Creative Outdoor Fireplace Designs and Ideas

Historical fire pits were sometimes constructed in the floor, in caves, or at the center of a hut or home. Evidence of ancient, man-made flames is present on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of premature indoor flame pits was that they generated toxic and/or irritating smoke within the house.Fire pits developed into elevated hearths in structures, but ventilation smoke relied on open windows or holes in roofs. The great hall typically had a centrally located hearth, where an open fire burned with the smoke climbing into the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout the Middle Ages to allow the roof vents to be coated so rain and snow wouldn't enter.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to stop smoke from spreading through an area and vent it outside via a ceiling or wall. These could be placed against stone walls, instead of taking up the middle of the space, and this allowed smaller chambers to be heated.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and mostly fixed the issue of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke outside. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it possible to put fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings handily. They did not come into general use immediately, however, as they were expensive to develop and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace which greatly improved the efficacy of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a longer place at the very top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford made a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox which was better at drawing the smoke up and out of the construction. The shallow design improved greatly the amount of radiant heat projected into the space. Rumford's layout is the basis for modern kitchens.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took to a more traditional spectra based on rock and also deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Rather it relied on simple layouts with little unnecessary ornamentation. From the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way to the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was placed on providing quality stone. Stone fireplaces now have been a sign of prosperity, which to a degree remains the idea today.A fireplace is a structure made from brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance that they create and for heating a space. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, based upon the plan.

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

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On the exterior there's often a corbeled brick crown, in which the casting 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 exterior of the chimney; rain at the chimney is a far greater difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metal liners than with the standard masonry chimney, that divides up all but the most violent rain. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the crown or cap.

The EPA writes"Smoke may smell good, but it is not good for you.

Kinds of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made out of sheet metal or glass fire boxes.Electric fireplaces can be built-in replacements for gas or wood or retrofit with log inserts or electrical fireboxes.

Ventless Fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by either gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the USA, several states and local businesses have laws restricting these kinds of fireplaces. There are also air quality management issues due to the amount of moisture that 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 totally sealed in the place that is heated, and port all exhaust gasses to the outside of the structure.

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AccessoriesA vast assortment of accessories are used with fireplaces, which range between states, regions, and historical periods. For the interior, common in current Western cultures include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, and 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 metallic firebacks are occasionally used to capture and re-radiate warmth, to protect the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames set before the fireplace to include embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools comprise pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and tool racks. Other wider accessories can consist of log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and much more.

As time passes, the intent behind fireplaces has transformed from one of necessity to one of visual interest. Early ones were more fire pits than contemporary fireplaces. They were used for warmth on cold days and nights, as well as 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 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 kind of fireplace design that was used for generations. It was smaller, more brightly colored, with an emphasis on the level of the substances used in their construction, instead of their size.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were composed of 2 components, the surround and the add. The surround comprised of the mantlepiece and sides affirms, typically in wood, marble or granite. The fit was fire burnt, and was constructed of cast iron often backed with decorative tiles. As well as providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian era were thought to add a cozy ambiance to homes.

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Some fireplace units incorporate a blower which transports 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 is also increased by means of a fireback, a sheet of metal that sits behind the flame and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally produced from cast iron, but are also made from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complex concept though with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficacy tests consider only the impact of heating of the air. An open fireplace is not, and never was, intended to warm the atmosphere. The ideal way to estimate the output of a fireplace is in case you detect you're turning the thermostat down or up.

Most elderly fireplaces have a comparatively low efficiency rating. Standard, modern, wood-burning 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 adding special heavy fireboxes developed to burn much cleaner and can reach efficiencies as large as 80% in heating the air. These modified fireplaces are often equipped with a large fire window, enabling an efficient heating process in two phases. During the first phase the first heat is provided through a big glass while the flame is burning. In this time period the structure, constructed of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This warmth is then equally radiated for several hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window only provide heat radiated from its surface. Depending on outside temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.outside fireplace