Fireplace Maintenance and Safety HGTV

Ancient fire pits were sometimes built from the ground, within caves, or at the middle 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 generated toxic and/or annoying smoke within the dwelling.Fire pits developed into elevated hearths in structures, but ventilation smoke relied on open windows or holes in roofs. The medieval great hall typically needed a centrally located hearth, where a open flame burned with the smoke climbing into 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.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were devised to prevent smoke from dispersing an area and vent it outside via a ceiling or wall. These could be placed against rock walls, instead of 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 problem of fumes, more reliably venting smoke out. 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 usage instantly, however, since they were expensive to develop and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace which greatly improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a cellar and venting out a longer area at the very top. In the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox which 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 design is the basis 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 relied on simple designs with little unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way to the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was placed on supplying quality stone. Stone fireplaces now have been a sign of prosperity, which to a degree is still the idea today.A fireplace is a structure made of 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 change in heat efficiency, depending upon the plan.

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

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

The EPA writes"Smoke may smell great, but it's not good for you.

Kinds 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.

Ventless Fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the USA, several states and local counties have laws limiting these types of fireplaces. There are also air quality control issues because of the amount of moisture they discharge into the room air, and oxygen detector and carbon dioxide sensors are security essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed from the place that's heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the outside of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the inside, common in recent Western cultures include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, along with fire puppies, all of which cradle gas and quicken burning. A grate (or fire grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel for a fire. Heavy metal firebacks are occasionally used to capture and re-radiate warmth, to protect the rear of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames set before the fireplace to include embers, soot and ash. Other wider accessories may include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and more.

As time passes, the purpose of fireplaces has transformed from one of necessity to one of interest. Early ones were fire pits than modern fireplaces. They have been used for warmth on chilly days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also functioned as a gathering place within the home. These fire pits were usually centered within a space, allowing more people to gather around it.

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Many flaws were found in ancient fireplace designs. Along with the Industrial Revolution, came large scale housing developments, requiring a standardization of fireplaces. The most famous fireplace designers of the 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 an emphasis on the level of the substances used in their construction, instead of their size.

From the 1800s most new fireplaces were made up of two parts, the surround and the add. The surround consisted of the mantlepiece and sides affirms, typically in wood, granite or marble. The insert was fire burned, and was built of cast iron frequently backed with decorative tiles. As well as providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were believed to add 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 air via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated space and a decrease heating load. Fireplace efficiency is also enhanced by means of a fireback, a sheet of metal that sits behind the fire and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally made from cast iron, but can also be manufactured from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complex 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, designed to heat the atmosphere. A fireplace with a fireback is a toaster, and has done so as the 15th century. The ideal method to estimate the output signal of a fireplace is if you detect you're turning the thermostat up or down.

Most elderly fireplaces have a comparatively low efficiency score. Standard, modern, wood-burning 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 inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn cleaner and may reach efficiencies as large as 80% in heating the air. These modified fireplaces are often equipped with a large fire window, allowing an efficient heating process in two phases. During the first stage the initial heat is offered through a large glass window while the flame is burning. In this time the structure, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This heat is then evenly radiated for several hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window just offer heat radiated from the surface. Depending on outside temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are sufficient to ensure a constant room temperature.stacked stone fireplace