HersheyLodge Fireplace

[PA Fire Bug]

I was fortunate to attend a conference at the HersheyLodge earlier this week. This large four-sided fireplace was a popular spot even though it was not fueled by real wood. Maybe when I retire, I could provide real wood for the fire and keep it burning for the guests.

 

[jetsam]

If all 4 sides are open, and each opening is 2' x 3', that calls for a 19" x 19" flue. You would need an oversized hvac setup to compensate for having almost a 2x2 hole in the roof, but I guess you could. I wouldn't want to pay the heating bill, though! I'd also worry about draft reversal.

If you seal it off on 3 sides it gets more reasonable to deal with, but doesn't look like the picture anymore.

Seal all 4 sides with glass and a gasketed door, and you might have something that adds heat to the structure it's in!

@bholler - Ever work on a multisided open fireplace? How did it work?

 

[weatherguy]

Just think if you put gasketed doors on all 4 openings you could burn a cord of wood per load, that would throw some heat.

 

[spudman99]

I understand there are ventless gas fireplace logs (I have one) that require no flue.

Couldn't a gas log setup use a much smaller flue to vent some gases and assuming sufficient CO2 protection, work in such situations?