Fireplace for occasional visual / crackle enjoyment only

[AtTheBeach]

I am planning a small vacation house in Vermont, for use in late summer and fall, maybe Christmas. Since we’ll have radiant heat, this fireplace is purely for the snap crackle pop ambience and we’ll probably only light it occasionally. I don’t care about a little heat loss though I feel guilty saying that.

Do people still build old-fashioned (Rumford style) fireplaces? What should I be considering in this situation - chimney shape, safety elements? I know about the units by manufacturers like Majestic but they seem so... contained. I had a direct vent in the past and while it was a great and a great heat source, I’d love not to be looking thru glass this time.

 

[begreen]

They still build Rumford fireplaces. The caveat being that an open fireplace can suck out more heat as it cools down than it makes. There are some high quality zero clearance, EPA fireplaces that can be burned with the door open, but provide good heat and clean burning with the door closed. These are several notches better than the basic contractor fireplace.

http://www.rumford.com/

 

[Bad LP]

You really should rethink your plan IMO.

I designed and built a place in northern Maine using RFH and love it. It's off a LP boiler with a buffer tank. We had a beautiful masonry built using local stones and the intent was to use it for pure ambiance once in a while. It didn't take long to realize that I burned all that LP to heat the Gypcrete only to send all that nice warm room air up the chimney thus having the boiler kick in and burn even more fuel. It got to the point of when the wife asked for a fire I'd respond with a no.

Thankfully I didn't build a Rumford FP because my mason didn't know how so we built what he was comfortable with. This was a blessing as I removed the very nice custom built enclosure and installed an FP insert with glass viewing. We burn wood all the time now and because RFH really doesn't perform well in the shoulder seasons, the insert fills this gap wonderfully.

That's my real world experience anyway. Then I found this place and just had to have an indoor wood boiler and it snowballed like hell from there.

The Benjamin Thompson House is right on Rt 38 in Woburn MA heading toward Wilmington. I've driven past it hundreds of times and never stopped.

 

[bholler]

Yes you can still have a masonry fireplace built. But it will cost quite a bit for just ambiance. You could spend allot less and get a stove that would give you ambiance and heat

 

[peakbagger]

Stick a HD TV monitor on fake hearth and surround. Then tune to you tube fireplace video

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