Selects: How Fireplaces Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hey guys it's Josh and for this week's. select I've chosen our warm and cozy. 2016 episode on fireplaces just in time. for Christmas I hope you have your wasle. handy or some eggnog or a nice glass of. water if that's what suits you and I'd. like you to settle in with a cozy. blanket and listen to this crackling. episode of stuff you should know happy. Holidays and Merry. Christmas welcome to stuff you should.

know a production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark with Charles W Chuck Bryant. and. Jerome the. JS so this is stuff you should know. Jerry got a piece of mail the other day. that said Jerome oh yeah yeah I think. like real male though right Jerry yeah I. don't know how that happened oh like. mail mail not like fan mail oh well.

Jerry just said. confirmed weird we've been doing a lot. of this Jerry translating lately yeah. that's really weird that's bizarre I. mean I sold your address to a mailing. list but I've never been reimbursed for. it so uh how how are you sir great we. are fresh off our live shows in Boston. Mass right Ma and uh Washington DC D and. uh big thanks everyone that came out.

those were a lot of fun yeah for sure. and thanks to uh the brightest young. things for having us to the Benson ball. with TIG nataro and all that it was. wonderful we got to meet TIG she was. just as nice and non- plused as I would. have hoped exactly she didn't make a. fuss no nor should she wait I mean that. in a good way wait isn't non plus the. opposite of what you think it means I. don't know I non plus means like you're. you're agitated means you're plused. yeah.

I'd learn things all the time on this. show yeah me too my favorite part of my. job and uh most specifically the most. recent thing I've learned Chuck is that. uh fire the use of fire the. technological application of. fire that's as far as I'm going actually. predates. Humanity that it was Homo erectus who. was the first um upright hominid who. controlled fire and it was as long go is.

a million years there's evidence of the. use the controlled use of Fire by humans. as as much as a million years ago yeah. it says here uh in this article that you. found that uh in China there are hearts. of clay MH silt and Limestone from like. a half a million years ago and uh you. know signs like you said in Africa over. a million years ago that people and. these are in caves so essentially an. indoor fireplace right yeah but.

and if you are an anthropologist you are. familiar with the term Hearth but that's. usually used to um. describe something that doesn't really. resemble the Hearth that we'll talk. about today usually like just a shallow. depression maybe it did have some. Limestone or some clay or something else. to to keep it from Catching Fire but. nothing like the fireplaces we know of. today the the ones we see and say. there's a fireplace they're actually. about 700ish years old yeah and I think.

um the history of the chimney isn't. super clear but by the 14th century in. of course Europe when you had little. dough you could then afford the nice. chimney or maybe just any chimney well. actually yeah people started to afford. chimneys quite a bit um there was a. there especially in say Jolly Old London. there was a lot of chimneys that sprung. up yeah they weren't happy about it. right a lot a lot of problems that arose. as we'll see later on yeah but yeah the.

um the it's kind of interesting to see. the fireplace hasn't really changed much. in like 700 years and then you step back. and you're like No actually that's kind. of evident when you think about the. fireplace and how ridiculously. inefficient it is yeah it's kind of. changed I don't know it depends what you. depends what your definition of changed. is a hole in the wall with a hole above. it that's tall and narrow and leads to. the outside yeah within that there have.

been a lot of changes sure sure but the. overall General design has has been. relatively unchanged for 700 years it's. like toilet paper yeah they're they're. not as straight as they used to be um. Ben Franklin was someone who did a lot. of complaining in life he did about when. you know he he was just the kind of. person who would look around the world. in in his everyday surroundings and say. why do people do it like this that's. stupid I've been Franklin there's better.

ways listen to me right take a peek. under my silken robe sure he very. famously wrote that on the back of the. Declaration of Independence uh but. fireplaces used to get under his skin. apparently because the design um and. we're going to talk about this the. traditional fireplace is fairly wasteful. oh tremendously so and it can even make. your room colder yes which is. counterintuitive yeah it's like non plus.

yeah I looked that up by the way so non. plus I'm I'm correct the non plus means. you're agitated well it means uh it it. means that you are surprised and. Confused to the point that you are. unsure how to react so not necessarily. agitated okay gotcha just um but you're. definitely not just like laidback no so. tigara was not non plus she was not. confused on how to react she reacted the. exact way which was hi nice to meet you. yeah hey how's it going yeah she's just.

chill right and very sweet yeah I didn't. expect like some Big Show trust me for. anybody that meets us well no so I just. want to put that out there I would want. to sound like I was disappointed she. didn't like throw those snap crackers. and start tap dancing no I got exactly. what I wanted which was a very nice lady. who gave me a big hug in a photo I think. that's come across yeah yeah I just I'm. sensitive to that stuff once I start. opening my mouth digging that hole yeah.

yeah you know what I mean here's a. little more. rope anyway. um let let me give you a stat here wait. first I think everyone wants to hear. about how you felt when you met TIG Naro. I was super excited can you tell how was. she uh so here's a little stat for you. the National Association of home. builders uh did a survey MH and I guess. this is recent it doesn't name the year. here but um it sounds recent people.

still want their fireplaces to the tune. of. 77% of home buyers say and that's I. guess in the US yeah like even in and I. mean that's accounting for the hot. places as well sure you know so I would. imagine in the cold places it's probably. more like 100% yeah well remember I. don't remember what episode it was but. we talked about how in New York it's. very go these days to to have a. fireplace that you use cuz it's so. wasteful now does go mean what I think.

