Who says fireplaces can't heat?

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begreen

Mooderator
Staff member
Nov 18, 2005
104,430
South Puget Sound, WA
Just give them enough fuel. ;)
PA fireplace.jpg
The posting for this pic said they had to stand back about 25-30ft. from this firing.
https://www.facebook.com/PA-Guild-of-Professional-Chimney-Sweeps-43477679859/
 
And it only takes one tree per reload!
 
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Hope they know they can burn that much wood at one time. But it looks real scary to me.
 
Top down rules!
 
I want that ash rake hanging on the left side. I could rake the coals in the 30 from across my house at the dinner table.
 
I want that ash rake hanging on the left side. I could rake the coals in the 30 from across my house at the dinner table.
When one of those piles falls into the room you need to be 30' away when trying to shove all that stuff back into there.
 
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Betcha it won't get an over night :)
 
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Evidently they did a good job of stacking. Nothing fell as shown in later pics.
 
That's not a cozy fire, that's a funeral pyre which got me thinking maybe I should tell my loved ones to screw the costly funeral and send my body up in smoke with a half cord of my best hardwood when I die. But then that would just support their suggestions that I'm into this wood burning thing a little too much. ;lol
 
Yeah that was a big fire that fireplace was huge. That camp was great lots of really nice fireplaces. It was a very good workshop other than the fact that it rained most of the time and it was a mud pit.
 
So how many cubic feet of room air per second do you suppose was flowing up THAT flue?
 
For anyone asking "why" they built a fire that big, it was so they could add a "y" to the group name and change it for a few hours: from the PA Guild of Professional Chimney Sweeps to the PA Guild of Pyrofessional Chimney Sweeps.
 
what size flue would that even have???
 
Their draft control was their front door...But seriously you probably could have felt the wind in that house.
 
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I used to heat a large old house with three fireplaces. Most of the assumptions I see here are wrong, as it is very possible to heat via fireplace, particularly well-designed fireplaces with their own fresh air supplies. The only one I saw as very wasteful was the one fireplace that lacked its own fresh outside air supply, as that did pull a lot of air in thru the house.
 
Yeah that was a big fire that fireplace was huge. That camp was great lots of really nice fireplaces. It was a very good workshop other than the fact that it rained most of the time and it was a mud pit.
I was wondering if you were at that camp.
 
what size flue would that even have???
It was about 4 feet by two feet.

I used to heat a large old house with three fireplaces. Most of the assumptions I see here are wrong, as it is very possible to heat via fireplace, particularly well-designed fireplaces with their own fresh air supplies. The only one I saw as very wasteful was the one fireplace that lacked its own fresh outside air supply, as that did pull a lot of air in thru the house.
Yes it is possible it was done for a long time but it is not efficient at all. And most of the fresh air intakes put in place are drastically undersized for what is needed.

I was wondering if you were at that camp.
Yeah it was our annual charity workshop we go every year
 
And most of the fresh air intakes put in place are drastically undersized for what is needed.
You're right about that, at least in my case. My open fireplace had a grate w/ a slider that replaced one brick at the back of the fireplace. With the grate full open it could not have been more than about 8 square inches. Might as well have nothing for an open fire. Sealed it up when I installed the insert.
 
Re: fresh air intakes. Mine were both about 50 sq in, which seemed to work well for a modestly sized fireplace.
 
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