The Advantages of a Gas Fireplace

Historical fire pits were sometimes built from the floor, within caves, or at the center of a hut or dwelling. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five inhabited continents. The drawback of premature indoor flame pits was that they produced toxic and/or annoying smoke within the house.Fire pits grown into raised hearths in structures, but venting smoke depended on open windows or openings in roofs. The great hall typically had a centrally situated hearth, where a open fire burnt with the smoke rising to the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout the Middle Ages to enable the roof vents to be coated so rain and snow would not enter.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were devised to stop smoke from dispersing a room and vent it out through a ceiling or wall. These can be placed against rock walls, instead of taking up the middle of the space, and this enabled smaller rooms to be heated.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the issue of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke outside. They made it feasible to provide the fireplace a draft, and made it feasible to place fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings conveniently. They did not come into general use immediately, however, since they were more expensive to build and maintain.

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

Rather it depended on simple designs with small unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was placed on providing quality gems. Stone fireplaces now were a sign of prosperity, which to a degree is still the notion today.A fireplace is a structure made of brick, stone or metal made to include a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a space. Modern fireplaces change in heat efficiency, depending upon the plan.

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

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On the exterior there is often a corbeled brick crown, where the projecting courses of brick act as a drip route to keep rainwater from running down the exterior 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 metallic liners than with the standard masonry chimney, which soaks up all but the rain. A few chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the cap or crown.

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 gas or wood or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.

Ventless Fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by either gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the USA, some states and local counties have laws restricting these kinds of fireplaces. They need to be properly sized to the area to be heated. Additionally, there are air quality control issues due to the quantity of moisture that they release into the room atmosphere, and oxygen detector and carbon dioxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces have been fueled by liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed in the area that's heated, and port all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the interior, common in current Western cultures include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, along with fire dogs, all of which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or flame grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel for a fire. Heavy metallic firebacks are sometimes utilized to catch and re-radiate heat, to safeguard the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames set before the fireplace to contain embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools comprise pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and instrument racks. Other wider accessories can include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and much more.

Over time, the intent behind fireplaces has transformed from one of necessity to one of interest. Early ones were more fire pits compared to contemporary fireplaces. They have been used for heat on chilly days and nights, in addition to for cooking. They also served as a gathering place within the home. These fire pits were generally centered within a room, allowing more people to collect around it.

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Many defects were found in early fireplace designs. Together with the Industrial Revolution, came large scale housing developments, necessitating a standardization of fireplaces. The most renowned fireplace designers of the time were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a kind of fireplace design that has been used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly colored, with an emphasis on the quality of the materials used in their construction, as opposed to their size.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were composed of two components, the surround and the add. The surround comprised of the mantlepiece and sides supports, typically in wood, marble or granite. The fit was where the fire burnt, and was built of cast iron often backed with ornamental tiles. In addition to providing warmth, 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 transports 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 piece of metal which 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 efficiency tests consider just the impact of heating of the air. 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 since the 15th century. The ideal method to gauge the output signal of a fireplace is in case you notice you're turning the thermostat up or down.

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency score. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces still possess an efficiency rating of 80% (legal minimum requirement for example in Salzburg/Austria). To improve efficiency, fireplaces may also be altered by inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn cleaner and can reach efficiencies as high as 80 percent in heating the atmosphere. These altered fireplaces are usually equipped with a large fire window, enabling an efficient heating process in two stages. During the first stage the first heat is provided through a large glass while the flame is burning. In this time period the construction, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the warmth. This heat is then evenly radiated for several hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window only provide heat radiated from the surface. Based on temperatures 1 to two daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.fireplace