it means now I'm doubting everything it. means super laidback and non. plused oh so like New Yorkers like oh. you have a fireplace yes how not green. right which I mean they're correct. there's a lot of UNG greenness. associated with fireplaces brownness. sure you know especially as far as like. air pollution goes air quality um. there's a lot of problems sure there's a. lot of problems that come out of it like. for example uh I guess if we're going to.

talk about this for a second if you are. a kid and you have um I don't know. respiratory diseases yeah you're far. likelier to be living in a house where. your folks burn wood so if you're a kid. or an elderly person respiratory. distress can be uh brought on because. Smoke's going to get in the room no. matter how great the fireplace is right. or if you're let's say if you already. have asthma or something you're not. doing yourself any favors right by. letting that smoke and the particles.

particulate matter creep in there yeah. and also I mean like house fires there's. like 25,000 house fires in the United. States every year that result in like 10. people's deaths yeah from directly from. fireplaces yeah yeah but no matter who. you talk to for the most part they. people say still worth it like yeah I'm. going to die of like black lung and my. house may burn down before I get a. chance to but I really love fire in the. winter and I'm will I'm willing to take.

that risk so you know my deal or do you. I don't know uh we live in a house that. was built in 1935 oh yeah yeah and we're. renovating it still forever yes and we. have the fire place right that is not. used I know and it's not able to be used. I know uh unless we pay like some pretty. good dough to get it retrofitted in the. chimney worked on and I for years.

have been leaving just little sticky. notes and I'll write it in crayon on the. bathroom wall and just little things. like hey M how about that fireplace mhm. and she says quit riding on the walls. right uh we're not getting a fireplace. just yet but maybe we've been there for. like 10 years when is when does our life. when do we start living our life is my. question with a with a fireplace have. you considered trading something she. wants for the fireplace it doesn't work.

like that in there okay have you. considered. begging that doesn't work either oh wow. I I don't know what to tell you well I. mean you know what I do I wait till she. goes out of town and I and then then do. it yourself but do it in a terrible way. so that somebody a professional has to. come in and go behind you yeah and then. they have no choice you're like I got to. get the fireplace guy in here now. there's a giant hole in the wall uh it. long story short though we still don't. have a fireplace and I'm still despite. all the negatives and I try to Green. life but I just I want that wood burning.

thing I don't want we'll talk about the. substitutes but and that's great if. you're into that cuz they are better in. many many ways sure but I just love that. wood crackle the smell yeah I want that. particulate mattering my lungs you and. 77% of us homeowners yeah um so yeah. most people do say I'm willing to look. past the problems for a wood burning. fireplace but like you say there are. there are there's Al Alternatives that's.

right but we're going to talk about all. of it here should we talk about the. parts yeah let's talk about this is this. is when I say like there's very little. change to the design over 700 years ago. it's true man yeah I didn't realize some. of these parts existed so um I I did. learn quite a bit in this I thought it. was pretty much the Firebox and the flu. that ran up the chimney sure and that's. it right but there's more to it than. that there well yeah these I think these. are the improvements that came over over. time so you do have that Hearth that you.

mentioned uh that's going to be built. out of something fireproof you don't. want a wood. Hearth that'd be bad it's probably rock. or brick and that's where mâché. yeah that's where you sit and drink your. bourbon while you uh warm your back it's. like an apron on the floor that extends. out from the fireplace yeah and it can. be even with the floor as is the case. now or the one I grew up with I grew up. with one of those Mac Daddy huge Rock.

Stone fireplaces those ones are like man. and you could sit on the thing they're. the best they are the best but they're. also like just kid killers they look. like you know well not if you don't. climb in it oh okay which I never did. yeah that is pretty nice what else you. got the well so you know like the Hearth. extends out but if you look usually up. the walls along either side of the hole. in the wall and then above above it um. that's called the surround it's usually.

made of something either that's the same. as the Hearth same material as the. Hearth or some other fireproof thing. like tile or brick or stone right and. that's just to basically prevent that. fire from licking out of the Firebox MH. and setting the house on fire right so. straw no good no as a material right uh. you have your Firebox that is just what. you think it is that's the square. typically although they're shaped a. little differently now um that's a. square that holds your fire right and.

it's where the smoke starts to collect. yes um what you're sending the stuff up. to behind behind the uh Firebox is. actually called The Smoke chamber and. there's a there's a transition area in. between the fire box which is where you. actually have the fire and the smoke. chamber which is above and slightly. behind it and there's it's called the. throat it's the opening that that. connects those two things yeah and the. the smoke chamber Smoke Box I think I've.

been calling it it actually connects the. Firebox to the flu and it's got some. pretty cool stuff going on this is like. where where some improvements were made. to the design yeah and the flu is. surrounded by the chimney also again not. straw right uh it's going to be brick. almost always in the back rear of the. smoke chamber there's a smoke shelf yeah. it's concave yeah because if you if you. look at a fireplace you just just think. it just goes straight back and up right.

well some of the old designs did well. they they were stupid yeah that's why. how it's changed some right so if you go. if you look at the back of the fireplace. if you could stick your head up into the. Firebox you don't want to do that by. when there's no fire you don't want to. do it period you'll see that there's. actually a shelf up there and it's. angled forward too in front of that like. like I said it used to be just sort of a. cube and it went straight up now it sort. of zigzags yeah uh back and forth a. little bit. way to the flu that's right so the whole.

