Blizzards and useless chimneys

We don't run nearly that much

 

Here's how it works, if you have an existing open fireplace:



And for the umpteenth time .. this thread is about houses with existing WOOD BURNING fireplaces.

 

Exactly. And you can buy firebox inserts for your older fireplace, which is what you've done I'm guessing. Something like this:

 

Those (the free standing slow combustion fireplace) is the most common here. They can be very easily retrofitted into any room in the house, and aren't hugely expensive. Buy a flat top one, and you can also cook on it:

 

We clean our own chimneys/flues. The brush is like, $50.

As for 'mess' .. daily cleaning of the area around the fire is essential. But it's all part of doing things the old fashioned way, and keeping fit as a result.

 

Unflued gas is not good. All gas heating should be flued.

 

The glass doors are actually an important part of the radiation (they don't 'block' heat, as such). My guess is yours lost a lot of heat because you have a standard 'open' chimney, rather than a controllable flue with a baffle.

 

1995 is very new though. Even 1965 is, in a sense.

When I think of an established house, I think of something built prior to about 1960. Far enough back that much higher standards of craftstmanship and materials were involved. And those other bonuses ... beautiful kitchens/bathrooms, and fireplaces

 

Wood burning fireplaces or wood burning stoves?

You're calling two different things fireplaces and I can't keep track of it.

That's why we call the thing that you showed in this picture inside the fireplace a stove.

 

That's clearly a stove there's a kettle sitting on it.

They're not very common here. Most homes built after a certain period have centralized air.

So why don't the homes that have this use it they did it's just not very many.

 

If the wind is drafting up the chimney....close the damper or build a fire.

 

The idea is that a wood burning stove is also a fireplace.

It's confusing to me too

 

It's called a Slow Combustion Fire. If they have a flat top surface (and almost all of them do), obviously you can cook on it, though not many people do. We don't call these 'stoves', because their primary purpose is HEAT. They are simply a different kind of fireplace, one which can easily be added to any house - or even apartment, if the building permits a horizontal flue.

A wood stove OTOH, looks like this:

 

That's why your having trouble communicating. You're insisting on your colloquialisms. Instead of communicating.

I googled wood burning stove and every picture you called a fire place came up

No it's a stove

They also look like every picture you called a fire place too.

I don't call semis Lorrys, I don't call pickup trucks Utes, I don't call soccer football.


If you don't want the confusion don't insist on it

 

The primary purpose of a stove is cooking. They're built very differently, for that reason. They have a smaller firebox, larger cooking surface (with dedicated hot spots), plus ovens. They often don't have glass on the firebox either, so there's no 'atmosphere' as there is with a fireplace. You can buy a hybrid, but it's till primarily a stove because the firebox is small and it has at least one oven. EG:



Another significant difference is the price. A Slow Combustion fire (the one with the kettle on top), can be bought for about $2k, whereas the stoves start at about $8k, and go up from there. The following is about $40k:

 

Okay Polz. I've explained the difference (one's primary purpose is heat/atmosphere, the other's is cooking .. and how they differ considerably in both build and price). I can't do more.

 

I like the 2K model. It can be used as a heater and a stove. Just because it has a cooktop.....the whole thing probably heats up to hot enough to burn ya when a fire is built in it. Even pot belly stoves had cooktops.

 

The primary purpose of a wood burning since it's heat. Notice how I draw a distinction between two different things?

A fire place is an open hole it isn't sealed.

For the 9 millionth time. One of the things you call a fireplace is called a wood burning stove in the United States. We aren't ever going to adopt your word for it. We still don't use the metric system. It's time to give up.

 

No, wood burning stoves aren't used for cooking at least not very commonly in the US. They are used primarily for heat. You might find one that was used for cooking in an antique store or a historical house from 1894

 

A potbelly stove would be just the thing for me. We only need extra heat now and then. Need to cut a hole in my new roof though.

 

Pot belly's are great! I like these:

 

We think of a fire/fireplace as anything burning solid fuel for HEAT. A chimney breast is something else, as is a hearth, as is a firebox/cavity. EG all the below are fires/fireplaces, to us:

 

And these are stoves .. or 'ranges':

 

Pot bellies and flat top slow combustions are a type of low cost hybrid, but are still primarily used for heat: