Doug T.
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Pettin' The Gator
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Post by Doug T. on Jan 15, 2011 16:00:58 GMT -5
Nothing better on a cold winters day than a nice fire. My wife decorates for every coming holiday, which should explain the hearts and roses. I might ask her why she didn't fix it up for Martin Luther King day . Maybe not, there's no heat in the dog house Doug
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jan 16, 2011 0:03:22 GMT -5
Doug, Our house is a 1930s semi-detached. In that era houses would have a fireplace in each of the main bedrooms and living rooms. Many fireplaces were removed, or at least blocked off in British houses, with the advent of central heating. As a result we do not have the smoke laden thick]smogs that used to occur in the 1950s and earlier.
Dave
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Doug T.
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Pettin' The Gator
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Post by Doug T. on Jan 16, 2011 10:13:10 GMT -5
Hi Dave ! Our home was built in the 50's and has an oil fired boiler for it's main heating system. The fireplace has an insert with blowers built in which heats the entire house as well. We use it quite often, it helps keep the cost of heating the place down. Didn't they use coal in those fireplaces you spoke of ? When I was living in Germany, they used a lot of brown coal in their furnaces. I still remember how our neighborhood used to smell in the winter. Doug
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jan 16, 2011 10:53:10 GMT -5
Yes, mainly coal. Some areas of the British Isles, e.g the West of Ireland, still burn peat. That really has a distinctive smell. We used to have (in the 1950s) a coke burning central heating boiler, but that was changed for an oil fired boiler sometime in the 1960s. Coal fires now have to use smoke free fuel in most (all?) areas of the country. The flat I was in for a couple of years in Cardiff had a coal fire with a back boiler. As long as the fire was lit there was domestic hot water.
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