point of that shelf and the zigzag is so. that um when rain comes in it doesn't. get into the fire yeah it's almost. basically a protective overhang and um. it also keeps uh particulates like soot. and stuff from falling into the Firebox. too. correct uh that smoke shelf underneath. it you're going to have the damper and. and that is that covering that's uh it's. movable and that separates the Firebox. from the place above it and and that. keeps that's you know when you don't.

have your fire that's when you close we. used to say close the flu right uh and. we didn't use the word damper in my. house yeah I don't know why but that's. technically what it is it's the damper. and you get your they're different. mechanisms but ours had a little uh. little uh eyelet circle thing that you. would stick uh we we used our fire poker. and we would just unhook it and then uh. close the damper and that when your fire. is not burning you want to keep that. thing open when it's burn obviously well. yeah you're going to find out really.

quickly yeah if it's closed it's like an. epig glotus for the fireplace sure you. know well it's got a throat why not sure. what else do we have um sometimes. there's a chimney damper at the very top. of the the flu yeah I had heard of this. they could close too it's unnecessary oh. you think sure all right but then uh at. the very top of the chimney there's. something called a spark arrester which. is usually like some sort of mesh grate. that will allow like gas and and air out.

but we keep um little Embers and stuff. from going out onto your roof and. setting your house on fire yeah. especially like paper tends to float up. sure and out uh the Chimney Cap can. serves the same purpose and that a lot. of times. is one and the same like the The Chimney. Cap and the spark arrest Are All One. Piece a lot lot of times right is that. it I haven't heard of this ash dump that. sounds pretty neat though sure it's. basically I guess a hatch in the floor. right where you can just sweep the ashes.

I guess that sounds like in the olden. days right uh when your house was built. on you know to bricks and it would just. drop into a bucket below as would your. poop sure there were different buckets. under your house right that collected. things you wanted to make sure you knew. which bucket you were grabbing at any. given time that's right you didn't want. a surprise uh and then finally got your. little door uh it's either you know. glass or metal or it might just be a. screen we never had in mind growing. growing up we never had the the glass.

door scene sure just the screen we had. one of those in the in my high school. house and it was a we had a gas. fireplace yeah it was fine sure but I. was like this is not. wood all right well let's take a break. and um we'll talk about wood after. this. [Music].

so we're back. Chuck and we're going to talk this would. not be a an apt episode if we didn't. talk about basically the physics of how. a fireplace works yeah cuz there are. some Physics involved yeah pretty. impressive ones if you ask me yeah I. love this article said uh lighting a.

fire inside your living room and it kind. of hits home of like how kind of crazy. that is right and said there are two. challenges one not setting your house on. fire two keep the smoke from entering. the room. yeah but yeah never really thought about. it and everything we just talked about. basically was to prevent the first part. catching your house on fire the surround. the Hearth all that stuff yeah but then. if you get a little more into the guts. of the fireplace that's to keep the. smoke from filling up in the room. and when you when you look around your.

house uh you will find that there's a. lot of different places for air to get. in and that's actually quite necessary. for a fireplace it's quite necessary for. living and breathing sure for breathing. it's important for that too but to to. keep a fire going and to keep the smoke. from going filling up your living room. which again you'll find out very quickly. if you don't have your your damper open. which I have before sure um. if you if you have air coming into your.

house then you can keep the air the. smoke from the fire going up the way. it's supposed to and and that happens. simply because heat tends to rise yeah. you you know uh one of the places I get. a nice flow of air in my house is from. uh closed. windows oh yeah you get thin Windows. yeah we have it we've only redone a few. of the windows that's on my like must do. is to get all the windows replaced but.

it ain't cheap no but you're going to. earn that money back you know over time. with efficiencies but yeah I have those. old windows like you it can be fully. shut and you can stand and your hair. will blow right and I'm like where's. this coming from it's it going through. the glass yeah it feels like it's. defying the laws of physics and it's. freezing near my windows now I remember. you me and I had a house like that and. it was I mean the wavy vaguely wavy kind. of Windows yeah those were thin it's. kind of neat though to think that in.

2016 I'm living like a settler basically. yeah in parts of my home tring your own. butter so um yeah you want to talk about. uh the different kinds of. heat yeah so you've got conduction. convection and radiation and. fireplaces. use convection and radiation but not. conduction hopefully not conduction no. conduction means your house is Catching. Fire that means you're literally. touching something hot correct yeah yeah. uh but convection of course is when that.

hot air is circulating to cooler areas. of your home in this case and the. radiation is just literally feeling that. flame warmth yeah it's uh in the case of. the fireplace it's infrared invisible. light electromagnetic radiation. basically there is actually some radio. waves and some microwaves produced by a. fire which is kind of cool yeah but for. the most part you're feeling infrared uh. radiation and you're seeing visible. light radiation right yes so when you're.

when you're warming Yourself by a fire. you're you're being radiated thermal. radiation is being emitted from the. fireplace but there's also convection. yeah big time and con yeah big times. right convection actually makes up most. of the way that heat is um moved through. a fire yeah and because you want to keep. the smoke out of your house you're also. actually keeping those convection. currents from going into your house as.

well yeah meaning as Ben Franklin. pointed out because remember he was a. huge complainer yeah that most of the. heat from a fire is just purposefully. being funneled out of the house up. through the flu in the chimney I think. it drove him nuts a little bit looking. through some of these quotes yeah cuz he. really spent a lot of time like trying. to figure out how to make a fireplace. better he got to understand though too. like at at when he was alive these. weren't just for like charm no no they. were to like stay alive yeah and the. idea that you were wasting all this fuel.

