[Cob] regarding fireplaces

[Amanda Peck]

True, for most of the fireplaces already built, and the guy on that site 
seems to think that if fireplaces CAN be done badly, then they're ALL done 
badly.  But people from at least Ken Kern on have recommended  that you run 
a good-sized pipe or pipes from the outside into your fireplace, the 
pictures and diagrams look look as though it is both sides of the fireplace 
so that your combustion air is outside air.  Kern designed a wood 
stove--semi-masonry--with this property, but it's probably easier with a 
fireplace.   the Rumford is very shallow, designed so that theoretically 
smoke, not smoke + room air goes up the chimney.

I remember being cold as a child in North Carolina the year our only heat 
was fireplaces and an oil burner that I think my parents were a bit afraid 
of flames in the room.   And later in Nashville in a mostly un-remodeled 
1850s row house where we burned coal.  And ran little electric heaters.

I don't think that the passionate defenders of fireplaces live in the higher 
reaches of the Canadian Rockies.  Connecticut probably.
.............

Bill wrote:
Please don't get me wrong. There is something neat about
a fireplace. I would have one for looks...  But in an area
that you MUST have high amounts of heat...
I would be very sorry if I tried to depend on a fireplace
alone.
I did a little research, and found this. Although it does not
go into the science behind why a fireplace isn't the way to
go for High Heat Output...
It is worth looking at....
http://www.consciouschoice.com/sensible/sensible1411b.html