It just so happens that it is cold enough at the moment to warrant a proper fire burning all day. The cast iron burner was bought second hand about 20 years ago. It is not perfect by any means; one door was slightly warped in the casting so it doesn't fit tightly even with a double layer of glass fibre rope, the doors are so wide and high that when you open one to add wood the smoke and ash escapes into the room rather than going up the chimney (mainly because the throat plate comes so far forward, but it doesn't help that there is a bend in the flue and it doesn't draw very well) and it doesn't have glass in the doors so it is part guesswork part intuition knowing when it might need more wood....having said that, open both doors and you can lob in enormous logs up to a foot in diameter, and, it stays in all night if you shut both air vents and the flue baffle despite the gap between the doors. It throws out large amounts of heat that spreads out into the brick fireplace and from there to the terrazzo floor and it is like one enormous storage heater, just what is needed in a cold Spanish house.
Sounds fab! :)
ReplyDeletenice toasty toes
DeleteOoh, lovely, perfect for cold weather.
ReplyDeleteLovely, great sparks on it too :)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds similar to ours :) except we have glass in - not that you can see through it though. The woman before had it put in, and there is a fancy system that sends warm air through to some of the other rooms too. Not cold enough where we are, or we are feeling too tight. Either may be true. We don't usually light two days in a row because the residual heat lasts well through the next day.
ReplyDeleteNo fancy-pancy hot air systems (unless you count the old man) ;) and only 7 degrees this morning...
DeleteOh, I think we could match that :) Even on the Costa del Sol. In fact A spotted frost on some windscreens :D he had to stick his finger on them to check what it was!! How long have you had a reply feature on here? Very good but there's no way to know who replies as and when. Unlike WP (smirk)
Delete??? Your reply pops up in my Gmail, just as does your comment!!
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