I think probably part of it also was the. inefficiency probably drove him nuts. well yeah I mean he's dead right like. you've got so much heat just going right. up the chimney and not only that when. you get that draft because the fire. needs the oxygen right so that's another. the reason it's pulling this air in but. it's also pulling in you've got your. thermostat on and your heat going sure. it's pulling some of that warmer air in. and up and out as well right and even. that it's warming through convection.

uhhuh like that's that's being. irradiated out of the fireplace yeah. it's being sucked in and as a result. again that the when that air is sucked. into the fire and is pushed up the flu. through the chimney it's got to be. replaced it's creating what's called a. uh negative pressurization right yes and. that means that air wants to come in and. replace the air that's being sucked out. and up the chimney so cold air from. outside is being drawn in which is how. like you said before window right but.

the the fire can actually make your. house even colder cuz it's pushing the. warm air out through the fireplace and. sucking in cold air from the outside. yeah and it's not. um it says here here's a stat that said. that uh a traditional. fireplace can draw four to 10 times as. much air from the room that it needs to. actually burn that fire yeah something. like 500 cubic lers of air a minute yeah. so compare that to like the the the.

smart fireplace aka the wood burning. stove aka the TV with the fire burning. on it. right uh I love a wood burning stove man. those are great D I've never really been. into those yeah I mean I got no problems. with them it's not a it doesn't it's not. good for every home aren't they. incredibly dangerous like they get super. hot right they're really hot so like if. you fell onto one or something you'd be. in big trouble right yeah you you don't.

put uh the skateboard next to it or the. banana peel okay step one but um and you. know you're not going to have like a. super modern house with a wood burning. stove like it's a little more Charming. in your cabin or something actually I. was looking through I think a Popular. Mechanics or something it had different. types of of of stoves stoves and there. are some that are kind of mod oh well. that's cool yeah so they're trying to. bring it into the future yes well. they're remarkably efficient um I how.

much did you say 500 500 cubic lers I. believe of air a minute is sucked into a. fireplace an average fireplace and only. 20 for a wood burning stove yeah that's. pretty efficient so they're super hot. you can you can cook on them too you can. boil your water and do all sorts of. things you know don't touch it no I. think the Randazzo had one in their uh. place in Connecticut oh yeah yeah I. think it supposedly Works super well. sure like it'll it'll heat a room and.

then some yeah you know well and the. reason why is because it's it's like a a. contained fireplace but it's not just. you know wide. open it's out in the open yeah yeah but. I mean you shut the door to it right you. shut the door to it so you're saving uh. the warm air around it from being sucked. in right correct and then it's also. remove from the interior of the wall so. that it can heat on all sides yeah it's. right out there so you can fall on it. sure and then the flu itself can go up.

and then out of the room so that the the. hot gas that's being carried out can. heat the air in the room around it uh so. you've got that stove pipe yeah you've. got a lot of uh a lot of different ways. the air is being warmed in your house by. a wood stove yeah I'm going to look into. these new ones there's new ones there's. also like uh very there's some famous. ones that are like mid-century design. that are super mod um Swedish ones uh. and then there's like there's ones that.

look kind of like the traditional ones. but they're they're newly built and like. they're improved designs remember the. old uh 7s fireplaces that. were uh like. orange um metal that would sit room. that's the Swedish one I'm talking about. oh really it's based on that old old 70s. look no that's the one I'm talking about. is the' 70s one oh okay yeah there's. newer ones too gotcha but that the. iconic Orange one yeah that's yeah yeah. like my friend uh one friend in high.

school Chris uh. botin had the most 7s house is that. right oh dude it was wonderful yeah like. it was the orange fireplace surround. like built in a terrarium set type of. deal with plants and rocks and things I. think there might have been a little. fake waterfall was there mac oh I'm sure. there was Mac at some point but it was. just it had one of those uh sunken. living rooms oh I like those you know. yeah and looking back now like it's a.

super cool like mod house like people. now would be like oh my God it's. preserved in time it's the greatest. thing ever right like his hit a water. bed of course but um one of his walls. his entire wall was like a blown up. photograph of like a Hawaiian sunset oh. we had a couple of those in our in our. house not not a Hawaiian sunset but we. had like a forest with a a waterfall. going through it and then in our kitchen. a forest mural yeah no no water that's. very ice.

storm uh yeah I've not seen that movie. but I I can imagine that was 70s right. said in the 70s yeah I mean like key. parties are happening and uh people are. drinking eggnog around the the orange. lacquer. fireplace it's a wonderful time but. let's say you have just the regular. regular old fireplace to start yeah. right traditional you want you come. across it you say what what the heck is. this thing what do I do. well the first thing you do is you log. on to the internet and go to house stuff.

works and look up how to operate a. fireplace cuz house stuff works has you. covered man yeah I mean the only thing I. could say this would probably be good. for is if you've never literally never. started a fire but it seems like. common knowledge to. me yeah there's some details in there. that I don't know like Hardwoods right. you don't want to burn pine or any soft. wood okay you want your Hardwood like. Hickory Ash Oak that kind of stuff and.

