Hi new to the forum, I’m in north central Victoria Australia and have a great open fire place that produces good heat for the entire house, that is if you can keep the damn thing fed! It really burns a lot of wood if your not careful but it also makes it really warm. It has been fitted with this heat box back in the 60s with I think a steel plate box that has a air intake directly below the fire with a fan blowing air around the box and part of the flue then into the room.
There’s a couple ways I’ve thought to improve this design
one, I’m thinking of a way to add an outside air intake for the fire to limit heater air loss from inside and because it also gets quite drafty through door gaps and such.
or another hair brain idea I had was since the fire box is steel plate could I theoretically weld fabricate a door and air slide and install a baffle to convert it into a very large control combustion fireplace? But will I also lose some heat output or gain?
really keen to hear ideas, it would easily burn over a cubic meter of good hardwood a week.
![[Hearth.com] Improving an open fire with heat box](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/279/279825-0dbff7f074d24223b10c0d6c16238fc6.jpg?hash=KSkYStRVRL "[Hearth.com] Improving an open fire with heat box")
There’s a couple ways I’ve thought to improve this design
one, I’m thinking of a way to add an outside air intake for the fire to limit heater air loss from inside and because it also gets quite drafty through door gaps and such.
or another hair brain idea I had was since the fire box is steel plate could I theoretically weld fabricate a door and air slide and install a baffle to convert it into a very large control combustion fireplace? But will I also lose some heat output or gain?
really keen to hear ideas, it would easily burn over a cubic meter of good hardwood a week.
