Fireplaces

The solid bench like piece of equipment that has robust sides is a brazing hearth. The sides act as heat shields and the hearth has a compressor. It is used to join steel together.

Without seeing the issue and where its originating its difficult to diagnose however, it may be buckling as it is getting too hot, so either the product is not up to the job or the heat is not being transferred adequately across all the panels. One thought was, would it be possible to use clay panel or fire bricks? Difficult to advise properly without seeing diagram of flue and appliance layout.

Also look at the fuel you are actually burning. If its purchased brickets these could be burning at to high a temperature which does cause this issue frequently. Check with your (1) fire supplier in case there is a predetermined fuels type - and (b) check with your fuel supplier in case they have used a high burn product.

Electric Fireplaces are in inexpensive way to heat your home. Typically they are less expensive to operate than gas or electric furnaces.

To determine the cost of running your electric fireplace, you would need to know the watts per hour that it uses and times that by your electric companies rate. That would give you a base price, as utility companies add on extra charges. Also, if you run it constantly, it will cost more.

I turn mine on first thing in the morning until the house is comfortable then, shut it down til the evening. If it is a particularly cold day, I start on high and then turn it to low, and keep the furnace on 65.

The zinc coating which is using for galvanizing emits toxic gas when burned.

The best way to clean a limestone fireplace is by using a pH neutral stone cleaner. This cleaner is used with warm water and a sponge.

There should be a louvered intake outside the fireplace, and a steel door covering the intake tunnel, inside the house located towards the front, and in the floor of the fireplace.

By flue, I believe you mean the damper in the chimney, which has the effect of closing off the flue. Close the damper any time you are not using the fireplace. Remember -heat rises -so heated air will also rise up and out the flue in the winter. In the summer it is also good to keep the flue closed because heat and humidity will activate the smelly properties of the ash and creosote in the firepalce chimney and create a bad odor in the home. In order for a damper to do its job it must seal tightly/ If your existing mechanical damper is broken, missing or in a bad state you can repair it or replace it with a chimney top damper or a chimney balloon. But, open the damper before lighting a a fire, or it will rapidly get quite smokey in the house.

Yes

It depends on what area you live in. If you have any doubts, contact your local fire department who should have the most accurate information.

As for California, there are "no-burn" days in Central California. This is now the law in many other parts of the country as well.

of course it does, but not more than any other carbon fuel. Be sure your flue is open or your house will fill with smoke.

To me it sounds like your pilot light on the fireplace is out. That could happen from a strong wind coming down the chimney or a strong breeze in the house from a fan. Check your pilot light and be sure to have the gas off before lighting the pilot light if it is out.

Yes, IF they are installed to fully meet the specifications of the manufacturer, AND IF the reflecting surface is kept clean.

There are several different types of policy forms used by property insurance companies. For an owner occupied single family home (versus a rental property, secondary residence, or condo) the policy form typically used is called the Homeowners Form 3 (HO-3). The HO-3 policy will cover "sudden and accidental" water damage. What this means is that if you have a constant leak that was in plain view then the damage would not be covered. It has to be "sudden and accidental".

The best way to determine whether or not you have coverage for this is by looking at your contract. The HO-1 and HO-2 policy forms are more limited. In the HO-3 you will want to read everything under the Section 1: Dwelling Coverages, AND the exclusions for Section 1: Dwelling.

The reason that you need to refer to the Dwelling Coverages (Coverage "A" on most policies) is because a brick fireplace is a permanent part of the structure of your home.

Yes, IF the combustion chamber and flu system leaks and allows combustion gasses to escape into the area where you are.