you want it seasoned that's the key yeah. you you can't go cut down a tree in your. yard and chop it up and burn it the next. week it's not going to work cuz it will. smoke and you'll see literally I mean. when I go camping we get rooked all the. time on firewood purchases oh yeah and. we sit down for the evening throw the. wood on there and you just start hearing. the sizzle yeah and you see the water. just literally boiling out of it right. and we're just like oh man well okay.

that roadside guy I'm going to go back. here's how here's how you tell you got. to test it right there in front of the. guy and watch him squirm take two logs. yeah and you knock them together and. what you're looking for is a hollow. sound no thud Hollow. sound then you know it's seasoned yeah. but he would go like city boy that you. know this is North Georgia lob Pine you. don't know what you're talking about. you'd say well Pine's a soft I want hard. woods where's the hardwoods I went to.

college get off my property and leave. the boiled peanuts right you'd say I'm. going to take half of the boiled peanuts. for my. time yeah I feel like we always get wet. wood but um at least 6 months you want. that wood drying out uh they say a full. year what you're looking for is 20%. moisture level by the time you're. burning it right you could also put in a. moisture level temperature or moisture. indicator in the end yeah there you go. did you buy the the big city but you're. right you uh you look at the ends of the.

the wood too and you'll see that it's. cracked and split it's usually dark like. gray it just looked looks aged but the. the the dead giveaway is the hollow thud. sound yeah I'm GNA I didn't know that so. I'm going to try that the hollow thud or. the I'm sorry the hollow sound not the. thud right yeah that's what you're. looking for so you take your fire or you. take your wood you put it on your fire. grate although so this is a a component. of the fireplace it's not an actual like. part of it right the fire grate is like.

this iron stand it's a. grate there's really no other way to. describe it although some fire efficient. Autos suggest that you should use what. are called and irons yeah I like grates. which are well an andiron is basically a. great missing the great part in the. middle it's basically these two stands a. pair of stands that go in the fireplace. and it holds the logs a loft yes until. they burn through the great does the. same thing except um it it keeps burning. like Embers on the grade a little more.

the reason why people are like and irons. or gray is because however you have it a. grate or an and iron you want to keep a. bed of Embers going yeah cuz that is. going to eventually become hot enough. that you could throw anything on there. and it'll start to catch fire yeah um so. when you when you take your split logs. you put them on your grate or your and. irons put a little kindling beneath them. which is like thinner wood that'll catch. fire easily yeah light it on fire oh I. forgot first you want to pour about a.

half a liter of kerosene on this to make. sure that it it starts you do not oh oh. did I missp speak that is just a joke. kids you don't ever want to use any sort. of lighter fluid gas or anything like. that to start an indoor fire kids you. should not be starting a fire in the. first place so stop right now yes this. is for grown-ups that's right but you do. want to use something like I don't know. newspaper just a piece of paper to light. the kindling but no you don't want to. use any sort of accelerant well people.

don't get newspapers anymore so you can. just uh light your Kindle or your iPad. right throw that in there sure instead. it'll it'll start but that kindling is. going to catch and if your wood is. seasoned it'll catch two and then all of. a sudden you got a fire yeah you may. want to adjust that damper a little bit. to keep your air flow how you want it. right um and the and again when you are. when you're when you have a fire going. one of the two main things you're trying. to do in addition to not burn down your.

house is to keep the smoke from coming. back in the room and sometimes that's. easier said than done because every. house has something called a neutral. pressure plane okay so above above the. neutral pressure plane the air is uh. pressurized so it wants to push air out. and below it air is the the pressure. inside the house is lower so air wants. to be sucked in so as long as as your uh. your fireplace your chimney is above.

that neutral pressure plane you're going. to be okay the Air's going to want to go. in um if it so happens that the air. around your fireplace is a higher. pressure then the the air is actually. going to be pushed down the chimney into. the Firebox and out into the room which. is no good but you can solve it pretty. easily by just opening a window and. allowing air to come in or go out. depending or have a n year old windows. right where you don't have to worry. about it at all because the air just.

flows through freely so uh if you want. to you know we're talking about how. inefficient they are if you want to. improve that efficiency there are a. couple of cool things you can do uh one. is called a tubular grate and that is. exactly what you think it is instead of. just a great um made of solid iron at. the bottom it is a bit of a. cage uh it looks like sort of like the. motorcycle uh exhaust pipes and things. yeah so um you know it's just they're. tubular so it's going to draw in the.

cool air in the bottom of the tubes and. then it's going to rise and then loop. back around and shoot out the top of the. tubes into your room yeah which should. work in theory but remember if your. fireplace is working properly it's. sucking air from the room into to the. fire to fuel it and then shooting it out. the chimney so this air that's being. warmed could be sucked right back into. the fire that's right but if you have it. so that the the um the tubular grate is.

enclosed by some doors but the ends of. the great can go out into the the room. bam you're set oh is that a thing yeah. oh I haven't seen that uh there's. another thing called a uh well this is. what when um Emily's parents have moved. to Georgia now but when they lived in. Ohio they had one of these. recirculators that was a fan basically. you would turn on a switch and it would. literally. blow uh heat from kind of underneath the.

