Category: Air Exchange

I built a large traditional open-hearth fireplace in THE HAYFIELD HOUSE. Unfortunately, it didn’t work! Following is my story of how I ‘fixed’ the problem. I built a house in 1990 with a large traditional open-hearth fireplace. That fireplace worked great, so I used that design to build a similar (but bigger) fireplace in THE HAYFIELD HOUSE. Unfortunately, my new fireplace didn’t work very well. Smoke tended to back-draft into the living area instead of rising up the chimney. What was worse is that if any exhaust fans were simultaneously working (kitchen fan, etc.), the entire house would fill with smoke. And of course, my smoke alarms were constantly being triggered. In short, the chimney wasn’t drawing well. –What I had failed to understand was...