Question: "Can a window air conditioner be installed in a fireplace? I'd build a simulated window. My apartment doesn't have a convenient window." I did this many years ago in a region where temps in the summer routinely reach over 100 degrees F. Having once been an engineer, I analyzed the problem and solution as follows: 1. I did not want an unsecured access to the outside of the house (a window-mounted A/C unit), because of deteriorating social conditions in the area (I have since sold the house --- after removing the fireplace A/C, as it was not "common"). 2. All common window A/C units use no "makeup" air --- that is, no air is brought in from the outside at the A/C unit. The air inside the house is just recirculated, and depends on door and window "leaks" to provide some fresh air. Further, most window A/C units use no active air movement past the exterior heat exchange coils to take away the heat which has been removed from the inside of the house. They depend on wind and convection to take away the heat --- with variable results, as you probably have heard of units shutting down from overheating -- that is, not getting rid of the heat to the outside fast enough. 3. The chimney for a fireplace is a narrow access to the outside --- just like a visionless window. If necessary, the chimney can be "temporarily" divided into two vertical columns --- one supply, one exhaust --- extending down to the back ("outside" section) of the A/C unit when it is placed in the fireplace. MAKE SURE THE DAMPER TO THE FIREPLACE/CHIMNEY IS FULLY OPENED ! It helps to have the chimney cleaned (swept) first, also. 4. Now, the keypiece: The placement of the A/C unit REQUIRES air movement past the back of the unit to take away the heat. The heat WILL build up in the fireplace and chimney to trigger the overheating and shutoff of the A/C unit ---- VERY quickly ! The answer: A. If you are lucky enough to have an "ashcatcher" in the floor of the fireplace which leads to the outside of the house (which is what I had), a properly-sized fan in the top of the chimney will draw outside air INTO the ash-removal opening, PAST the back of the A/C unit inside the fireplace, up the chimney, and vent the hot exchanged air into the atmosphere. B. If you have no ashcatcher, you will need to use a simple chimney divider (made of sheet metal for safety) lowered into the chimney, and put a properly-sized fan into the top of the EXHAUST side (the downwind side of the prevailing hot-weather winds) of the divided chimney. Try to divide the chimney across its narrowest horizontal dimension for simplicity. C. By always putting the fan at the exit point of the exhaust duct, you reduce the amount of air leaking into the house from the heat-removal air pathway, since it more approximates a negative-pressure side on the A/C unit (most window installations can have wind-driven dust coming in at the unsealed margins around the unit). D. How to power the exhaust fan at the top of the chimney? I measured the opening of the chimney and shopped around until I found a cake tin which would fill the chimney opening completely with a lip to hold it onto the top of the brickwork by gravity, cut a fan (exhaust air) hole in it with tin snips, and mounted the fan in it. Then I threaded the fan power cord through a SMALL slot I cut in the outer edge of the cake tin near the brickwork (it's always good to put a rubber wear grommet around the slot to prevent vibration wear on the cord), and just plugged the fan power cord into an extension cord which reached down the chimney, out the fireplace face, and over to the closest outlet (with some slack). I then plugged a properly-rated, outlet plug-in switch into the outlet, and plugged the extension cord into the switch. The A/C unit is usually plugged into the same outlet, but you may have to plug into a circuit which has ONLY the A/C unit on it, as the units draw a LOT of amps ! E. The "properly-sized fan" (cubic feet per minute) is the trickiest part of the whole operation. If you have a chemical engineer friend, he or she can do the sizing calcs for you with just a few operational assumptions, such as heat load, heat transfer efficiencies, ambient air characteristics, etc. If you can't find a chemical engineer, you can try various fan sizes from industrial suppliers like Grainger's, etc, until you find one which works without having the A/C unit shut down because of overheating. You may be able to find the necessary algorithms in chemical engineering or mechanical (HVAC) engineering texts. F. Proper operation of the system: 1. Turn on chimney fan at outlet to establish airflow; then turn on A/C unit. 2. Turn off A/C unit; wait 10 minutes; then turn off chimney fan. 5. Details: A. Mounting the A/C unit on the fireplace floor is usually easy and straightforward, but you may have to put a block under the back end of the unit to make sure it is level enough to work properly --- be sure to read the manufacturer's requirements and instructions; B. Use a screen on the outside intake if you use an ashcatcher --- to keep out the "critters" from outside; no filter is required, as no significant amount of air should enter into the house past the A/C unit from this installation; C. Use flexible foam to form a seal around the A/C unit and the fireplace opening. D. If you wish to push the cold air coming out of the A/C unit inside the house into the ductwork system for distribution around the rooms of the house, I do NOT recommend it because of: the need for you to close off the heating duct at the furnace to prevent loss of cold air from the furnace fresh air intake; because of the need for a fan and ductwork at the A/C unit to the nearest register; and because most window-based A/C units do not have the capacity to cool a large space...... E. Be advised that the popular "roll-around, portable" A/C units for sale usually waste some of the newly-cooled air to push the waste hot air out a window, unsealed fireplace opening, etc. 6. Enjoy! (and take it with you to your next apartment!)