the grate back out into the room and it. worked really well but it always seemed. to. blow little stink out with it stink you. know fire stink oh okay yeah I mean you. couldn't see smoke pouring out of it or. anything but it it was still affecting. your respiratory well I mean it didn't. affect me so much but I could tell what. it was happening like every recirculator. I've ever seen or been around has kind. of had the same deal to me yeah whether.

it's gas uh only or whatever it always. just seems to have this or but you know. I'm very sensitive to odors M anyway so. maybe that has something to do with it I. don't know maybe I'm a super smeller are. you super smeller what do you smell. right. now I smell uh null like three three. rooms over wow you are a super. smeller cuz we are hermetically sealed. in here not true uh and then those glass. doors you talked about is another way to. increase efficiency but you're also.

going to literally just cut down on the. heat that gets into the room as much as. 50% yeah there's not a lot that you can. do to have a dramatic impact on the. efficiency of the fire for the most part. it's going to lose more heat than it. puts. out you just want to hope that you're. you can warm your the room you're in. with the fire enough so that you don't. mind yeah or if you're just after the.

aesthetic then yeah good for you Yi and. I lived in a place where we had a. fireplace for a couple of years we were. hooked on it hooked on it gu yeah oh. yeah and we we could get that that room. like hot yeah yeah you know toasty if. you keep fire going long enough that's. the key you just have to waste more wood. than you can imagine all right well. we'll take another little quickie break. here and we'll uh come back and talk. about about some more options and a very.

depressing history of child labor. [Music]. mhm all right Josh we've been talking. about wood a lot because that's clearly.

the superior fireplace. seriously uh but you can uh you can get. the old gas fake log fireplace these. days mhm my mom made the switch fake. logs look pretty good these days so wait. a minute wait a minute she had a a wood. burning fireplace and had a gas insert. put in yes wow okay so cuz she had a. like I had growing up to the gas starter. uhhuh um so you would light the gas. throw the wood on get it going turn the.

gas off gotcha so she just retrofitted. it um actually I did it my brother uh. into full gas with the fake logs nice. that um they they look good these days. you know you can arrange them in. yourself in a way that looks. aesthetically pleasing right they don't. come in that mound that shaped to look. like three logs laying on top of each. other no that it's come a long way I'll. say that don't they have bed of Embers. now too and all that that kind of catch. the little flickery glow yep what is it.

they've come a long way with trying to. simulate that look pika pika pika I. don't know what that is uh it's like the. the Japanese word for that like the. little tinkling glow oh I don't know I'm. saying it wrong but it's a throwback I. said it wrong on some other episode. years back oh you talking about pry. pretty no. paaaa yeah but that's something. different. yeah I'll have to go back and find it. maybe we'll just edit this whole part.

out uh so the gas logs um covering the. gas vent uh you're going to burn that. fire behind glass it's going to give off. radiant and convected heat you're. probably going to have a uh air um not. recycler what do I call it exchanger air. exchanger there working as well yeah and. one of the reasons it's so much more. efficient is because it doesn't require. any air from inside your room yeah it it. draws air through a pipe from the. outdoors cuz it requires much less right.

yeah um so it's not going to take any of. that warmed air that it's warming for. itself to to burn it's just going to say. you keep it I'm gas I'm super efficient. I love you in ways that wood could never. imagine yeah that's true wood is dirty. and and bumbling and why do you love. wood so much more than me I'm gas. [Music]. so if you're getting a new.

house you're probably going to have a. gas fireplace if you're getting a. fireplace added to a home it's probably. going to be a gas fireplace sure that's. the direction they're steering you these. days yeah oh yeah I would guess because. gas I would guess you're you're going to. pay significantly more for a wood. burning fireplace to be built into your. new house than a gas one you think yeah. probably just because so I'll bet. there's uh relatively few especially. down below the Mason Dixon line.

relatively few Builders who know how to. put in a wood burning fireplace yeah you. got to find a builder from 1973. basically yeah and he's going to want to. give you one of those orange modern jobs. that you're like yeah this is cool but. no I I want like the real thing yeah. he's like this is. real so they're very efficient these gas. fireplaces sure uh the gas Burns cleanly. uh they even have them that are ventfree. um but people also say you know what if.

your house is not like Chucks and it is. actually pretty tight as call it and. sealed up yeah then uh they can actually. deplete oxygen or moisture can build up. so the jury's still out somewhat on. these gas fireplace I say the jury is in. oh yeah and I'm the jury and I say a. ventfree fireplace is a stupid idea it's. pumping carbon dioxide into your house. yeah that's not a that's never good you. would think yeah you can get an ethanol.

fireplace this one seems like okay. you've seen them before right like if. you go to a Marriott Courtyard or. something like that yeah they'll have. like the chair situated around a table. with a fireplace in the middle of the. table uhuh it's nuts but it's just. burning ethanol the flame is actually. cold it's basically like yeah right it's. basically like a Sterno fireplace yeah. you know you want to light your fondue. pod or something like like that from. beneath yeah it's the same thing I think. yeah virtually uh and then you can get.

the uh woe unto you if you opt for the. electric fireplace well there's some now. where you can get like an entertainment. center yeah with like a TV and then. beneath it a fake electric fireplace. yeah it's cool so an electric fireplace. is has no. fire um it is a heater and it. you know it simulates the look of a fire.

if you're four years old and squinting. and if you're squinty four year old. right uh but you know we don't want to. yuck someone's yum so if that's your bag. then more power to you it's just not for. me I have to take issue though with this. article it says that it's emission free. it's emission free on the user end right. still electricity which means it's. producing emissions at the coal fire. power plant that's producing that. electricity yeah is fooled if you're. like oh it's a mission free no no we're.

