Recently, more and more often, owners of country houses, summer cottages, and simply large spacious apartments are installing fireplaces in their homes. This type of heating is becoming quite affordable, but it is still considered a luxury and an indicator of the owner's wealth. Fireplaces not only heat the room well, but also create special coziness and comfort in the home.
In urban apartments and houses, heat is provided mainly by public services. Fireplaces for the home often help out in cases where for some reason the heating communications do not work or they are completely absent, for example, in the country. Such sources of heat have been serving people for many centuries and today remain relevant and in demand.
Choose a wood fireplace for a summer residence
In order to keep the country house warm in the cold, you need to choose the right fireplace. First you need to decide on the place where he will stand, and depending on this, choose the design. Fireplaces come in several forms:
Wall-mounted is more suitable for spacious, large rooms, since it occupies a significant area. If such a fireplace is placed in a small room, then the comfort of being there may be affected.
Built-in structures are well suited for small rooms. Miniature dimensions allow you to place such a fireplace under the stairs or mount it into the column. Often embedded models play a decorative role.
Corner wood-burning fireplaces fit perfectly into the room. Place them opposite the front door and windows.
What should I look for when buying a wood fireplace? The following parameters play an important role in the selection.
Temperature
- Combustion temperature. In order for the heat transfer to reach the maximum level and the energy to bear minimal losses, it is necessary to maintain a very high combustion temperature in the fireplace. Ideally, it should reach 850 degrees.
- The temperature of gas and smoke. This rate should be low. When leaving the furnace, the gas temperature should not exceed 350 degrees. Models with this indicator have high fire safety.
Details
- Combustion chamber. It should be made of sheet steel. This material allows you to maintain fire in the fireplace for days, while the risk of cracking is completely absent, which can not be said about cast-iron furnaces.
- Firebox door. It is best to use a cast-iron door. It does not warp at high temperatures, while maintaining high efficiency. Tight closing eliminates excessive traction while the fireplace is not in use.
- Glass. From the inside, they must be blown with high temperature air. The blowing system makes it possible to avoid excessive soot pollution. The best conditions are created for combustion.
- The clean burning system is specially designed to reduce emissions, for a more efficient fire. The frequency of servicing the chimney and fireplace is minimized. In this system, additional oxygen is supplied through a special channel located on top of the combustion chamber. This allows the remaining particles to burn out before the release of gas and smoke into the pipe.
Air
- Air supply. In order for combustion to be the best, the air entering the furnace must be well warmed up. For these purposes, channels are often used behind the firebox. They are heated by the fireplace, and the combustion air passing through them becomes warm.
- Street air. To increase combustion efficiency, it is better to connect the fireplace to the duct that goes out into the street. Through it will receive the necessary amount of oxygen for combustion.
- Quality. Wood-burning fireplaces can last more than one decade, so when buying special attention should be paid not so much to appearance and decoration, but to quality, reliability and ease of use.
Fireplace design
Of course, choosing wood-burning fireplaces for the house, everyone pays special attention to design features. But they are installed in the house not only for heating.
The atmosphere that is created in a room with a fireplace is very important. The room seems to come to life, it becomes much more comfortable in it. To the fireplace was not only practical, but also beautiful, there are many natural and artificial materials for its decoration. The main focus is on the portal, exterior framing and cladding. Marble, dolomite, ceramics, granite - these materials are used to decorate wood fireplaces. Photos show all variety of materials.
Marble allows you to perform beautiful carved reliefs, it lends itself perfectly to processing, has a different color. Granite is used less often - it is quite expensive, but noble material. Granite granular chips look amazing.
How to operate wood fireplaces
In order for the fireplace to serve for a long time, it is necessary to observe some operating rules.
Particular attention should be paid to the quality of firewood. Their humidity should not exceed 20%. Choose medium-sized logs, not resinous. Do not immediately lay a large batch, because, flaring up, firewood can give too much emission of fire, and therefore smoke. Thus, smoky areas may appear. It is better to install wood fireplaces that have a clean burning system. They provide for the full use of fuel, not even small particles remain.
After heating, you need to make sure that the firewood is all burnt out, only then block the chimney. Do not use water to extinguish.
When the fireplace burns, do not allow drafts in the room. However, oxygen access is necessary in order to maintain fire. The area of the room where the fireplace is located should be at least 20 square meters.
Assembled wood fireplaces can weigh from 400 to 1300 kg. The floor under the structure must necessarily have a concrete screed, be strong enough. When installing, you need to calculate the actions so that the fireplace is at the level of a clean floor.
The wall with which the furnace is in contact should consist of fireproof materials, not contain any communications. Pay particular attention to this issue.
In general, each fireplace should have its own special design of partitions and walls with which it is in contact. If the wooden house has a leaning wall, then you should not make a separate foundation for it. With a separate movement of the foundation of the house and fireplace, the structure can collapse. In such cases, the floors are reinforced with an iron profile before installation.