Fireplace grates weren’t a feature of orginal fire places. Dog irons (which grates often sit on with one each side) were introduced first as something to lean logs on to get air under the fire to make them burn more readily. Fire grates were introduced to the UK when people started to burn what was originally called sea coal as it came from abroad. As a fuel coal offered more heat per ‘lump’ and was thus more compact to store and handle (although its much more dirty) which was an advantage during the industrial revolution in the ever growing cities and towns.
Coal burns just like wood but because it comes in lumps rather than ‘sticks’ it has a tendancy to fall into a pretty solid mass when you put a load of it on the fire together. This means no air can get in to fuel the fire if its built on a bed of ash as a wood fire should be. Hence the creation of the dog grate in all its forms.
Many of these still exist and are in use in period homes all over the UK but the users are often disappointed with the heat they get from them – usually when they are burning wood. In a grate a wood fire gets too much air so it roars uncontrollable gobbling up the logs at a rate and with rush of air to the fire it takes the heat up the chimney.
If you have a fireplace grate and want to burn wood look for a solid base to put in it to hold some ash to build the fire on. If you burn coal a grate it the right tool for the job.
There are alternatives to grates for people who want to burn wood that look the part and can offer greater heat out put (up to 14KW and 50% efficiency) along with convection systems to move heat away from the fire and into 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 fireplace grates and fireplace grate visit to website.
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