going to yuck that. yum uh safety. wise got to watch out for those Sparks. if you got carpet around or Hardwoods I. reckon yeah keep your bag of oily Rags. away from the fireplace yeah a big one. don't put you might want a fire. extinguisher but don't put it in the. fireplace right itself uh carbon. monoxide in investing in a carbon. monoxide detector is wor worthwh it. doesn't have to be like a smart carbon. monoxide detector although get one of.

those if you want I'm just saying if you. using a wood burning fireplace at the. very least get yourself a cheap but. decent carbon monoxide detector yeah get. smoke detector is not quite enough yeah. I think I think you have to have those. Now isn't that the new code I don't know. I haven't read the zoning codes in a. while building codes uh you should take. a look this is one of those kind of once. a year things uh if you know what you're. doing. you can at least get a flashlight and. kind of look everything over and see if.

there's anything obvious like if your. fluk cap is no longer on your chimney. hurricane hit yeah if they're big uh. cracks or anything what so what's wrong. with yours cracks like your house would. catch on fire all I know is the guy did. a lot of. like uh maybe he just wasn't feeling it. that day no he he didn't put on a good. show um he he came over because he is in. their specialty is old houses and old.

fireplaces okay so I thought this guy's. going to be like oh great this is what I. do yeah he acted like he didn't want to. do the job right but that's like it's a. lot of work man you're going to have to. fix your chimney on the inside and it's. cracked here and you got this and you. got that I was like yeah it's that's. what you advertise is you fix old. situations right have you you should. bring somebody else out yeah I didn't. like that guy. yeah I'm going to bring out someone with. some little Moxy but you do even if you.

think that your fireplace is doing great. it it it pays to pay somebody to come. out and look at it inside like is it too. much to ask for a little energy from. your fireplace guy a little wow factor. maybe uh yes you're correct you do need. a pro every now and then to come out and. they're called chimney sweeps yeah and. uh creosote is something if you look up. creosote see or e o s o t e online uh it. sort of looks like black lava built up.

on the inside of your chimney right and. it itself could catch fire yeah and you. have a chimney fire in which case and it. sounds a little counterintuitive like. well there's fire going through it all. the time fire going through it is much. different from fire like your chimney. being on fire itself yeah that's no good. and uh if your chimney's on fire your. house can catch fire fairly easy. especially if you have cracks in there. because it goes and all of a sudden some. pressure treated 2x4 is like.

oh you don't want to burn that pressure. treated 2x4 by the way it's wood yeah I. don't think we mentioned that no uh one. thing you can burn though which I. wouldn't use but it's a called a chimney. sweep. log or a creosote. log and it's just a special log it's. sort of like a a Duraflame it's a prefab. log right it's a chemical log but it's. supposed to break down that creosote. yeah uh I just I don't know something.

about that made me my radar went off. like I don't know if that's the best way. to do things yeah don't have any proof. but I hear chemical log that knocks that. croso loose and it just didn't sound. like the smart approach well even the um. the chimney safety Institute of America. says no no like yeah this things kind of. work but you want like actual scrubbing. of the interior of your chimney yes. which is what chimney sweeps did yeah. and man if you want if you want Moxy in.

your chimney sweep you go to somebody's. parents and say I want to buy your. four-year-old boy and make him my. chimney sweep. slave yeah I mean earlier we teased and. promised the child labor um horror show. and that's pretty much what things were. like in Jolly Old England after. 1666 2nd. September to theth I'm sorry 5th. September technically yeah the uh Great. Fire of London changed a lot of things.

and one of them was chimneys were a. little bit narrow and they had a lot. more rules as far as how clean you had. to keep them and so like you said what. you would do is you would can't put an. adult up there no not really but you can. put a five-year-old boy or four I think. is the youngest I saw them doing yeah so. you would literally buy a child from a. poor person right stick this boy up in. there they were your quote unquote. Apprentice which uh basically was child.

slave unpaid child labor zero dollars. right and actually chimney sweeping at. the time so after the Great Fire of. London in. 1666 I believe it was mandated by the. queen or Parliament or somebody that. everybody needed their chimneys like. kept up with yeah so chimney sweeps. became a thing but they actually swept. chimneys free it was a free service the. way that chimney sweeps made their money. was from the soot that they gathered.

they would sell it as fertilizer Oh I. thought you going to say uh sponsorships. like they would show up like their Chevy. Tahoe jacket or something he's like. nothing gets your chimney clean like sun. of a gun by. STP so um they would stick these kids in. there sometimes they would literally. light a fire under their butt to make. them work faster yeah the kids would. shimmy and distort their body to sh. chimmy in this little 8 18in wide. chimney and uh chip loose.

this creot and soot that would then. because they're working above their head. it would fall all over them they would. take a. bath once a week maybe once every month. maybe once every two or three months. depending on who you're asking yeah so. these children are. literally not I mean if they survive. this experience at all they're not going. to live past middle age right so what. you just described was a good day yeah. there were all sorts of other uh.

horrible maladies that could come about. deformation of their skeletons because. these kids are like four 5 6 8 10 12. years old they're trying to grow they're. still developing but they're spending. like hours upon hours every day in these. cramped chimneys so their bones. especially the bones and their ankles. and knees tended to grow in a deformed. way unbelievable there's something the. first Industrial length cancer ever. identified is called chimney sweeps. cancer y other people call it scrotal.

