WEBVTT - How Fireplaces Work 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.400 Make your business official with Google in Squarespace. When you 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.440 create a custom domain and a beautiful business website with 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.600 squares Space, you'll receive a free year of business email 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:12.640 and professional tools from Google. It's the simplest way to 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.560 look professional online. Visit squares space dot com slash Google 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.480 to start your free trial. Use the offered code works 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.800 w O r k S for ten percent off your 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:27.480 first purchase Google in Squarespace. Make it professional, make it beautiful. 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.000 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know? What's from House stuff 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:40.680 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:46.040 Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerome the Jairs. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.000 So this is stuff you should know. Jerry got a 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.360 piece of mail the other day that said Jerome, Oh yeah, yeah, 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.080 like real mail though, right, Jerry, Yeah, I don't know 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.360 how that happened. Oh like mail mail, not like a mail. 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:05.399 Oh little Jerry just said confirmed. Weird. We've been doing 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.880 a lot of this Jerry translating lately. That's really weird. 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.160 That's bizarre. I mean, I sold your address to a 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.840 mailing list, but I've never been reimbursed for it. So, uh, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.000 how how are you, sir? Great we are fresh off 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:25.000 our live shows and Boston, Mass MA and uh Washington, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.520 d C and uh Big. Thanks to everyone that came out. 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:31.319 Those were a lot of fun, Yeah for sure. And 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.399 thanks to the Brightest Young Things for having us to 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.280 the Benson Ball with Tigna Taro And it was wonderful 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.360 we got to meet Ticks. She was just as nice 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.839 and nonplussed as I would have voted exactly. She didn't 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:47.080 make a fuss No, nor should she. Wait, I mean 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.720 that in a good way. Wait, is it non plus 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.160 the opposite of what you think it means? I don't know. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.320 I think non plus means like you're you're agitated, means 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:01.120 you're plused. Yeah, I'd learned things all the time on 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.280 this show. Yeah, me to your favorite part of my job. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.040 And uh, most specifically, the most recent thing I've learned, Chuck, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:13.639 is that fire, the use of fire, the technological application 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:20.119 of fire, that's as far as I'm going actually predates humanity. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.160 That it was Homo erectus who was the first um 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:28.560 upright hominid who controlled fire, and it was as long 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.119 ago as a million years. There's evidence of the use 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.440 the controlled use of fire by humans as as much 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.400 as a million years ago. Yeah, it's just here, uh 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.200 in this article that you found that uh in China 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.519 their hearts of clay, silt and limestone from like a 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.160 half a million years ago. And uh, you know signs 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.519 like you said in Africa over a million years ago 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:58.280 that people and these are in caves, so essentially indoor fireplace. Right. Yeah. 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.919 But and if you are an anthropologist, you are familiar 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.960 with the term hearth, but that's usually used to, um, 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:11.679 describe something that doesn't really resemble the hearth that we'll 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.920 talk about today. Usually it was like just a shallow depression. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.640 Maybe it did have some limestone or some clay or 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.520 something else to keep it from catching fire, but nothing 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.440 like the fireplaces we know of today. The ones we 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.920 see and say there's a fireplace, they're actually about seven 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.680 hundred years old. Yeah, and I think, um, the history 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.600 of the chimney isn't super clear, but by the fourteenth century, 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.600 and of course Europe, when you had a little dough, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.880 you could then afford the nice chimney or maybe just 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.200 any chimney. Well actually, yeah, people started to afford chimneys 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:51.120 quite a bit. Um. There was especially in say jolly 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:56.240 old London, there was a lot of chimneys that sprung up, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.480 a lot of problems that arose, as we'll see later on. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.240 But yeah, the the it's kind of interesting to see 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.280 the fireplace hasn't really changed much in like seven hundred years. 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.680 And then you step back and you're like, no, actually, 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.160 that's kind of evident when you think about the fireplace 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:17.520 and how ridiculously inefficient it is. Yeah, it's kind of changed. 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.440 I don't know, it depends what you It depends what 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.919 your definition have changed. Hole in the wall with a 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.880 whole above it that's tall and narrow and leads to 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.240 the outside. Yeah, within that, there have been a lot 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.760 of changing sure, sure, but the overall general design has 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:39.320 has been relatively unchanged for seven years. It's like toilet paper. Yeah, 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.040 they're they're not as straight as they used to be. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:45.080 Um Ben Franklin was someone who did a lot of 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.600 complaining in life. He did about when you know, he 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.520 was just kind of person who would look around the 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.800 world and in his everyday surroundings and say, why do 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.880 people do it like this? That's stupid. I've been Franklin. 