!971 vintage fireplaces.....

[KDEC19]

My parents house has two fireplaces in it.  I have burned wood stoves and owb for long time.  never got to use a fireplace.  Seemed to heat fine.  Heated the room to 76 degrees with outdoor temp 25....  rest of house seemed fine.  Wanted opinions and views on heating with a traditional fireplace.....I had a constant three log pile burning......nothing big....hearth heated up nice and the couch was sunny and warm.... 8).Any experiance with fireplaces please chine in....thanks.....

[beenthere]

They do add heat if you keep a fire going and have the damper closed nearly tight (just so there is no smoke/gas) coming back into the room. Heated the house with two fireplaces for quite some time until I added a wood stove. They were in the center of the house and did radiate a lot of heat without using too much wood.

However, run them just for short times and they will have a negative effect (as most will claim that don't know otherwise). 

[thecfarm]

I never burned mine much more than 4-6 hours at one time. I never really thought it was much good to heat with. But mine is just a plain fireplace,no vents. Mine will throw off a bunch of heat,but I have no idea about the rest of the house.

[wood monger]

My mil had an old rusty insert and had a fireplace guy haul it away, ugh! now the fil likes to burn a fire in the fireplace but seems to have a problem understanding damper control. The furnace runs alot when he's burning. The rest of the house seems to get cold.

[Holmes]

Most old fireplaces are inefficient . They suck more warmth from the house than they emit.  New fireplaces are required to have air tight glass doors installed on them and when they are built the mason has to pipe combustion air into the fireplace. The problem is when the fire is going out the warm air in the house is pulled up thru the chimney. You will be better off to install a wood stove insert.

[jdtuttle]

Look at these Rumford fireplaces. The design helps radiate the heat back in the room. I plan on building one for my next addition on the house. http://www.rumford.com/
jim

[stumper]

They heated houses for hundres of years with just fireplaces.  Accordingly, I must assume that there is a net gain in heat if run all the time.  Now if we only run for a short time yes the fireplace may suck out heat after the fire goes out. 

The newer fireplaces do add signifacent heat.  I heated my house for years with an air tight fireplace and oil back up. 

[doctorb]

jdtuttle -

I have a Rumford fireplace in my home, (was already installed when we bought the house) and you are right about its design to give off heat.  What is poorly understood when considering one is that not only is the depth of the fireplace very shallow, but the back of the fireplace is very narrow, usually about 12-14 inches.  Look at the picture on the web site you linked to and you'll see the slanted sides (covings?) of the fireplace angling back to a fairly narrow back wall.

The reason this is important is that the length of logs used in Rumford fireplaces is significantly shorter than used in most regular fireplaces.  Full length logs (18" and up) can not be placed toward the back of the fireplace because of these angled side walls. 

So the fireplace itself is shallow, and the fire sits toward the front of the fireplace.  These are all good factors when you are interested in heat.  However, I get more smoke in the room from my Rumford than any other fireplace I have ever used, and I have used a whole bunch.

So, if heat's your goal, they are a fine idea.  But have a complete picture of how they work and the downsides of that design before placing one in your home.  I would prefer the deeper style fireplace, as I don't like having to cut different length wood, and I don't like the feeling that the fire is "out in the room" with me.  If you are installing a new fireplace, add a blower system to provide heat to the room, and you'll have the best of both worlds.  Just my opinion.

[JohnG28]

I have an older style fireplace in my house, no glass doors, just a screen.  It does have channels on each side to move heat into the house, along with what it radiates.  It definitely puts some heat into the house, but my house isn't huge either. I'm not home enough early in the day to use it regularly for heat but do burn it when I can.  The ambiance of the fire is almost as nice as the heat I think. It's different with a fireplace compared to a woodstove.  I prefer a fireplace.

[Al_Smith]

Well now this is apples and oranges .There's a bunch of difference between a traditional masonary fire place and a "heatelater type "  or whatever they call them now .

The old heatelater types threw out the heat but they also had a huge appetite for wood .A traditional masonary fire place would heat but you really used the wood to get any usable heat from them and most of it was radiant or basically line of sight .BTW you don't run a masonary fire place with the damper shut unless you want to fill the house full of smoke .There's a reason those 200 year old colonial homes had 4 or 5 fire places ,they needed that many .

In the room the fire was in might be 80 then step around the corner and see your breathe .

Good old Ben Franklin who coined the phrase "where there is not good drinking there is not good living " figured that deal out a couple hundred years ago when he dreamed up the box stove .Then again history is some times not exactly truthfull on some of those events so we'll never know for sure who came up with the stove .

[jdtuttle]

Thank you Doctorb for your insight on your experience with the rumford fireplace. I have seen several different rumford's installed & they have worked well without smoke issues. Check out this web site on Rumford's. Here is a section, smokey fireplace checklist that may help with your smoking issue. http://www.rumford.com/smoky.html
Here is a quote from the site on building a fire. "Use well seasoned hardwood. Any wood fire needs three to five logs to maintain combustion. Fewer, bigger logs can be used if the wood is well seasoned. Many of our Rumford fireplaces are quite large, but even in our smallest Rumford, 20" logs will fit standing up on end".
Heat is a small part of my goal with the Rumford. It will be more for ambience & cooking with the new kitchen addition. Thanks again for your opinion, I respect your knowledge.
jim