1. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    What is this?

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Wreybies, Apr 4, 2016.

    Re-watching Fury and I noticed the green tiled thingie there in the room. I see similar things in many films from Europe, especially in older, period buildings. Is this a heater or a wood-burning stove? They are always tiled. Is there a reason for that? And I think they're always only almost to the ceiling (could be wrong on that part). This one has like a little mantle shelf and looks very decorative. Mostly when I see them they are just a solid column that's tiled.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Antique wash stands look something like that but the tile is usually just a flat backboard. That one looks too deep.
     
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  3. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I found it. :) It's a masonry heater. It's like a fireplace, and it's made of stone or firebrick and tiled, but it's a separate unit, not necessarily built into the structure of the house like a hearth or fireplace.

    I found a more modern example that still harkens back to the antique one in the original picture.

    [​IMG]

    Ones like this one, though, are what I more often see. Now it's pretty obvious to me what it is. I guess the fact that it didn't exit through the ceiling threw me off.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Antique ceramic stove heater looks to fit the bill.
     
  5. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Darn, ninja'd before I could post. :p
     
  6. Necronox

    Necronox Contributor Contributor

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    We have those in Switzerland, the tiles warm up when you have a fire inside, usually enough for you to lean on and warm yourself up, but not enough to cause burning. Some have special compartments built into them where you can store thing to keep warm, in switzerland, we put a kind of slippers inside so when you put them on they are nice and warm.

    Effectively, they are a fireplace, but their large amount of concrete and masonry means they keep warm for a lot longer, plus they radiate heat a lot better. Pretty much it's a heater, it heats the air and things...... not much more to say really, though as I said, some did, or do have compartments, some even have indentations (a bit like small holes in the ceramics) to put things in (like a cup of coffee) to keep warm.

    As as I said, they typically don't get warm enough to burn anything on the outside, though I would not put paper and candles over it. Some also have a series of various accessories so you can put thing on it for various purpose (like drying a wet rag) or what not.

    They principally heat through radiating heat (from it's surface) and not so much from an open fire. So, having more surface area on them is typically a good thing.

    But to answer the question, they are a typically wood burning heater. and the fire is periodical, since it typically takes over a full day for the stove to completely cool down, it is not necessary to keep a fire inside it all the time. Also, they are typically tiled because tiles keep temperature well and radiate heat well. but they keep cool enough so as not to burn the person touching it.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2016
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  7. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    I've never seen the green one in Finland, though it's likely there are some, and there are variations of it, I'm sure. The white one is quite common. My mom and her hubby live in an old country house, and one of those was used to warm up the second bedroom. They're cozy. :)
     
  8. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    I have a vague recollection of one of these living as a child in the Netherlands. I'll have to ask my mother if her parents has one. It would have been from their house I remember it.
     
  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    So, I guess my question becomes: where does the smoke exit? I'm going to guess that modern ones are probably gas, but the antique ones were clearly meant to burn wood, since I only really know fireplaces of the structural kind, as part of the building, and I know of the concern for proper exit of the smoke, the cleaning required to get the soot out because the soot itself can catch fire when there's enough of it, etc. Is there a flue maybe hidden behind the unit, exiting out the ceiling/roof?
     
  10. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    @Wreybies I think these are also built into the structure and generally have a chimney, though while a fireplace has a chimney above the fire, looking at the green ones above, the chimney must be a bit behind the structure. The smoke goes through a kind of maze-like structure, with the masonry taking heat out of the system as it flows. By the time the smoke goes up the flow the gases around it may not be that hot.
     
  11. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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  12. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Funny that the guy in the vid is in America, though he does mention that the heater is Finnish in origin. I've never seen this kind of thing in America, but I must also admit that save for a few years when I was very, very young, I have enjoyed the luxury of living in tropical or sub-tropical areas. Maybe Americans of more northerly climes are at least familiar with these. :)
     
  13. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    We (in Oregon) have a combination fireplace/woodstove that looks not entirely unlike the second one pictured. That is, that single door looks a bit like half of the double glass door of ours.

    The burning chamber, chimney, etc., are all inside the wall, surrounded by some sort of heavy insulating tile that keeps them from setting the place on fire. :) I assume that these are the same, except the tile is not only insulating but pretty, and so no wall is needed to hide it. For ours, there's insulating tile inside the wall and pretty tile outside the wall. The pretty tile doesn't really get hot.

    For ours, combustion air is sucked in from outdoors through some sort of duct, enters the burning chamber, and goes and up through the chimney--when it's in woodstove mode with the door shut, there's no exchange of combustion air with the house. House air then drifts past the exterior of the hot surfaces in chambers somehow designed into the stove--this all happens inside the wall--and enters the room to heat it. That air is sometimes accelerated by a fan if the stove is hot enough to call for that.

    This, and barbecue outside that can optionally use wood, and the half-cord or so of wood outside, and the solar cells, and the associated UPS with batteries that would be enough run our laptops and a couple of lightbulbs, give us the nice warm feeling that we're ready for the zombie apocalypse. Even though we don't actually use them (except for the solar cells) all that often. And we haven't stockpiled any food. Or water. So, really, we're kinda ready for two or three days of lost power in a a winter storm, which is the most realistic threat.

    (I do occasionally eye the garage walls and think about stockpiling corn and potatoes.)
     
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  14. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    I didn't know you were in Oregon. As an aside, I was pulling for the women of Oregon State to beat UConn yesterday.[/QUOTE]
     
  15. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    [/QUOTE]

    You were pulling while watching women's basketball? What a weird fetish. Though I must admit I did have something for Ruth Reilly when she played at Notre Dame.

    [​IMG]

    Now that is one BIG woman!

    Here is a selfie of me with her.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2016
  16. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I have given occasional thought to taking my house off-grid and making a solar panel farm out of one half of my upper deck and maybe install a wind-turbine. I wish I could say it's because I'm all "green" and stuff, but really it's because PR has a spectacularly crap infrastructure and brown-outs, black-outs, and sudden dips are extremely common.
     
  17. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    Have you seen those really ornate cast iron fire place mantels? I saw one on American Pickers once...they paid a forutne for it.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Nope. Not in cast iron. Plenty of them in wood came through the auction house as reclaimed decorator items, but never a metal one.
     
  19. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Yep. That's a big part of the reason for the solar cells and UPS. Sure, we told ourselves we were being green, but the two main reasons were (1) toys!!! and (2) lots of momentary blackouts in our town. It's reassuring to know that the more important electronics won't get snapped on and off when those happen. We just reset the time on the oven YET AGAIN and go merrily forward.
     
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