I currently have a masonry fire place that I would like to get more heat out of. Does anyone have experience with firebacks? Do they help? Any other suggestions on how to harness more heat from a fireplace? Thanks
You could reconstruct a fireplace using the concept of a masonry heater. Would it be as efficient as a masonry heater? Maybe but probably not. Would it be one of the most energy efficient fireplaces ever constructed? Probably. This fireplace's design would capture the heat.
I've not really seen this done so I am just doing some exploratory reasoning. Okay, so you have a small open fireplace. Now let's construct the rest of it with masonry heater principals applied. The fire goes up and instead of the energy going up the chimney it collides into masonry. Next it flows through channels colliding with more masonry and giving up its heat energy, and by the time the exhaust heads for the flue most of the heat energy has been absorbed into the masonry.
I'm liking this fireplace. The best of both worlds - 1) an open fireplace that 2) is functional at providing heat. I wonder why this hasn't been built? Maybe the channels and no fireplace door would cause CO/smoke back into the house - that is, not enough air draw?
I currently have a masonry fire place that I would like to get more heat out of. Does anyone have experience with firebacks? Do they help? Any other suggestions on how to harness more heat from a fireplace? Thanks
x2 on a Rocket Stove. The reason these are not heating homes or why the fireplace mass heater isn't heating homes is the need for UL certification. We have an amazing rocket stove we built from an air compressor tank and lots of 12" square tube. It heats the fab shop and works amazingly well on very little fuel. VERY little. Essentially it extracts every bit of energy out into the room before exhausting. I will take photos of it next time I am over there.
I am sorry but i have yet to see much of any add on for an open fireplace that actually helped very much. The problem is if it did work and extracted enough heat for the exhaust it would turn into a creosote factory.
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