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”.
In: Technology
You basically answered your own question. Old-style open-hearth fireplaces heat by thermal radiation. The air temperature may be cold as hell, but the fire can give off enough IR that anything with a line of sight of it will get warm. This includes people as well as objects in the room like the floor, walls, beds, etc.
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