The beauty and challenge of an Inglenook fireplace

Inglenook fires are a classic feature of many UK houses. Featuring gnarly old beams and bricks made hundreds of years ago and Inglenook was the warmest place in the house in their heyday. They were created as the place to cook on and heat the room in an age when the kitchen wasn’t a separate part of the house. Many Inlgenooks are over 2 meters wide, over 1.5 meters tall to the underside of that impressive beam and over 1 meter deep. Some feature seats either side where the lucky occupant could keep warm as they stared into the flames – as long as they could put up with the smoke. 

Another feature of an Inglenook is the cavernous chimney that carried the smoke away. Most you can stand up in and many you can see the sky or the stars our of the top without any trouble. You will also see wooden or steel braces up in the chimney where meat would be hung to smoke or cure. Inglenook fireplaces evoke memories of a bye gone age but having one in modern house has its challenges. 

That cavernous chimney is needed to get a draw from that huge but beautiful fireplace opening. This is an issues however if you find there is leak in the chimney which means it needs to be lined. Reducing the size of the chimney diameter will mean the Inglenook will smoke. It’s also an issue in that such a big chimney will take huge amounts of air from the room – whether the fire is lit or not. This is air that your other heating source (radiators or underfloor heating for example) is trying to keep warm. Many Inglenooks offer negative efficiencies because the heat they add when they are lit is less than the heat they lose when they are not lit. 

There are options however from specialists in the UK who offer open fires that will close down that massive opening and work on an 8 inch (200mm diameter) flue to reduce heat loss and increase efficiency (50% ). Some also offer convection systems built in to take heat away from the fire and move it around the room. Camelot Real fires have designed their Thermovent open fire to offer a wood burning fire that if made to order and CE marked. Hand made canopies, grates and dog irons ensure you get the right look to replace your wood burning grate with increased performance and they fix smoke problems. 

To know more about inglenook fireplaces and Inglenook visit to website.