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I love a roaring fire as much as the next guy or gal, but was amazed to watch an old episode (12/2004) of Mythbusters and learn that it actually reduces the temperature inside the rest of the house.
I don't sit around and analyze the impact our fireplace has, we use it because we like it, but if we thought we were helping to heat the house... we were wrong!
We feel the heat from the fire, but it has to pull air from the rest of the house in order to burn and it does not heat all of the air so creates a vacuum so that to supply it cold air is pulled into the house (or something more scientific than that ). Anyway - myth was "confirmed" and stated that a fireplace makes the area outside of the warm zone colder (they said 1.5 Celcius, but that converted to 34.7 degrees Farenheit and that seems extreme!).
So... long story short is putting on a fire may warm those in the immediate vicinity, but it is cooling the rest of the house. Fascinating!
My thermostat is in the same room with my fireplace, and I have a blower that blows the heat into the room, so my house will get cooler because the system thinks its hot in the house. I just run the fan to recirculate the air - it probably would work in any case to do that and keep the whole house warmer for minimal cost.
I love a roaring fire as much as the next guy or gal, but was amazed to watch an old episode (12/2004) of Mythbusters and learn that it actually reduces the temperature inside the rest of the house.
I don't sit around and analyze the impact our fireplace has, we use it because we like it, but if we thought we were helping to heat the house... we were wrong!
We feel the heat from the fire, but it has to pull air from the rest of the house in order to burn and it does not heat all of the air so creates a vacuum so that to supply it cold air is pulled into the house (or something more scientific than that ). Anyway - myth was "confirmed" and stated that a fireplace makes the area outside of the warm zone colder (they said 1.5 Celcius, but that converted to 34.7 degrees Farenheit and that seems extreme!).
So... long story short is putting on a fire may warm those in the immediate vicinity, but it is cooling the rest of the house. Fascinating!
I saw that same episode. Your memory is good, save for the fact they were using a standard fire place. Ones that have a blower on them will produce a net gain of heat (ie pellet stoves).
My in-laws in NH have a soap stone fireplace ($$$$$) that heats their 3000+ sq ft log home in northern NH to 70F with two firings, one in the morning and one in the evening, with no additional heat. It's very economical.
1.5* rise/fall in celsius is ~3* F. So it produced about a 3 degree drop in F (just an FYI ).
Oh duh I totally forgot about this and I have a memory foam pad on my bed...no wonder that heavy down comforter is too hot for me! I wake up sweating even on really cold nights with the house temp down to 62 when I'm under that thing for more than a couple hrs.
I love a roaring fire as much as the next guy or gal, but was amazed to watch an old episode (12/2004) of Mythbusters and learn that it actually reduces the temperature inside the rest of the house.
I don't sit around and analyze the impact our fireplace has, we use it because we like it, but if we thought we were helping to heat the house... we were wrong!
We feel the heat from the fire, but it has to pull air from the rest of the house in order to burn and it does not heat all of the air so creates a vacuum so that to supply it cold air is pulled into the house (or something more scientific than that ). Anyway - myth was "confirmed" and stated that a fireplace makes the area outside of the warm zone colder (they said 1.5 Celcius, but that converted to 34.7 degrees Farenheit and that seems extreme!).
So... long story short is putting on a fire may warm those in the immediate vicinity, but it is cooling the rest of the house. Fascinating!
Like my earlier post about setbacks, there are a lot of variables that can affect how well a fireplace or stove heats. Like many things, in our modern life where we often crave "romanticized" activities of the past(such as a roaring fireplace), we have often lost touch with the tips/tricks that the old world used to make them truly effective.
When you and I load a pile of wood in a FP and set it alight for a brief evening of romantic flames, we really aren't using the FP in a way that would have heated a house decades, or centuries ago. Plus, most of our modern "show" fireplaces are just that, for show, and aren't really built for heat.
Modern fireplaces are often lightweight in construction, small in size, and located in places where they can't really deliver heat, just that aforementioned light show. And if that is all one is interested in, that's fine
But if one really wants to heat a space, or an entire home, with a fireplace or stove, then some research and careful planning has to be done.
For one thing, in years past when people actually heated their homes with fireplaces and stoves, they more-or-less burned them around the clock and kept their "heat up". Plus like the soap-stone FP mentioned in a prior post, these old FPs were high mass brick and stone, maybe even incorporating cast iron, and would heat-soak as the coals burned through the season. This helped to provide heat to the entire surrounding area and structure.
Also, few old fires were our now romanticized "roaring fires" we all tend to build in the evening. Many were charcoal, coal, or wood that was allowed to burn slowly into coals, which were maintained so that they burned longer and generated more heat than flame. It was much less about "show" and more about "heat".
The results of Mythbusters(of which I am a great fan) are undoubtedly accurate, but the test likely ignores many of these differences.
And of course as pointed out by others, modern forced air FP inserts and stoves can be used quite effectively to use the heat from a FP more efficiently.
...people also tend to forget what a damper is for, or that they even have one
An interesting aside: There was a time toward the end of the 19th century and early 20th, where those with money actually would conspicuously install FEWER fireplaces if they could afford the new-fangled central heat(steam, hot water, gravity furnace). Now we consider FPs, particularly in number, a sign of wealth, but there was a brief time where minimizing them was in contrast perceived as just the opposite.
<>I am moving the thermostat quite frequently. Is that counterproductive?
What does your family do?
Yes. Have a family agreement and leave it alone. I have Honeywell programmables on each level and set them when we moved in. I haven't touched them since except when we leave for more than a day.
Bundle up.
You guys down here are so funny about Winter and being cold, running around the house in shorts and panties, then closing everything when you get a cold rain.
Our heat has always been set at 59 deg day and night. How do you people afford to heat your houses @ 70 deg. Wow that is warm. A 59 Degree spring day is just fine by me.
Lately 72 degrees, which doesn't really feel like 72 degrees because of the lack of insulation in my place/single paned windows/mysterious drafty spots where wall meets floor. I just put up more of that shrinkwrap window film (love that stuff) so I'm hoping I can go back to 70 degrees. Brr, bring on summer!
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and learn that it actually reduces the temperature inside the rest of the house.
). Anyway - myth was "confirmed" and stated that a fireplace makes the area outside of the warm zone colder (they said 1.5 Celcius, but that converted to 34.7 degrees Farenheit and that seems extreme!).
).
Yep, but "depends"
