Fireplace - Ambient Heat

[wintermute]

I have a wood-burning fireplace that I'm looking to get some actual heat out of. I live in a 200 year old house and in trying to keep to the spirit of the house, I'm not interested in anything involving motors, pellets, etc. A fireback is a possibility, but a couple of years ago I saw on the internet, I don't remember where, a big gigundo cast iron screen/surround/thing that you bolt to the front of your fireplace to serve as a passive radiator. Has anyone ever seen such a thing?

 

[CWL]

We had something like this in one of the homes I lived in. Looks kinda like a dinosaur rack of ribs. Fire causes cool air to be drawn in from the bottom and shoot hot air out the top.

 

[Bo T]

A number of companies make a fireplace insert that amounts to several steel tubesthat run from the bottom front of your fire place, up the back, and then exit from the top. Cold air from outside the fireplace is drawn into the tubes from the bottom, heated in the fireplace, and then allowed to exit from the top into the room you are heating. These can get fairly elaborate with glass doors in front and decorative ironwork.

oops CWL beat me to it.

 

[Gollnick]

I have a wood-burning fireplace that I'm looking to get some actual heat out of...

Yellow Alert.

I live in a 200 year old house

RED ALERT!


DANGER! DANGER!


Installing any new-fangled heat thing into a 200 year old fireplace is just asking for trouble... trouble like a house on fire!

I urge you to consult with a local professional who is familiar with the local building practices of 200 years ago and how to safely retrofit in them. You are literally playing with fire here. Don't get burned... down that is.

 

[wintermute]

Yellow Alert.



RED ALERT!


DANGER! DANGER!


Installing any new-fangled heat thing into a 200 year old fireplace is just asking for trouble... trouble like a house on fire!

I urge you to consult with a local professional who is familiar with the local building practices of 200 years ago and how to safely retrofit in them. You are literally playing with fire here. Don't get burned... down that is.

Luckily the fireplace is 70 years young (the house was moved onto the current plot during WWII), in a section of the house that was probably built in the late 1800's (there's actual studs instead of 200-year old seasoned oak trees, thank God)!

Don't worry, I wasn't planning on doing anything myself, I was just getting ideas. Thank you for your concern though. That's what makes bladeforums such an awesome place.