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.839 There's better as listen to me. Take a peek under 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:08.039 my silken robe. He very famously wrote that on the 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:12.039 back of the Declaration of Independence. But fireplaces used to 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.440 get under his skin, apparently because the design, and we're 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:21.760 going to talk about this, the traditional fireplace is fairly wasteful. Oh, 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.400 tremendously so. And it can even make your room colder, yes, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.720 which is counterintuitive. Yeah, it's like nonplused. Yeah, I looked 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.560 that up, by the way, So nonplus I'm correct. The 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:38.120 nonplus means you're agitated. Well, it means it means that 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:42.880 you are surprised and confused to the point that you 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.920 are unsure how to react. So not necessarily agitated, just 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.960 but you're definitely not just like laid back. No, So 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.240 Tignachar was not nonplused. She was not confused on how 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:58.400 to react. She reacted the exact way, which is Yeah, 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:03.240 she's just chill and very sweet. I didn't expect like 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:09.480 some big show trust me from anybody that meets us. Well, no, so, 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:10.919 I just want to put that out there, and I 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.200 didn't want to sound like I was disappointed. She didn't 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.240 like throw those snap crackers and start taftings. No, I 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.200 got exactly what I wanted, which was a very nice 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.160 lady who gave me a big hug in a photo. 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.160 I think that's come across. Yeah, that just I'm sensitive 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.039 to that stuff. Once I started opening my mouth digging 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.040 that hole. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. Here's 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:37.520 a little more route anyway. Um, let me let me 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.080 give you a stat here. Wait. First, I think everyone 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.760 wants to hear about how you felt when you met 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.200 tig Nataro. I was super excited. Can you tell how 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:51.800 was she? Uh So, here's a little stat for you. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.880 The National Association of home Builders did a survey, and 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.400 I guess this is recent. It doesn't name the year, 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.320 but um it sounds recent. People still want their fireplaces 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.480 to the tune of seventy seven of home buyers say, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.400 and that's I guess in the US. Yeah, like even 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.280 in I mean that's accounting for the hot places as well. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.040 Sure you know, so I would imagine in the cold 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.680 places it's probably more like Yeah, well, remember I don't 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.040 remember what episode it was, but we talked about how 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.080 in New York it's very ghost these days to to 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.840 have a fireplace that you use because it's so waste. 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:30.880 That is ghost. Mean what I think it means now 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.040 in doubting everything, it means super laid back and nonplus. 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.400 Oh so like New Yorkers like, oh, you have a fireplace, Yes, 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.560 how not green? Which I mean they're correct. There's a 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:48.880 lot of un greenness associated with fireplace. Sure, you know, 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.320 especially as far as like air pollution goes air quality. Um, 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.200 there's a lot of problems. Sure, there's a lot of 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.800 problems that come out of it. Like for example, I 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:00.840 guess if we're gonna talk about this for a second, 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.560 if you are a kid and you have um, I 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.080 don't know, respiratory diseases, you're far likelier to be living 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:13.280 in a house where your folks burn would So if 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.480 you're a kid or an elderly person, respiratory distress can 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.320 be brought on because smoke is gonna get in the 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.920 room no matter how great the fireplace is, right, or 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.520 if you're let's say, if you already have asthma or something, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.400 you're not doing yourself any favors by letting that smoke 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.440 in the particles particulate matter creep in there. Yeah. And 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.080 also I mean like house fires. There's like two house 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.440 fires in the United States every year that resulting like 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:43.520 ten people's deaths from directly from fireplaces. Yeah. Yeah, But 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.120 no matter who you talked to, for the most part, 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:52.400 the people say still worth it. Ye yeah. I'm gonna 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.520 die of like blacklong and my house may burn down 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:57.880 before I get a chance too. But I really loved 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.360 fires in the winter, and I'm really I'm willing to 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.240 take that risk. So you know my deal or do you? 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:08.280 I don't know. Uh. We live in a house that 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:12.959 was built in nineteen and we're renovating it still forever. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.800 And we have the fire place that is not used 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.440 and it's not able to be used unless we pay 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.480 like some pretty good dough to get it retrofitted and 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:29.320 the chimney worked on. And I for years have been 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.240 leaving just little sticky notes and I'll write it in 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:38.200 crayon on the bathroom wall and just little things like, hey, am, 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.520 how about that fireplace? And she says, quit writing on 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.040 the walls. Uh, We're not getting a fireplace just yet. 