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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000) Personal Contingency Planning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lynn who wrote (628)	12/25/1998 4:34:00 PM
From: RagTimeBand	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 888

Hi Lynn >>You mention getting a "fireplace insert that gets the air that is needed for combustion from the outside instead of from inside the house." I have never heard of this before. Does this mean literally drilling a hole [or hole for insertion of device] from the fireplace to the outside?<< Yes it could. Some fireplaces have an ash trap that leads to the outside. In these cases I think it's sometimes possible to avoid drilling a hole to the outside. I'm still not clear on what's involved. Here's the URL of a web site that has Q&A's about this sort of thing. I did a 'contains' search in the "Text of Q and A" section on "fresh air" and came up with some interesting stuff. But I wasn't able to find exactly what I'm looking for. Below is one of the questions and answers that you might find interesting. The person writing the response stated that they're not an engineer. I'd like to see what the response would be from a fireplace engineer. Emory chi.hearth.com Text of Q and A --> contains fresh air Record#:307 Subject: Technical Questions about outside air Question:I am a thermodynamic engineer- but have no real life experience with open fire fireplaces. I would be very grateful if you could make your comment on the following; 1)a fresh air intake direct to the fire chamber increases drastically the heating efficiency- 2)"a minimum mean frontal inlet velocity of 0.24m/s- in conjunction with a chimney gas temperature of at least 165 to 280 k above ambient- should control smoking in a well-constructed conventional masonry fireplace." (from- 1996 ASHRAE Systems and Equipment Handbook) Does experience show that open fire fireplaces with direct fresh air intake have smoking problems? (since there is near zero frontal inlet velocity) If not- are there any special rules for the construction of open fireplaces with direct fresh air intake? thanks in advance Answer:I am not an engineer- but here is the real world experience of those involved with outside air. 1. It increases the efficiency because it does not use the house air for combustion- but the combustion efficiency is lowered because the outside air is usually cooler that the inside air - causing a cooler and dirtier fire 2. Smoking problem have not been common with outside air intakes. In fact- they have eliminated the smoking in many tightly built homes. 3. There are no special rules...pre fab fireplaces usually come with an optional outside air inlet- while most masonry fireplaces bring it up thru a grate below the fire or grate. It helps to have a method to close off the air when the fireplace is not in use. A good set of Glass doors and screen helps the installation become more efficient