4 ms·

I live in Pennsylvania and have a Fireplace Xtrordinaire fireplace that came with this house and similar to this. It sucks in air from outside, which is routed

I live in Pennsylvania and have a Fireplace Xtrordinaire fireplace that came with this house and similar to this. It sucks in air from outside, which is routed around the firebox and heated before being forced into the room. It's called a positive pressure fireplace and it really does heat the 2500 square ft house well. Another cool technology with this fireplace is the catalytic combuster, which allows for almost complete combustion by burning off anything left in the smoke after reaching a certain temp. I sometimes wonder though, is better to have a negative pressure living space pulling dry, cool air into the house rather than positive pressure, forcing warm, moist air through any and all crevices throughout the house. I guess time will tell..

denimnerd42 4y ago
sounds like it would generate condensation for sure where the cracks in your barriers allow that warm air to hit cold.
pojzon 4y ago
2500 sq ft is ~ 232m2 for ppl in countries with normal unit.
- dylan604 4y ago
  sq ft is perfectly normal. while you might like your metric measurements, it is sad that people need someone else to do this for them. if you don't like the units, convert it. but to call it abnormal is just an insult to those that think of it as normal. thank you and have a nice day. please drive through
  - Hyption 4y ago
    From an international standpoint, it's very unnormal though.
    - pojzon 4y ago
      US academy is using the metric system for calculus because they also think imperial system is unpractical. Its just a matter of cultural change in society.
      - dylan604 4y ago
        Not everyone has to do everything the same way. Hell, after you take my inches away, are you going to make me start speaking the same language because mine current one is unpractical?
        foxhill 4y ago
        no one is taking your inches away, nor your language. many people, where i am from, use both sets of units interchangeably. it’s a total non-issue.
        dylan604 4y ago
        except people are advocating precisely for doing that. "unification" "assimilation" resistance is futile.
        Hyption 4y ago
        Not everything is useful or objectively good just because someone 100years ago said so. What you want is tradition not reasoning. From a pure Logic point of view metric is better. And it's used in the USA. Even inches and feet are based on the metric meter.
        Slava_Propanei 4y ago
        [dead]
        orf 4y ago
        No, of course not.
- throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
  The word 'normal' is relative, so for your country 'normal' is SI (maybe?), and for the US 'normal' is imperial. GP was taking about the US so imperial would be normal. It would be extremely not normal for a Pennsylvanian to describe their home in meters squared
  - oliwarner 4y ago
    Is talking about somewhere in the native system more important than talking to everywhere in theirs? Honestly, I've no horse in this but it never hurts to consider your audience. Internet suggests that "normal" for 65% of HN is metric.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - saiya-jin 4y ago
      ... and 95% of the mankind according to internet(TM). Its always funny to read similar statements, US folks putting those systems as something almost equal in usage when exact opposite is true. Exactly same for volume units. If for nothing else, units conversions is either trivial or stupidly complex, and everybody is doing it all the time so it makes actual difference. We used to have tens if not hundreds of similar systems to imperial one here in Europe during medieval times (my own country at least 5 of those), but we moved to much greener pastures since then and now it just looks... ridiculous to keep it polite.
    - throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
      Seems like an excessive placation for a very minor problem. People post in SI and the Americans convert it, Americans post in US and everyone else converts it. There's no rocket launches failing because a HN comment's units had to be converted. It also seems weird on principle. If 65% of HN readers spoke Mandarin, would you make all your comments in Simplified Chinese?
      - oliwarner 4y ago
- boppo1 4y ago
  *for people in countries that can't fake a moon landing
  - valzam 4y ago
    NASA used the metric system when they faked the moon landing anyway...
- rzzzt 4y ago
  That's 0.0434 football fields, for reference.
  - PaulRobinson 4y ago
    American football, Australian rules, Rugby football, or Association (soccer) football? I personally would prefer a picture with a banana for scale...
    - rzzzt 4y ago
      Thankfully there is a paper on estimating banana size: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291330381_Modeling_the_Main_Physical_Properties_of_Banana_Fruit_Based_on_Geometrical_Attributes https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291330381_Modeling_... Using a projected area of 70 cm², the floor space should fit ~33142 bananas when tiled end-to-end.
      - MonkeyClub 4y ago
        Penrose bananas tile better, though, and they’re resistant to fungal infections (being abstract).
  - MonkeyClub 4y ago
    And of course it’s 696 of me granddaddy’s elbows, or approximately 144 donkey farthings.
yobbo 4y ago
> pulling dry, cool air into the house rather than positive pressure, forcing warm, moist air through any and all crevices Negative pressure will pull air through crevices (which will be lower down, like under doors and windows, and from the foundation) drawing in dust and allergens. Ideally pressure should be neutral but that is easier to achieve with a "positive pressure" fireplace like that.

