[Greenbuilding] Fireplace questions

[Bruce Donelson]

On Nov 06, 2006, at 23:22, Bruce Donelson wrote:
> Any fireplace that lays any claim to efficiency will burn outside air

Do you have data for this?  I don't see how outside air helps (in a
house where a furnace isn't running simultaneously).  Is the stack
temperature lower in an outside air fed fireplace?

 No, it is higher, because it does not mix such large volumes of air into
the exhaust.


    A fireplace with glass doors does not require a source of air to confine
the smoke to the chimney. Without the glass it needs air for combustion and
it needs air flow to swoosh the smoke back up the chimney and keep it from
mixing with indoor air.



> Big net energy loss.

Again, only if there is a furnace running at the same time.  People
heated their houses for centuries with fireplaces.  If they were a big
net energy loss, they would have all frozen to death.


When people burn a fire, they open the damper (if it was closed last time)
and leave it open for hours after the fire is extinguished. The stack effect
will cause the fireplace to depressurize the house until the damper is
closed. With glass doors, the draft only takes outside air through the
system.

A century ago in Oregon people built log houses. Trees were a nuisance and
prevented the growth of crops and livestock feed. They used to figure that
as many trees as it took to build a house was how many it took to heat it,
each year. So if you used 20 cords of wood to heat your house, that left you
more cleared land, which was the point anyhow. I personally know someone who
moved into an uninsulated dome in Oregon in the 70's and cut 23 cords of
wood to heat it that winter. And it wasn't very warm, mostly. He just
figured that's what you did in Oregon.


I agree with most everything else.  A nice woodstove gives all the
ambience of a fireplace in my opinion.

Thank You Kindly,

Corwyn

--
Corwyn
Kermit didn't know the half of it...
http://www.greenfret.com/
corwyn at greenfret.com