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:47.679 But maybe I've been there for like ten years. When 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.160 is when does our life? When do we start living 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.920 our life? Is my question? With a with a fireplace, 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.880 have you considered trading something she wants for the fireplace 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:03.640 that doesn't work like that? Have you considered begging. That 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.000 doesn't work either. Yeah, I don't know what to tell you. Well, 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:08.280 I mean, you know what I do. I wait until 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.840 she goes out of town and they just do it yourself. Yeah, 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.640 but do it terrible way so that somebody is a 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.160 professionalist to come in and go behind you. Yeah, and 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:18.719 then they have no choice. You're like, I gotta get 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.520 the fireplace guy in here. Now there's a giant hole 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.320 in the wall. Uh. Long story short, though, we still 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.079 don't have a fireplace. And I'm still despite all the negatives, 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.000 and I try to lead a green life, but I 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.960 just I want that wood burning thing. I don't want. 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.800 We'll talk about the substitutes. But and that's great if 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.480 you're into that, because they are better in many, many ways. 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.560 But I just love that wood crackle, the smell. I 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.280 want that particular matter my lungs. You and seventies seven 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:51.080 percent of us homeowners, Um, so yeah, most people do. 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.880 Say I'm willing to look past the problems for a 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.680 wood burning fireplace, But like you say, there are they're 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.920 all there's alternatives, that's right, But we're gonna talk about 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.760 all of it here. Should we talk about the parts? Yeah, 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.240 let's talk about this is This is when I say 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.440 like there was very little change to the design over 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.439 seven years ago. It's true, man, Yeah, I didn't realize 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.840 some of these parts existed. So, um, I did learn 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.079 quite a bit in this. I thought it was pretty 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.199 much the firebox and the flu that ran up the 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.800 chimney and that's it. But there's more to it than 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:26.720 that there. Well, yeah, these are I think these are 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.080 the improvements that came over time. So you do have 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.080 the heart that you mentioned that's gonna be built out 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:36.320 of something fireproof. You don't want a wood heart. That'd 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:40.200 be bad. It's probably rock or brick. And that's yeah. 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.840 That's where you sit and drink your bourbon while you 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.280 warm your back. It's like an apron on the floor 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.080 that extends out from the fireplace. Yeah, and it can 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.200 be even with the floor, as is the case now 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.679 or the one I grew up with. I grew up 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.120 with one of those Mac Daddy huge rock fireplaces. Those 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.720 ones are like hand and you could sit on the thing. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.800 They're the best. They are the best, but they're also 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.560 like just kid killers. They look like, you know, well 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.680 not if you don't climb in it, okay, which I 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.400 never did. Yeah, that that is pretty nice. You got 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.120 the well, so you know, like the hearth extends out. 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.760 But if you look usually up the walls along either 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.040 side of the hole in the wall, and then above 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.600 above it. Um, that's called the surround. It's usually made 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.240 of something either that's the same as the hearth, same 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.640 material as the hearth, or some other fireproof thing like 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.880 tile or brick or stone. And that's just to basically 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.839 prevent that fire from licking out of the firebox and 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.679 setting the house on fire. So straw no good, no 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.199 as a material. Uh. You have your firebox. That is 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.319 just what you think it is. That's the square typically, 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.760 although they're shaped a little differently. Now. Um, that's the 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:02.680 square that holds your fire right, and it's where the 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:07.240 smoke starts to collect. Um. What you're sending the stuff 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.680 up to behind behind the firebox is actually called the 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.360 smoke chamber. And there's a there's a transition area in 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:19.319 between the firebox, which is where you actually have the fire, 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.720 and the smoke chamber, which is above and slightly behind it. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.760 And there's it's called the throat. It's the opening that 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.280 that connects those two things. And this the smoke chamber 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.320 smoke box I think I've been calling it. It actually 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:36.160 connects the firebox to the FLU and it's got some 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.000 pretty cool stuff going. And this is like where where 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.640 some improvements were made to the design. Yeah, and the 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.320 FLU is surrounded by the chimney. Also again not straw, 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.960 it's gonna be brick almost always. In the back rear 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.640 of the smoke chamber, there's a smoke shelf. It's concave. Yeah, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.520 because if you if you look at a fireplace, you 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:59.800 just think it just goes straight back and up right. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.440 Well that some of the old designs did well, they 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.439 were stupid. Yeah, that's why how it's changed them. Right, 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.280 So if you go if you look at the back 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.280 of the fireplace, if you could stick your head up 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.480 into the firebox, you don't want to do that. But 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.720 when there's no fire you don't want to do it. Period. