Do You Have A Proper Open Fire Place?

[Ho-oh'sRealm 0]

We have one at our house. In case someone doesn't know, open fire places are the nifty ones which burn logs and coal and require chimneys. It's great because it makes lots of heat and throws it out (the heat, not the flames). You can roast marshmellows and burn stuff in it. They are way better than other fires because you can angrily chop wood with an axe, but that's probably not very safe and a waste of time.Anyhow, it's fun!

[sheepdog 10]

Yes, we have one in our house too, and besides being fun it's sure nice to have a back up in case of power failure, since even if you heat with a propane furnace, if the electricity goes out the fan that circulates the heat from the propane furnace won't work. Our fireplace saved our butts a few times. But we haven't used it since we put in the outdoor wood furnace. Fireplaces can be neat, but they are dangerous too, especially when they are installed in carpetted rooms, like most peoples frount rooms are. Sparks can pop out and start fires, a good set of doors is very important and a screen to catch sparks too. And they are not the best in energy effeciency as a lot of heat goes up the chiminey, and if you don't close it down good, it can actually suck heat out of your house and up the flue.

[webishqiptar 0]

Well, I don't have one in my house. In our houses in my country it is not a tradition to have one of these. Though I like the idea and maybe as I earn some money in real life I can try to put this new tradition in my house. But I guess this is dangerous for your house burning.

[rob86 2]

Real fire inside a house? Wow! Must be some new fad, what will they think of next?Anyway, in all seriousness, wood is all my parents use for heat. They have electric heat, but my dads cheap and refuses to waste money on it and turns it off. My father cuts down trees and chops wood every year to get wood to burn. It's nice on a cold ~(-20C) day, but my mother has a fire raging even on spring or fall days and it would be at least 26C inside the house, much too warm and uncomfortable for someone like me.My father told me about how when he was a kid, sometimes the metal pipes would get clogged up (clean them often!!), would turn bright red from overheating and everyone would be scared of a fire starting. This never happened in my lifetime though.Chopping wood isn't for me though, I guess I'm the last line of the good 'ol country boys in my family, because I'm the the "countriest" of any of my relatives and I'm a geek, not a farmer!How cold does it get where you live webishqiptar? Do you need a lot of heat in the winter?

[inverse_bloom 0]

We have a small one contained in the wall of our house. Its an old house, whats funny though is it has to be blocked off as my mothers cats try to crawl up it to get at the birds. Before that we were in a house that had a fireplace with a metal chimney going through the ceiling. That was annoying because my dad would burn stupid things that gave off green flames and irritating gases, all for the sake of saving a buck.

[sheepdog 10]

but my dads cheap and refuses to waste money on it and turns it off.

Now that's my kinda guy!
Seriously, it would take about $300 a month to heat this house with propane, and probably more with electric. That just isn't in our budget.

Oh, and Rob, in case you haven't heard about them, they have this wonderful invention now called a chain saw. So you don't actually have to chop wood anymore! Believe me, they are a major improvment over a 2 man cross cut. They even came up with a wood splitter. Only problem with them is you have to hoist the big chunks of wood up onto it to split. But it still beats whacking them with an ax.

But you do get me to agree that on those days that it is too cool not to have a fire, but not really cold, wood heated houses end up being hotter than blue blazes, ours is anyway. When it's in the 40's or just above you still need a fire, but our house will hit about 90 when the fire gets going.