Why I love my wood burning fireplace

As soon as I walk in to the house on a cold evening the first thing I do is check to see that we have enough good seasoned wood stored near our woodbunring fireplace along with kindling and matches to light it. I make a regular habit of checking our air vent is clear and we have the chimney swept every year to ensure there is no build up of tar or soot in the flue system.

It only takes a minute to form a V with two logs and load in firelighters and kindling in the centre and put a match to it. Having checked the flue baffle is in the open position I then walk away with the crackling of the think wood announcing the start of a warm fire for the rest of the evening. My advice is try not to sit and watch a fire start. It’s like watching paint dry and will feel like an age. With good wood in a well maintained log burning fireplace the fire will take. If you watch it you may be tempted to fiddle with it and end up having to start over. By the time I’ve made a decent cup of tea the fires is ready for some more attention when I will make a small adjustment to the position of the two logs to ensure they have the opportunity to take and pick out some more smaller logs to lay over the fire as it starts to take.

Once the fire in your log burning fireplace is well set don’t forget to make use of a fire guard if you leave the room for any reason.

A specialist in the UK in the field of open fires who will be happy to assist you in creating a fire for your log burning fireplace is Camelot Real fires. Search Google to find them.

To know more about log burning fireplace and wood burning fireplace visit to website.

Why are fireplace grates either cheap or expensive?

With the popularity of stoves the market for fireplace grates has changed dramatically. Today there are a huge range of mass produced and cheap fireplace grates produced in China available – but they typically only offer grates of a relatively small size. Larger grates tend to have to be made to order or purchased second hand.

Second hand fireplace grates are often sold very cheap on-line – mainly because the owner has probably replaces the fire so its in the way and they are heavy and cumbersome to ship so can only really be sold locally. In addition they don’t offer any really efficient heating options. Such fireplace grates may also have suffered from heat distortion or deterioration if they are old as a result of heat - especially if the previous users burned coal.

If you are considering using a fireplace grate ensure you also use a fireback or over time (10-20 years) the brick or stone at the rear of the fireplace will break up and disintegrate requiring repair. These are sometimes integral to the fireplace grate but the more traditional designs have separate fireback.

If you need a larger fireplace grate the other option is to have one made for you. Blacksmiths can do this but also some specialists will create a fireplace grate for you including dog irons and fireback. Ths issues here is having items made to order will be quite expensive. Unfortunately there isn’t much in between in the market in the UK at present.

One final point in relation to fireplace grates is the difference between burning wood or coal. If you burn wood in a grate with a slotted base you will get less heat and go through a lot more wood than you need to. Wood fires should be burnt on a solid surface with some capacity to hold some ash. This will prevent the red hot embers falling through the grate and going cold before they are fully burnt. The result is more heat, less ash and less wood burnt.

One such specialist in the UK in the field of open fires will be happy to assist you in creating a fireplace is Camelot Real fires. Search Google to find them.

To know more about fireplace grates and fireplace grate visit to website.

Canopy or Hoods for an open fireplace

Fireplace canopies (sometimes called hoods) are features of many open fires. Often they are in place to make sure a fire doesn’t smoke but they can also add additional design detail into what otherwise can be seen as large dark space with a fire in. They also afford the opportunity to use different materials and colours to create reflections into the room when the fire is lit. Often a fireplace canopy will include a flue baffle control to make the fire more efficient also. 

A contemporary fire canopy can be seen as improving the performance of the fire as well as its appearance. Modern materials such as stainless steel can be used as can modern colour finishes. In addition laser cutting processes can enable intricate designs to be added to a canopy making it a real design feature of the overall fireplace. 

The size, position, shape and installation of a canopy, if its a working contemporary fire canopy, is critical to its success however. Too big or small, the wrong angles or air leaks around the fireplace canopy when it’s installed will mean the fire will smoke – which means it won’t get used and can be unsafe. This is a situation we have seen many times when we are asked to correct a smoking fireplace. It’s almost always down to the people who made or install the fireplace canopy not understanding the key criteria to create a canopy that works. 

A fireplace canopy can be quite discreet of nothing more is required – or they can be full of shapes, design detail and features to really stand out. One of the common situations that arises is blacksmiths for steel fabricators making canopies. These often don’t work and can look like a piece of engineering in the room rather than a piece of furniture – which is what a canopy should be. As the focal point for the room canopies will be looked at a lot so you want them to look good (and work). 

There are specialists who focus on contemporary fire canopies and offer their service across the UK and beyond. Search Copper canopies to find one such specialist. 

To know more about contemporary fireplaces and fireplace canopy visit to website.

Should I have a fireplace grate?

Modern can mean different things in this context. Modern in performance terms or modern in terms of the way modern open fires look. 

In terms of look, not having a grate will give super clean lines and reflect the first origins of open fires in the home when there were no fire grates. It may not however be practical if you actually want to use the fire.

The type of grate will depend of what fuel you are using – wood, coal, gas or electric. Solid fuels (wood, coal etc) will need something to burn in to contain the fire for safety reasons and to protect the fabric of the fireplace. If you don’t eventually the beautiful modern open fireplace will be full of cracks from the heat of the fire. Gas or electric are not so hard on the fireplace but you will need something to house the burner or elements so in effect a grate or similar. 

In terms of the performance of modern open fires having a fireplace grate will not necessarily improve things. It could make it worse in the case of a slotted fire grate with a wood fire. Too much air from underneath the fire and un burnt embers falling through the grate to go cold in the ash tray will mean lots more clearing of as than is necessary and more fetching wood than you need too with less heat from the fire also. Coal and some other solid fuels do need a grate to work effectively. 

In place of a fire grate there are other options to give much greater efficiency (0% increasing to 50%) and distribute heat more evenly around the rooms. These fires can suit more modern open fireplaces with inset designs and designs which incorporate more modern laser cut patterns or folded shapes. Search camelot fires to find one such supplier. 

To know more about Modern open fires and Modern open fireplaces visit to website.

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.

Why have a fireplace grate?

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.

Can I just put a new open fire or wood burning stove into my existing fire place or chimney?

The situation in the UK is the same across the EU. Outside this area I cannot comment. In the UK some people watch the videos on Youtube and do it themselves. This is because the actual job isn’t very complicated so practically minded people feel they can do whats required. The catch is that a stove or fire isn’t just another item. Its great appliance that will give hours of joy and warmth but is also a box containing fire which in the case of a stove can reach temperatures of approx 650 degrees. Open fires are much less at around 350 but this is still very hot. Naked flames and heat in the home should always be treated with respect and this is where the DIY approach has cost people dear with houses reduced to ash or even the death of a loved one.

The skills required to identify the potential risks and actions to address them successfully are possessed by professionals who have studied the requirements of current regulations and had experience of installations to understand how to achieve them in each installation. 

Sometimes the actions are small - sweeping the chimney and adding a carbon alarm. Sometimes they are more extensive involving the lining of a chimney or even the installation of a whole new insulated flue. This can make a big difference to the cost and the disruption involved. Whatever the action putting a wood burning fire into your existing fireplace isn’t something you should do without involving qualified professionals who have the recognised HETAS qualification. 

To know more about wood burning fire and wood burning fireplace visit to website.