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.480 You'll see that there's actually a shelf there and it's 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.600 angled forward to in front of that. Like like I said, 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.200 it used to be just sort of a cube and 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.320 it went straight up. Now it's sort of zig zags 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.520 uh back and forth a little bit its way to 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.520 the FLU. That's right. So the whole point of that 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.160 shelf and the zigzag is so that, um, when rain 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.000 comes in, it doesn't get into the fire. It's almost 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:42.200 basically a protective overhanging and um it also keeps particulates 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:47.040 like soot and stuff from falling into the firebox too. Correct. Uh, 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:49.760 that smoke shelf underneath it, you're gonna have the damper 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.120 and that is that covering. That's uh, it's movable, and 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.560 that separates the firebox from the place above it, and 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.840 that keeps that's you know, and you don't have your fire, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:02.760 that's when you close. We used to stay close the 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.680 flu uh And we didn't use the word damper in 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.440 my house. Yeah. I don't know why, but that's technically 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.080 what it is, just the damper and you get your 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.280 their different mechanisms. But ours had a little uh little 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.080 uh islet circle thing that you would stick. We used 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.680 our fire poker and we would just unhook it and 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.800 then close the damper and that when your fire is 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:27.280 not burning. You want to keep that thing open when 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.240 it's burning. Obviously, Well yeah, you're gonna find out really quickly. Yeah, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:36.480 it's closed. It's like an epiglottis for the fireplace. Sure, Yeah, 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.520 it's got a throat, why not what else we have? Um, 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.160 Sometimes there's a chimney damper at the very top of 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:49.920 the flu could close too, it's unnecessary, Oh you think, sure, 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.000 But then uh, at the very top of the chimney, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.480 there's something called sparker rest or, which is usually like 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.520 some sort of mesh grate that will allow like gas 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.640 and in air, but we'll keep um little embers and 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.280 stuff from going out onto your roof and setting your 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.960 house on fire. Yeah, especially like paper tends to float 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:12.480 up and out. Uh, the chimney cap can it serves 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.720 the same purpose, And that a lot of times is 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.000 one and the same, Like the chimney cap and the 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.200 spark arrest are all one piece. A lot a lot 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.120 of times is that it? I haven't heard of this 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:27.280 ash dump. That sounds pretty neat though it's basically I 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:29.680 guess a hatch in the floor where you can just 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.400 sweep the ashes. I guess that sounds like in the 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.960 olden days when your house was built on you know, 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.680 two bricks, and it would just drop into a bucket below, 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.560 as would your poop. There are different buckets under your 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.920 house that collected things. Do you want to make sure 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.400 you knew which bucket you're grabbing at any given time. 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.680 I didn't want to surprise. And then finally got your 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.280 little door. It's either you know, glass or metal, or 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.960 it might just be a screen. We never had in 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.760 mind growing up. We never had the glass door. Sure, 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.400 just the screen. We had one of those in in 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.359 my high school house and it was a We had 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.400 a gas fireplace. Yeah it was fine, but I was like, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.320 this is not wood. All right, Well let's take a 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:40.560 break in. Um, we'll talk about would after this. So 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.560 we're back, Chuck, and we're going to talk This would 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.160 not be an apt episode if we didn't talk about 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.200 basically the physics of how a fireplace works, because there 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.720 are some physics involved, pretty impressive ones if you ask me. Yeah, 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.479 I love this article said lighting a fire inside your 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.960 living room and it kind of hits home, Like how 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.120 kind of crazy that is? And said there are two challenges, 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:08.800 one not setting your house on fire to keep the 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:13.000 smoke from entering the room. But yeah, I never really 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.720 thought about it. And everything we just talked about basically 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.960 was to prevent the first part catching your house on fire, 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.159 that's surround the hearth, all that stuff. But then if 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:24.440 you get a little more into the guts of the fireplace, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.640 that's to keep the smoke from filling up in the room. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:32.600 And when you when you look around your house, uh, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.360 you will find that there's a lot of different places 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.600 for air to get in. And that's actually quite necessary 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.280 for a fireplace. It's quite necessary for living and breathing. Sure, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.080 for breathing, it's important for that too, but to keep 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.720 a fire going and to keep the smoke from going 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.360 filling up your living room, which again you'll find out 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:53.840 very quickly if you don't have your your damper open, 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:59.320 which I had before. Um, if you if you have 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.880 air comeing into your house, then you can keep the air, 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.800 the smoke from the fire going up the way it's 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.959 supposed to. And and that happened simply because heat tends 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.320 to rise. Yeah you don't. You know. One of the 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.600 places I get a nice flow of air in my 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:22.120 house is from closed windows. Oh yeah, you got thin windows? Yeah, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.560 we have it. We've only redone a few of the windows. 