carcinoma yeah where the the um scrotum. was irritated by soot and it would. produce warts and these warts if they. went untreated would turn into a. carcinoma which eventually if it was if. it wasn't cut out would um the tumor. would grow into the testes and then into. the abdomen and it was a very very. painful way to die kids like 12 years of. age were dying ofc scrotal cancer from. this yeah you uh get up pre- Dawn you.

work till the nighttime hours 364 days a. year uh the one day that these kids. would get off was uh Mayday uh. International Labor Day right uh they. would sleep then you know we said they. collected that Ash and foot and sold it. m they would store all the stuff in. sacks and the kids would then sleep in. those rooms right still ingesting all. this stuff in the air. uh and quite often they would literally. get stuck and die in these chimneys here.

here's the part where I start to. hyperventilate just thinking about this. oh from claustrophobia yeah there's like. this thing called positional asfixia. yeah there's actually a pretty. interesting Vice article called like a. brief history of people getting stuck in. chimneys and they actually illustrate. how positional asfixia happens using the. Grinch yeah as he's going down the. chimney his feet start to get above his. head M and all of a sudden he's stuck. you can't get out of that position this. would happen to real live English boys.

and American too apparently um who would. get stuck in the chimneys that they were. cleaning out and would die there because. they would asfixiate their their abdomen. couldn't couldn't take in breaths any. longer right um it happened a lot and. actually finally it happened enough. times that Parliament started to get. involved they first got involved in 1788. with the chimney s sweeps act and they. said you know what this is crazy yeah. you guys are buying four-year-old kids.

you can't do that chimney sweeps can be. no younger than eight yeah that was. their first stab at at at re at reform. right yeah and obviously this is child. labor was a lot different back then as. far as how we thought about when kids. should work right but or the idea of. childhood hadn't even come about yet. yeah but even so even for a time where. it was believed that children should put. forth an effort in work like for. 5-year-old kids it's just ridiculous. sure right they also added though that. if you are a master of a chimney sweep.

uh you have to make sure that they are. allowed to go to church on Sundays that. was the other part of the 1788 act right. yeah then in the 1840 act they up the. age to 21 which was significant but. apparently it wasn't really enforced. until. 1875 right when this this one kid died. and he was basically the the straw that. broke the camel's back for the public. yeah his name was George Brewster and he. worked uh for a a gentleman by the name. of William wire and I Say gentleman what.

I mean is a. scumbag uh and he was cleaning a. hospital chimney full born hospital and. he got stuck and great efforts were made. to rescue him they actually pulled down. a wall to try and get to him he died and. wire was actually found guilty of. manslaughter and his death was really a. big awareness uh jolt for everybody and. it became part of the campaign and um. that was pretty much the end of using. kids uh you know he was apparently the. last child to die in a chimney in.

England in England I guess in the US. they kept using them for a while so. shameful really is now if you see a. chimney sweep tell a four-year-old to go. up in the chimney you call police. because that is illegal these days no. matter where you live yeah okay let's. all agree to that agreed you got. anything else no fireplaces just in time. for the fall well yeah it's November. here in Atlanta and in the mid 80s so. right ready to get that fireplace going.

that's right uh if you want to know more. about fireplaces including how to light. a fire you can go find that out by. typing fireplace in the search bar at. house step forks and since I said search. bar it's time for listener. mail I'm going to call this grammar. police uh Hey guys regular listener for. quite some time I finally become angered. or inspired enough to write in about. something I use the sandwich technique. proposed by Chuck recently by the way. and I was listening to an older episode.

does a body replace itself and you guys. were talking about emails from the. grammar police uh grammar only has. strict rules to those who decided that. it needed strict rules as a society we. have a rather dramatic e and flow of. grammar rules there's no one entity. decide to decide upon the rules and. therefore there's no real right or wrong. you can almost consider it like uh a. fashion in a way we can all generally. agree that double negatives are wrong.

much like we can all agree that socks. and sandals are. wrong and yet some will still use them. or wear them without a problem as long. as we can understand each other and the. quote incorrect In quote grammar does. not take away from the meaning of your. words and it should not matter there are. different times in which proper grammar. is necessar and scrutinized and then. there are times when it frankly does not. matter uh there is a huge debate in the. grammar world uh the few but Mighty she. points out about whether we should be. prescriptivists or.

descriptivists when it comes to the. rules of grammar uh it's a constantly. evolving topic and arguably grammar is a. constantly evolving entity just thought. I'd share my thoughts and hopes that you. wouldn't get down on yourselves from the. grammar police and yes feel free to pick. apart my email for grammar errors nice. happy face that is from Colleen uh zaker. an English teacher and grammar. Enthusiast thanks a lot Colleen we. appreciate that big time we always love. to hear support from people who are like. don't listen to the haters yeah yeah uh.

if you want to get in touch with this. like Colleen Did is it Colleen sure uh. who cares actually I don't know goes. either way whatever yeah she said you. can call me whatever sure uh if you want. to uh get in touch with us like. cauliflower did you can tweet to us at. Sy ysk podcast you can join us on. facebook.com/ stuff you should know you. can send us an email to stuff podcast. house storks.com and as always join us. at our home on the web stuff should. know.com.

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