I understand that with a traditional fireplace, most of the heat is lost through the chimney and you have to be very close to it to feel much heat. A wood stove or insert performs much better. However, I’m curious how people stayed warm enough in a house. It would seem that everywhere besides being near the fireplace would be freezing. I guess fireplaces were mostly meant to locally heat people near the fireplace, and not so much that the fireplace is a central heat source. That would explain why people often had a fireplace in every room. Just light the fireplace that you will be near for most of the time, etc. rather than heat the whole house. Just curious since you often hear “warm by the fireplace”.
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Well.. the thing about traditional fireplaces is that.. they aren’t exactly traditional.
Most fire places now are functionally irrelevant, and just decorative, but an actual fire inside a home was either an open fire, a woodstove (as you mentioned which is effective once those become a thing) or a giant open fire through the center of a building (think Vikings)
also when it comes to heating, most homes and places where people lived were smaller and built with nature in mind, rather than just slapping a house wherever.
“Beds” were elevated, hot rocks would be used, and people made sure to keep the cold air out as best as possible (which also was a huge fire safety hazard)
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