Coal fireplace

[phil]

coal didnt go out of style, It is stll used a lot in industry, like in making steel and for power generation. we ship 29 million tonnes per year from Roberts bank coal terminal.
If you ask someone involved in the art of blacksmithing they would know where to go to buy it.

my fireplace was built out. I have no idea if it was intended for coal but they put another row of bricks on the front to extend it and make the firebox deeper.

some of those old inserts dont have a chimney , as at one time it was permissible to burn natural gas without a vent , which of course is very unhealthy. I saw one old house and was taken aback by the beautiful old gas fireplace but the inspector said "yes- it might work. but you can't use that."

[JacquieJet]

Thanks everyone for all the information! I will pass it all along!
Her fireplaces are so gorgeous.

[1918ColonialRevival]

some of those old inserts dont have a chimney , as at one time it was permissible to burn natural gas without a vent , which of course is very unhealthy. I saw one old house and was taken aback by the beautiful old gas fireplace but the inspector said "yes- it might work. but you can't use that."

Unvented gas heaters and fireplace inserts are still manufactured in the US and are still in pretty widespread use. A lot of gas wall stoves fall into this category. The theory behind them is that if you have clean combustion of natural gas, plus good ventilation of the space being heated, your only by-products should be CO2 and water vapor.

The danger comes in with the idea that was developed in the 1970s and that has proliferated since the 1980s that a house should be a hermetically sealed enclosure and not have any means of natural ventilation. If the oxygen levels get too low inside the enclosure, CO (not CO2) can start to form and lead to asphyxiation. If there is proper natural ventilation in the house and the unvented heater is kept in good repair, it does not pose a hazard.

[phil]

Yes, you can seal a house though but you still need to provide ventilation. in the new "net zero" houses , they pipe into each room and hook that ventilation into a heat exchanger, so that the outgoing air warms the incoming air or vice versa. to prevent heat or cool air loss. ( depending upon season)
Interesting about the natural gas. I was wondering if I need to install a vent, other than my hood fan, if I install a gas stove. I'm unsure of the code here.

now I'm done with that portion of the roof, since i had a lot of water into the fan housing it seems noisy. maybe got some water in the bearings. might be due to restriction.

I got a fan for my bathroom ceiling. its a 2 speed fan that goes in a 6 inch vent pipe. the funky air vent I got ahold of is 5 inch. the roof has a vent above now , so I planned to install it in the attic space. I need a switch.
I remember being in a house that had a humidity activated switch. my neighbor had one that had a timer control that could be programmed. the inspector was so sticky they made her replace the thing because the code requires it to be able to set to two different 2 hour time intervals.. seemed like crazyness because her switch was fine and not old or anything.

my girlfriend seems to like making rules. now I need to close the bathroom door so you can't see the toilet. Im not allowed to keep the window open either. I had often left the lights on and the door open and that provided some heat to dry it up , now I have little black mold specks on the ceiling. she runs around unplugging everything , yesterday I lost wifi because she unplugged the router , then didn't know and started mucking with the cable and got things more confused. several times she unplugged every single wire from the TV stereo etc and created a confusing situation. she unplugs the coffee pot every day because it has a LED lamp indicating it's plugged in.
I understand about saving power but it is getting a bit weird. sometimes better not to rock the boat.

i want to install a humidity activated switch so that if it is humid it runs and can't be turned off. I'm thinking of installing the sensor out of view. I'm almost the point of just removing the bloody bathroom door. Maybe it needs to become a perpetual paint removal project, I guess Im just venting now.