The advanced combustion woodburning fireplace. An alternative efficient residential heating system.

 Fireplaces have occupied an important place in North American households for more than 400 years. They have acted as a place where the food was cooked, where people gathered around to talk at the end of the day and hopefully, where they could get warm. Even today, builders find it difficult to sell a new house which does not have a fireplace. However, housing characteristics have changed remarkably, particularly over the last 25 years. Improvements to the building envelope, both in terms of insulation and in terms of air tightness, are reducing the amount of energy actually required for heating new and renovated housing, as well as the amount of air available. Conventional wood burning fireplaces are incompatible with such housing, due to their gross in efficiencies, large air requirements, significant pollutant emissions, and negative effects on indoor air quality. New fireplace designs, in the form of Advanced Combustion Woodburning Fireplaces, have the potential to convert a most difficult problem into an attractive, marketable solution which is safe, energy-efficient and environmentally benign, while effectively using a renewable energy source. These advanced fireplaces are appropriate and recommended for both new home installations and for retrofit into existing fireplaces