Hearth of the Home: Stylish Fireplaces for Modern Spaces Six Different Ways

Ancient fire pits were sometimes constructed from the ground, within caves, or in the center of a hut or home. Evidence of ancient, man-made flames is present on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of early indoor fire pits was that they produced toxic and/or irritating smoke within the dwelling.Fire pits grown into elevated hearths in structures, but ventilation smoke relied on open windows or holes in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally situated hearth, where an open fire burned with all the smoke rising to the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout the Middle Ages to enable the roof vents to be covered 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 ceiling or wall. These could be placed against rock walls, rather than taking up the center of the room, and this enabled smaller chambers to be heated.Chimneys were devised in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the issue of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke out. They made it possible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it feasible to put fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings handily. They did not come into general usage instantly, however, since they were 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 which greatly improved the efficacy of fireplaces and wood stoves. He also enhanced the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a lengthier area at the very top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford made a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox that was better at drawing up the smoke and out of the construction. The shallow design also improved greatly the amount of radiant warmth projected to the room. Rumford's design is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

Rather 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 placed on supplying quality stone. Stone fireplaces at this time have been a sign of prosperity, which to a degree is still the idea today.A fireplace is a construction made of brick, stone or metal designed to include a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance that they create and for heating a space. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, based on the design.

Historically they were utilized for heating a home, cooking, and heating water for domestic and laundry 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, home 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 frequently a corbeled brick crown, where the projecting courses of brick function as a drip route 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 at the chimney is a far larger difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metal liners compared with the standard masonry chimney, that divides up all but the rain. Some 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.

Types of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made with sheet metal or glass flame boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for either wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electrical fireboxes.

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 either gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the United States, several states and local counties have laws restricting these kinds of fireplaces. There are also air quality control problems because of the amount of moisture they discharge into the room atmosphere, and oxygen detector and carbon monoxide sensors are security essentials. Direct vent fireplaces have been fueled by liquid propane or natural gas. They are completely sealed from the place that's heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the inside, common in current Western civilizations include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, pellet baskets, and fire dogs, all which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or fire grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to retain fuel for a fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture 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.

As time passes, the intent behind fireplaces has changed from one of necessity to one of interest. Early ones were more fire pits compared to contemporary fireplaces. They were used for heat on cold days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also functioned as a gathering place within the home. These fire pits were generally centered within a space, allowing more people to collect around it.

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

By the 1800s newest fireplaces were composed of two components, the surround and the insert. The surround comprised of the mantlepiece and sides affirms, typically in wood, marble or granite. The insert was fire burned, 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 into houses.

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Some fireplace units incorporate a blower that 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 with the use 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 made 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 radiant heater, and has done so as the 15th century. The ideal method to gauge the output signal of a fireplace is if you notice you are turning the thermostat up or down.

Most older fireplaces have a comparatively 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 boost efficiency, fireplaces can also be modified by inserting special heavy fireboxes developed to burn much cleaner and may reach efficiencies as large as 80 percent in heating the air. These altered fireplaces are often equipped with a large fire window, allowing an efficient heating system in two phases. During the first phase the first heat is offered through a big glass while the flame is burning. During this time the construction, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This heat is then equally radiated for several hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window just provide heat radiated from the surface. Depending on outside temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.modern gas fireplace