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Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the floor, within caves, or in the middle of a hut or home. Evidence of ancient, man-made flames is present on all five inhabited continents. The drawback of early indoor fire pits was that they produced hazardous or annoying smoke inside the house.Fire pits grown into elevated hearths in buildings, 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 all the smoke rising to the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout the Middle Ages to allow the roof vents to be coated so snow and rain would not enter.

Also during the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to prevent smoke from spreading through a room and vent it out through a wall or roof. These could be put against stone walls, rather than taking up the middle of the space, and this enabled smaller rooms to be heated.Chimneys were devised in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the problem of fumes, more reliably venting smoke out. They made it possible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it feasible to place fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings handily. They did not come into general use instantly, however, as they were expensive to build and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that greatly improved the efficacy of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a cellar and venting a lengthier area on top. In the later 18th century, Count Rumford made a fireplace using a tall, shallow firebox that has been better at drawing the smoke up and from the construction. The shallow design also improved greatly the quantity of radiant warmth projected into the room. Rumford's layout is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

Instead it relied on simple designs with small unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way to the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was placed on providing quality gems. Stone fireplaces now were a symbol 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 utilized for its relaxing ambiance that they create and for heating a space. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, based on the plan.

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

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On the exterior there's often a corbeled brick crown, where the projecting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the outside walls. A hood, cap, or shroud serves to keep rainwater out of the exterior of the chimney; rain in the chimney is a far greater difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metal liners than with the standard masonry chimney, that soaks up all but the rain. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the crown or cap.

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

Types of fireplacesManufactured fireplaces are made with sheet metal or glass fire boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.A few kinds are, wall mounted electric fireplaces, electric fireplace stoves, electric mantel fireplaces and fixed or free standing gas fireplaces.

Ventless Fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the United States, several states and local businesses have laws limiting these kinds of fireplaces. They must be suitably sized to the area to be heated. Additionally, there are air quality control problems due to the quantity of moisture that they discharge into the room air, and oxygen sensor and carbon monoxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by liquid propane or natural gas. They are totally sealed from the place that's heated, and port all exhaust gasses into the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the interior, common in recent Western civilizations comprise grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, pellet baskets, along with fire puppies, all 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 metallic firebacks are sometimes used to catch and re-radiate warmth, to protect the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames placed in front of the fireplace to include embers, soot and ashes.

Over time, the purpose of fireplaces has transformed from one of necessity to one of visual interest. Early ones were more fire pits than modern fireplaces. They were used for warmth on chilly days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also functioned as a gathering place inside the house. These fire pits were usually based within a space, allowing more people to collect around it.

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Many defects were found in ancient fireplace designs. The most famous fireplace performers of this period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a style of fireplace design which was used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly colored, with a emphasis on the level of the substances used in their construction, as opposed to their dimensions.

By the 1800s most new fireplaces were made up of two parts, the surround and the add. The encircle consisted of the mantlepiece and sides supports, usually in wood, granite or marble. The fit 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 thought to bring a cozy ambiance to homes.

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Some fireplace components incorporate a blower which transports more of the fireplace's heat to the air via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated space and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be increased with the use of a fireback, a sheet of metal which 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 notion although with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficiency tests consider just the effect of heating of the atmosphere. An open fireplace is not, and never was, intended to heat the air. The ideal way to gauge the output signal of a fireplace is if you detect you are turning the thermostat up or down.

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency rating. Standard, modern, wood-burning masonry fireplaces though have an efficiency rating of at least 80% (legal minimum requirement such as in Salzburg/Austria). To boost efficiency, fireplaces can also be modified by inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn cleaner and can reach efficiencies as high as 80 percent in heating the atmosphere. These modified fireplaces are often equipped with a large fire window, allowing an efficient heating process in two stages. During the first stage the initial heat is provided through a large glass while the flame is burning. In this time the structure, constructed of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This warmth is then evenly radiated for many hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window only provide heat radiated from its surface. Based on temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are sufficient to ensure a constant room temperature.fireplace tile