Fireplace

• Manufactured fireplaces are made with sheet metal or glass fire boxes.
• Electric fireplaces can be built-in replacements for wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.
• A few types are wall mounted electric fireplaces, electric fireplace stoves, electric mantel fireplaces, and fixed or free standing electric fireplaces.

Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by:

• Wood fuel or firewood and other biomass
• Charcoal (carbonized biomass)
• Coal of various grades
• Coke (carbonized coal)
• Smokeless fuel of several types
• Flammable gases: propane, butane, and methane (natural gas is mostly methane, liquefied petroleum gas mostly propane)
• Ethanol (a liquid alcohol, also sold in gels)

• 
  Traditional Himalayan Tandoor
• 
  Wood-burning fireplace with fire dogs
• 
  A gas-powered fireplace
• 
  Electric fireplace
• 
  Traditional Serbian Ognjište

Ventless fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by either gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the United States, some states and local counties have laws restricting these types of fireplaces. They must be properly sized to the area to be heated.[4] There are also air quality control issues due to the amount of moisture they release into the room air, and an oxygen sensor and a carbon monoxide detector are safety essentials.

Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are completely sealed from the area that is heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

Chimney and flue types:

• Masonry (brick or stone fireplaces and chimneys) with or without tile-lined flue.
• Reinforced concrete chimneys. Fundamental design flaws bankrupted the US manufacturers and made the design obsolete. These chimneys often show vertical cracks on the exterior.
• Metal-lined flue: Double- or triple-walled metal pipe running up inside a new or existing wood-framed or masonry chase.

Newly constructed flues may feature a chase cover, a cap, and a spark arrestor at the top to keep small animals out and to prevent sparks from being broadcast into the atmosphere. All fireplaces require trained gas service members to carry out installations.

Accessories

A fender (colorized) is set in front of the fireplace to contain embers, soot and ash

A wide range of accessories are used with fireplaces, which range between countries, regions, and historical periods. For the interior, common in recent Western cultures include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons and pellet baskets, all of which cradle fuel and accelerate combustion. A grate (or fire grate) is a frame, usually of iron bars, to retain fuel for a fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate heat, to protect the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metal frames set in front of the fireplace to contain embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and tool stands. Other wider accessories can include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and more.

Cooking over a fireplace

Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the ground, within caves, or in the center of a hut or dwelling. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of early indoor fire pits was that they produced toxic and/or irritating smoke inside the dwelling.

Fire pits developed into raised hearths in buildings, but venting smoke depended on open windows or holes in roofs. The medieval great hall typically had a centrally located hearth, where an open fire burned with the smoke rising to the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed during the Middle Ages to allow the roof vents to be covered so rain and snow would not enter.

Also during the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to prevent smoke from spreading through a room and vent it out through a wall or roof. These could be placed against stone walls, instead of taking up the middle of the room, and this allowed smaller rooms to be heated.

Chimneys were invented in northern Europe in the 11th or 12th century and largely fixed the problem of smoke, more reliably venting it outside. They made it possible to give the fireplace a draft, and also made it possible to put fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings conveniently. They did not come into general use immediately, however, as they were expensive to build and maintain.

In 1678, Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I, raised the grate of the fireplace, improving the airflow and venting system. The 18th century saw two important developments in the history of fireplaces. Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that greatly improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. He also improved the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a longer area at the top. In the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox that was better at drawing the smoke up and out of the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the amount of heat transfer projected into the room. Rumford's design is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took on a more traditional spectra based on stone and deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Rather it relied on simple designs with little unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s, the Aesthetic movement gave way to the Arts and Crafts movement, where the emphasis was still placed on providing quality stone. Stone fireplaces at this time were a symbol of prosperity, which to some degree is still the notion today.

Fireplace with tubular grate heater, with a high surface area in its heat exchanger and a lift out ash tray to simplify cleanup

Some fireplace units incorporate a blower, which transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the air via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated space and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be increased with the use of a fireback, a piece of metal that sits behind the fire and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally made from cast iron, but are also made from stainless steel.[7]

Enclosed wood-fueled fireplace equipped with a blower fan which takes in air through the bottom vent, blows it around the firebox to heat it, and releases it via the top vent

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency rating. Standard, modern, wood-burning masonry fireplaces though have an efficiency rating of at least 80% (legal minimum requirement, for example, in Salzburg, Austria).[8] To improve efficiency, fireplaces can also be modified by inserting special heavy fireboxes designed to burn much cleaner and can reach efficiencies as high as 80% in heating the air. These modified fireplaces are often equipped with a large fire window, enabling an efficient heating process in two phases. During the first phase the initial heat is provided through a large glass window while the fire is burning. During this time the structure, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This heat is then evenly radiated for many hours during the second phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window only provide heat radiated from its surface. Depending on the outside temperature, 1 to 2 daily firings are sufficient to ensure a constant room temperature.

Burning any hydrocarbon fuel releases carbon dioxide and water vapor. Other emissions, such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, can be harmful to the environment.

Several of these terms may be compounded with chimney or fireplace such as chimney-back.

• Andiron—Either one of two horizontal metal bars resting on short legs intended to support firewood in a hearth.[17]
• Arch—An arched top of the fireplace opening.[18]
• Ash dump—An opening in a hearth to sweep ashes for later removal from the ash pit.[18]
• Back (fireback)—The inside, rear wall of the fireplace of masonry or metal that reflects heat into the room.[18]
• Brick trimmer—A brick arch supporting a hearth or shielding a joist in front of a fireplace.[18]
• Chimney breast—The part of the chimney which projects into a room to accommodate a fireplace.[18]
• Crane—Metal arms mounted on pintles, which swing and hold pots above a fire.
• Damper—A metal door to close a flue when a fireplace is not in use.
• Flue—The passageway in the chimney.[18]
• Hearth—The floor of a fireplace. The part of a hearth which projects into a room may be called the front or outer hearth.[18]
• Hearthstone—A large stone or other materials used as the hearth material.
• Insert—The fireplace insert is a device inserted into an existing masonry or prefabricated wood fireplace.[19]
• Jamb—The side of a fireplace opening.[18]
• Mantel—Either the shelf above a fireplace or the structure to support masonry above a fireplace[20]
• Smoke shelf—A shelf below the smoke chamber and behind the damper. It collects debris and water falling down the flue.[21]
• Throat (waist)—The narrow area above a fireplace usually where the damper is located.[18]
• Wing—The sides of a fireplace above the opening near the throat.[18]

• Adams, Sean Patrick (May 15, 2014). Home Fires: How Americans Kept Warm in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9781421413570. OCLC 917156248.
• Putnam, John Pickering (1882). The Open Fire-place in All Ages (2nd ed.). Boston: James R. Osgood.
• Orton, Vrest (January 1969). Observations on the Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace: The Story of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American Genius & His Principles of Fireplace Design which Have Remained Unchanged for 174 Years (2nd ed.). Alan C. Hood & Company. ISBN 9780911469172.

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