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.840 That's on my like must do list is to get 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.360 all the windows replaced. But it ain't cheap. But you're 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.480 gonna earn that money back, you know. Over time with efficiencies. 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.000 But yeah, I have those old windows, Like it can 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:38.960 be fully shut and you can stand and your hair 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:42.680 will blow. Like, where's this coming from? It's going through 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.120 the glass. It feels like it's defying the laws of physics. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.840 It's freezing near my windows. Now I remember you mean 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.680 I had a house like that, knows I mean the wavy, 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.160 vaguely wavy kind of windows. Yeah, those were thin. It's 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.199 kind of neat though, to think that I'm living like 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.320 a settler basically. Yeah, in parts of my training your 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.159 own butter so, um, yeah, you want to talk about 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.960 the different kinds of heat. Yeah, so you've got conduction, convection, 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:20.560 and radiation, and fireplaces use convection and radiation but not conduction, 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.440 hopefully not conduction, no conduction mains. Your house is catching fire, 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:28.760 I means you're literally touching something hot, correct, Yeah, But confection, 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.040 of course, it's when that hot air circulating to cooler 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.400 areas of your home in this gate, and the radiation 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:40.080 is just literally feeling that flame warmth. Yeah, it's a 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.160 In the case of the fireplace, it's infrared and visible light, 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:49.120 electro magnetic radiation. Basically, there is actually some radio waves 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.000 in some microwaves produced by a fire, which is kind 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.879 of cool. But for the most part, you're feeling infrared 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:01.160 radiation and you're seeing visible light radiation. Right, So when 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.120 you're when you're warming yourself by a fire, you're you're 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:09.119 being radiated. Thermal radiation is being admitted from the fireplace. 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.800 But there's also convection and can yeah big times right. 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.879 Convection actually makes up most of the way that heat 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.240 is um moved through a fire, And because you want 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.399 to keep the smoke out of your house, you're also 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:29.440 actually keeping those convection currents from going into your house 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.639 as well. Meaning as Ben Franklin pointing out, because remember 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:35.760 he was a huge complainer that most of the heat 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:39.480 from a fire is just purposefully being funneled out of 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:42.480 the house up through the flu in the chimney. I 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.800 think it drove him nuts a little bit looking through 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:47.119 some of these quotes, yeah, because he really spent a 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:48.760 lot of time like trying to figure out how to 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.439 make a fireplace better. You gotta understand though, too, like 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.600 when he was alive, these weren't just for like charm, No, 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.040 they were to like stay alive, and the idea that 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:02.080 you were wasting all is fuel. I think probably part 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.880 of it also is the inefficiency probably drove him nuts. Well, yeah, 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.880 i mean he's dead, right, Like, you've got so much 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.240 heat just going right up the chimney, and not only 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.680 that when you get that draft, because the fire needs 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.159 the oxygen, so that's another reason it's pulling this air in, 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:19.760 but it's also pulling in you've got your thermostat on 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.600 and your heat going, it's pulling some of that warmer 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:26.120 air in and up and out as well, right, and 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.680 even air that it's warming through convection, like that's that's 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:35.040 being irradiated out of the fireplace. It's being sucked in. 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.280 And as a result again that that when the air 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.160 is sucked into the fire and is pushed up the 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:44.920 flu through the chimney, it's got to be replaced. It's 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:51.040 creating what's called a negative pressurization, right, and that means 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:52.960 that air wants to come in and replace the air 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:55.760 that's being sucked out and up the chimney. So coal 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:58.480 they're from outside is being drawn in, which is how 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:02.959 like you said before, right, but the fire can actually 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:05.760 make your house even colder because it's pushing the warm 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:08.800 air out through the fireplace and sucking in cold there 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:13.440 from the outside. Yeah, and it's not um it says 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.520 here here's the stat that said that a traditional fireplace 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.560 can draw four to ten times as much air from 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:23.600 the room that it needs to actually burn that fire. Yeah, 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:28.480 something like five hundred cubic leaders of air a minute. Yeah. 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:32.879 So compare that to like the smart fireplace a k a. 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.560 The wood burning stove a the TV with the fire 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.679 burning on it. Right, I love a wood burning stove. Man, 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.360 those are great, do you. I've never really been into those. Yeah, 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:46.760 and I got no problems with them. It's not a 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:49.919 it doesn't It's not good for every home, aren't They 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:54.080 incredibly dangerous? Like they get super hot, right, they're really hot. 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:58.840