atmosphere. An open fireplace isn't, and never was, designed to warm the air. A fireplace with a fireback is a radiant heater, and has done so since the 15th century. The best method to estimate the output signal of a fireplace is if you detect you're turning the thermostat down or up.

Most elderly fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency rating. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces though have an efficiency rating of 80% (legal minimum requirement for example in Salzburg/Austria). To boost efficiency, fireplaces may also be modified by adding special heavy fireboxes developed to burn much cleaner and can reach efficiencies as high as 80 percent in heating the air. These altered fireplaces are often equipped with a massive fire window, allowing an efficient heating process in two stages. During the first phase the first heat is provided through a large glass while the flame is burning. In this time the construction, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the warmth. This warmth is then equally radiated for many hours during the second stage. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window just provide heat radiated from the surface. Based on outside temperatures 1 to two daily firings are enough to ensure a constant room temperature.fireplace remodel