A cord is defined as 128 cubic feet (3.62 m3), corresponding to a woodpile 4 feet (122 cm) wide, 4 feet (1.2 m) high and 8 feet (244 cm) long. So the weight would depend on the type of wood. Cherry or apple would weigh several times what balsa would.

Also, the pieces of wood are irregular in shape so you would not be able to weigh a "cord" of wood with precision. That is why "cord" is a term of measure not weight, just like inch, foot, yard, mile, square ft., etc.

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A cord of wood, dried and stacked well, will vary in weight from about 2000 to 4000 pounds. Clearly, softwoods, such as pine, will weigh on the lighter side and hardwoods on the heavier. If the wood is not dried, it is likely to weigh from 3000 to 5500 pounds, but different woods contain different amounts of water, so it is a little harder to predict without knowing the specifics.

There is a good web page with information about this, run by the University of Nebraska, at the link below. It provides a good deal of information, including weight of a cord, by species, dried and not.

you are probably out of gas, or if it(the tank) was recently filled, there may be an air bubble, that happened with mine. Also, there could be a dirt particle on the lense of the pilot blocking it, usually the propane or gas company can come out and check it or clean it if necessary. They told us to take the extensions from our vacuum cleaner and lightly clean the logs and the pilot, of course turn it off and take the logs apart first, you could be suprised at how nasty they can get in a short period of time.

Added by Todd O:

If it is a gas log set, ( normally in an existing wood burning fireplace converted to gas, that turns on with a knob inside the fireplace.) Be very careful with a vacuum. Gas log sets produce soot were the flame contacts the logs. If you vacuum up this soot it will go right through the filter on your vacuum and dust everything in your house.

If your pilot will light but goes out as soon as you release the knob, you probably need a new thermocouple. If it is a simple gas log set most of them use the same type found in a water heater. There are a large variety of gas fireplace appliances all of which use different parts. You should never replace a part with anything other than what the manufacturer specifies.

You must rough up the old finish, use sandpaper. Then apply the heat resistant paint

In March 2011, Washington State, cost to add a gas fireplace and standard size/quality unit, including construction costs and plumbing gas lines where service already exists: about $5,000.

Could cut costs to as little as $3,500-$4,000 by going with a very inefficient smaller unit, but if you're spending money on natural gas you might as well actually put the heat "in" your home rather than outside by getting an efficient model.

hearth

No, it is not safe to burn. It is toxic.

First, research the venting codes in your area. First, research the venting codes in your area.

A firewall (also called a fire shield) can be used to reduce the safe distance between a stove and a wall. A wood stove can radiate heat for long periods and it will accumulate in materials that are too close. A standard design goal is to leave 2 or 3 feet of air between an uninsulated stove (or stovepipe) and any flammable materials (paint, wooden wall interiors, insulation, wooden or plastic trim, floors, etc). As a rule of thumb, if a nearby surface is too hot to rest your bare hand on, then it is too close to the stove. When properly designed and installed a firewall can reflect or dissipate heat from the stove, protecting the wall behind it, thus permitting the stove to be moved closer to the wall without creating a fire hazard. The installation guide or contractor can assist in determining the safety clearances around a stove with or without a firewall. For example, an asbestos fire shield installed with a one-inch air-gap behind and below it may permit the distance to the stove to be cut in half (i.e., 18 inches minimum, less if the stove design permits it).

if you are talking a stove flue [free standing] the handle on the flue will indicate open or closed. if handle is horizontal flue is closed. if vertical flue is open. if you mean fireplace flue usually pushing flue handle to rear or back of fireplace will open it and pulling it toward you will close it. you can check by moving handle slowly while looking with flashlight up in the chimney. be careful as soot can come down and out if you get too aggresive.