denimnerd42 4y ago

sounds like it would generate condensation for sure where the cracks in your barriers allow that warm air to hit cold.

pojzon 4y ago

2500 sq ft is ~ 232m2 for ppl in countries with normal unit.

dylan604 4y ago
sq ft is perfectly normal. while you might like your metric measurements, it is sad that people need someone else to do this for them. if you don't like the units, convert it. but to call it abnormal is just an insult to those that think of it as normal. thank you and have a nice day. please drive through
- Hyption 4y ago
  From an international standpoint, it's very unnormal though.
  - pojzon 4y ago
    US academy is using the metric system for calculus because they also think imperial system is unpractical. Its just a matter of cultural change in society.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      Not everyone has to do everything the same way. Hell, after you take my inches away, are you going to make me start speaking the same language because mine current one is unpractical?
      - foxhill 4y ago
        no one is taking your inches away, nor your language. many people, where i am from, use both sets of units interchangeably. it’s a total non-issue.
        dylan604 4y ago
        except people are advocating precisely for doing that. "unification" "assimilation" resistance is futile.
      - Hyption 4y ago
        Not everything is useful or objectively good just because someone 100years ago said so. What you want is tradition not reasoning. From a pure Logic point of view metric is better. And it's used in the USA. Even inches and feet are based on the metric meter.
        Slava_Propanei 4y ago
        [dead]
      - orf 4y ago
        No, of course not.
throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
The word 'normal' is relative, so for your country 'normal' is SI (maybe?), and for the US 'normal' is imperial. GP was taking about the US so imperial would be normal. It would be extremely not normal for a Pennsylvanian to describe their home in meters squared
- oliwarner 4y ago
  Is talking about somewhere in the native system more important than talking to everywhere in theirs? Honestly, I've no horse in this but it never hurts to consider your audience. Internet suggests that "normal" for 65% of HN is metric.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    ... and 95% of the mankind according to internet(TM). Its always funny to read similar statements, US folks putting those systems as something almost equal in usage when exact opposite is true. Exactly same for volume units. If for nothing else, units conversions is either trivial or stupidly complex, and everybody is doing it all the time so it makes actual difference. We used to have tens if not hundreds of similar systems to imperial one here in Europe during medieval times (my own country at least 5 of those), but we moved to much greener pastures since then and now it just looks... ridiculous to keep it polite.
  - throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
    Seems like an excessive placation for a very minor problem. People post in SI and the Americans convert it, Americans post in US and everyone else converts it. There's no rocket launches failing because a HN comment's units had to be converted. It also seems weird on principle. If 65% of HN readers spoke Mandarin, would you make all your comments in Simplified Chinese?
    - oliwarner 4y ago
boppo1 4y ago
*for people in countries that can't fake a moon landing
- valzam 4y ago
  NASA used the metric system when they faked the moon landing anyway...
rzzzt 4y ago
That's 0.0434 football fields, for reference.
- PaulRobinson 4y ago
  American football, Australian rules, Rugby football, or Association (soccer) football? I personally would prefer a picture with a banana for scale...
  - rzzzt 4y ago
    Thankfully there is a paper on estimating banana size: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291330381_Modeling_the_Main_Physical_Properties_of_Banana_Fruit_Based_on_Geometrical_Attributes https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291330381_Modeling_... Using a projected area of 70 cm², the floor space should fit ~33142 bananas when tiled end-to-end.
    - MonkeyClub 4y ago
      Penrose bananas tile better, though, and they’re resistant to fungal infections (being abstract).
- MonkeyClub 4y ago
  And of course it’s 696 of me granddaddy’s elbows, or approximately 144 donkey farthings.

yobbo 4y ago

> pulling dry, cool air into the house rather than positive pressure, forcing warm, moist air through any and all crevices Negative pressure will pull air through crevices (which will be lower down, like under doors and windows, and from the foundation) drawing in dust and allergens. Ideally pressure should be neutral but that is easier to achieve with a "positive pressure" fireplace like that.