Finally, I understand
I've been researching how chimneys work and have found this excellent website which answers all my questions.
Why am I researching chimneys? We're planning to have a new house built and we're thinking through ideas for the design of it. I love the idea of a completely open fire, like this one:
Yes, that's Meduseld - the Golden Hall at Edoras, from the Lord of the Rings films. The hall just had a hole in the ceiling. It's design was based on the Viking halls and I'm wondering: did they fill with smoke, ever?
The site says:
I think we're going to build a prototype miniature version and see how it works.
Why am I researching chimneys? We're planning to have a new house built and we're thinking through ideas for the design of it. I love the idea of a completely open fire, like this one:
Yes, that's Meduseld - the Golden Hall at Edoras, from the Lord of the Rings films. The hall just had a hole in the ceiling. It's design was based on the Viking halls and I'm wondering: did they fill with smoke, ever?
The site says:
Warm air in the house will exit through the open windows. The entire house then becomes like a big chimney. As air flows out through the windows upstairs, air is drawn from downstairs to replace it. This is called the stack effect, since the house acts like a stack, or chimney.
I think we're going to build a prototype miniature version and see how it works.
posted by Gill at
4:19 PM
2 Comments:
oh, I'm liking Sometimes it's Practical!
Re the chimney and hole in the roof thingy ... I saw a programme recently that was talking extensively of the health hazards of the folks around the world who live with indoor cooking fires and holes in rooves for chimneys. I think they were talking about the desperate need for alternative cooking methods in other countries that are having industrialisation/modernisation stops put upon them in the name of the environment, whilst we burn it all over here. It was a green programme of sorts ... but I don't suppose that guarantees for one moment that they don't have some sort of agenda, or assumptions.
Oh I might try and google that Sally - it might be educational anyway. I think there would definitely be health hazards though if it didn't work properly and the smoke and fire fumes stayed in the room. This thing is going to have to be designed right, if we do it at all.
We're also thinking about getting one of those hose funnel things, which you can clip over a fire when you need to and fasten against the wall or somewhere when not. We could maybe try both systems, varying them according to what we need at the time. That would fit with the very flexible nature of the rest of the house.
I ought to blog more here! There's a lot going on ATM that could go here.
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