Blizzards and useless chimneys

This is a pic of current/recent conditions in North America's northeast. Almost every house in this pic has a chimney, but not one of them is emitting smoke. At the same time, people are dying indoors from hypothermia, or even just experiencing terrible cold due to inability to heat their homes (gas and power out, or whatever). I'm seeing the same in all the coverage - homes with chimneys not in use, in the coldest cold snap in recorded history.

We have towns like the pic above in our 'colder climates', and in winter most of those chimneys would be pumping out smoke. And I live in a much warmer place than North America's northeast.

Can anyone make sense of this?

 

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How much smoke do you think modern heating systems generate? Not a whole lot. Besides, the people didn't die of hypothermia indoors. From what I read, most died in their cars or of heart attacks while shoveling snow.

And no, it was not the the coldest cold snap in recorded history. It was 24 in Buffalo where most fatalities occurred. That is not horribly cold.

 

Fireplaces aren't known for efficient heat...but our neighbors (in Oklahoma)have their chimneys smoking because we have plenty of wood in area..for sale and just from tree work.

Unfortunately my fireplace needs $4k in work...so our chimney is cold and smokeless.

When it WAS working the radiant heat was wonderful.

Many homes have chimneys but the fire place converted to electric heater or decor centerpiece. Such a waste.

 

I'm somewhat confused by your post, PLF.

For the record, I'm asking why people ... in a very cold cold snap ... aren't using their fireplaces. Why would this happen, given a wood burning fire is about the best heat you can get, and doesn't rely on what's clearly a fallible grid.

If you live in a location where this kind of weather can happen, why wouldn't you keep your fireplace functional as backup, at the very least? It just makes no sense. These households have fireplaces right there in the living room, but sit around shivering through these weather events. It's bizarre. A stock of emergency firewood is good for many years, and you don't need much if you have a proper slow combustion fireplace. A small quantity will get you through several weeks, used judiciously.

 

Fireplaces (slow combustion of course, not open) are extremely efficient! Nothing will heat the house better, in fact. Plus you can cook on them

Yes, an incredible waste to disable a functional fireplace ... and a stupid risk, given this kind of weather event! I'd love to know what people are thinking when they do this. Is it just hubris or something? Maybe ignorance? I can't imagine.

 

This is just a random pic, but represents what's normal in other places. It's the same here, and certainly in large parts of Europe, New Zealand, and Russia etc. Why do cold climate Americans not do the same? What is different there? Keeping in mind this thread is NOT about pollution, it's about the practicalities of staying alive in bad weather .. or at least comfortable and able to cook and clean yourself etc.

 

I've read multiple stories about people without heat (due to outages), and having to do all sorts of weird stuff to stay alive. People in houses with FIREPLACES. It defies logic.

 

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You would have no trouble finding firewood around here after the hurricane knocked down tons of trees. Lots of great big live oaks too.

I have an old washing machine drum out back that I burn in and I'm thinking about going and starting a fire in it tonight

 

Deus vult.

 

doing and done.

 

I am no expert and we only light our fireplaces for ambience more than heating but do gas fireplaces emit a lot of smoke? I never see any smoke coming out of our neighbors homes either. I wonder if it is because the gas burns fairly clean. Just like when you turn on the burners on the stove there is no noticeable smoke. Although fireplaces give off a fair bit of heat they seem to have become more of a decorative item than for heating. If there is a power failure the fireplaces could be used as backup.

 

My father couldn't get home insurance with burn protection until he removed the wood-burning stove from the house in New York state. He needed it to take out a business loan with the house as collateral.

 

My money is on emissions regulations. We've put such insane regulations on wood stoves that most of the ones you'll find in older homes today are 'sub-standard' (because the 'standards' were 'updated' to completely ridiculous). To put another way, the home is technically 'condemned' until the stove is replaced with one that meets current emission standards (no, I have no clue what 'emission standards' a wood stove has to meet, but I know they cost thousands of dollars and a simple brick fireplace won't cut it). For example, my home that I bought in 2015 was required to be purchased on a renovation loan due to several factors, including a wood stove that didn't meet emission standards. I blocked off the chimney by riveting some sheet metal over the duct (yes, this satisfied the conditions of the renovation... somehow) and wheeled the cast-iron stove out to the wood shed, where it sits to this day, ready to be wheeled back in to the livingroom should the electricty ever fail during winter. I replaced it with an electric forced-air heater that breaks every two years or so... but thats another story. But suffice to say, many of those chimneys may simply be connected to a hole in the ceiling where, like mine, a stove used to be, because in order to obtain a standard home loan from a bank to purchase the home, an older wood stove would need to first be removed from the home. And unlike me, they prolly bought their homes from flippers who did all the reno work for them and charged them out the ass for hauling their 'substandard' wood stoves to scrap for them.

 

We had our fireplace going the last few days but mostly just because it was Xmas time and it is nice to have a fire going. It doesn't really heat up much but as I live in Southern California and daily temperatures are in the mid 70's that doesn't matter. If I lived some where cold I would use a pellet stove for cheap reliable heating.

Hell, there are videos on the internet of boy scouts making a heater out of an old ammo box using vegetable oil and old dried out baby wipes as the wick. A very simple design, no electricity needed, fuel is dirt cheap, and it supposedly was enough to heat a large room.

 

In addition to my last, wood stoves and fireplaces require firewood, and I would imagine thats not something easily obtained in large quantities in the big city. Thats something one has to stock up on prior to needing it ...not something people in big cities seem to be very keen to do.

 

Fireplaces are dangerous and expensive to service.I have an electrically based Heat pump and am toasty warm all the time

 

Thats ridiculous. They're no more dangerous than a gas leak or getting electrocuted, and the only 'service' a fireplace requires is cleaning out the creosote every so often with a big brush. Your argument basically amounts to 'morons might not be able to handle it...'... which is true for everything in the world.

 

Gas fireplaces have capped off chimneys. They don't emit smoke. Besides, if the chimney was open it would fill with rain and snow as well as cold air when the fire wasn't going.

Heating With Wood and Gas Will be Illegal in New York State
https://coalpail.com/coal-forum/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=54489

 

The Big Brush has to be used by somebody on the roof which means it's going to cost me a lot of money because it will have to be used by someone else. There's also the birds and the snakes, (they climb really high)

I recently bought a solar assisted backup generator for about half what they want for a fireplace. It's somewhat less seductive than mulled wine over the andirons but I use dirty movies for that anyway.

 

I grew up in a house with a fireplace and I cannot remember a single time that we had to spend a single penny to do anything to it

 

Thanks for that info. Like I said I had no idea but that would explain it.

 

Gees... have no smoke because you've gone solar and you'll get attacked. Use fossil fuels and have smoke and you'll get attacked.
So solar sucks ans fossil fuels suck... are we supposed gut animals and sneak into their warm carcasses like the Eskimos do?