Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "will an open fireplace produce usable heat for a home" video.

Not all open hearths are created equal. I had a masonry fireplace in a place I rented. It was awesome when there was a fire lit, but as soon as the fire died, the place got cold fast. I loved the idea of falling asleep in front of the fire at night, and I'd always wake up COLD.
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@jd01665 This is my kind of comment, except I use paragraphs. I endorse the rocket-stove mass heater idea. The complete burn from the insulated riser and the heat transferred to a thermal mass make it clean and highly efficient. I think to make it work the way it's supposed to work, you need some kind of secondary air injected. That's the only part I'm not sure about. The draft of the chimney means drafts all over your house. Every tiny leak becomes a motivated draft when the fire is running, so the perimeter of the house gets colder than it would without the fire. A rocket stove isn't running all day, so there's less of a draft. But you could design it so that it brought fresh air in over or past the fire box, and the outside air coming in is warmed up, and you greatly reduce the cold air coming into the living space. Nobody builds houses with these kind of ideas. Maybe a few hippies who groove on some Paul Wheaton vibes, but nobody wants to fool with it, and you can lose your homeowner's insurance if you put one in without securing proper permits and inspections, and there's no guarantee you can even get a permit or find someone who can inspect it and put the official seal of approval on it. It's very unfortunate. It's also very unnecessary. These things can be built very safe and very reliable, requiring very little maintenance.
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