Claims
- 1. In a fireplace having a fire box with an opening in a front wall and, forced air channels along the two side walls with a pair of vents on the front wall adjacent said opening, and means for forceably introducing air into said forced air channels, the improvement comprising:
- said vents being elongated vertical vents extending along a substantial portion of the length of said opening; and
- first means cooperating with said vertical vents for directing the air exiting said vents to converge in front of said opening; and
- said air introducing means drawing air from a volume in front of the fireplace exterior the volume defined in front of said opening by said convergent exiting air.
- 2. The fireplace according to claim 1 including a forced air channel along the bottom of the fire box with a horizontal vent in said front wall below said opening.
- 3. The fireplace according to claim 2 including second means cooperating with said vertical vents for directing exiting air downward.
- 4. The fireplace according to claim 3 wherein said vertical vents terminate short of the bottom of said opening.
- 5. The fireplace according to claim 1 wherein said first means includes a vertical baffle plate interior said forced air channel.
- 6. The fireplace according to claim 1 wherein said vent is offset from the exterior side wall of said forced air channel and said first means includes a pneumatic deflection plane formed in said air channel between the side wall and the adjacent portion of the front wall.
- 7. The fireplace according to claim 6 wherein said exterior side wall forms an angle with said front wall of less than ninety degrees.
- 8. The fireplace according to claim 6 wherein said first means further includes a vertical L-shaped lip exterior to and having a portion extending across said vertical vent to produce a pneumatic deflection plane exterior said vent.
- 9. The fireplace according to claim 1 including a second means in said vertical vents for directing exiting air down.
- 10. The fireplace according to claim 9 wherein said second means includes a mesh extending across said vent having a plurality of substantially horizontal portions inclined relative to the horizontal.
- 11. The fireplace according to claim 1 wherein said first means includes an open mesh extending across said vent having a plurality of substantially vertical portions inclined relative to the plane of the vent for directing said exiting air to converge.
- 12. The fireplace according to claim 1 wherein said first means includes a vertical lip extending across the vent opening at the outermost lateral edge of said vent opening and includes a pneumatic deflection plane formed between the air channel and said vertical lip.
- 13. A fireplace comprising:
- a fire box having an opening in a front wall;
- a forced air channel surrounding the back, two sides, and bottom of said fire box;
- an elongated vertical vent in each of the side portions of said forced air channel adjacent said opening and an elongated horizontal vent in the bottom portion of said forced air channel adjacent said opening;
- means for forcibly introducing air into the forced air channel to exit all of said vents; and
- means cooperating with said vertical vents for directing the exiting air downward and inward converging in front of said opening.
- 14. The fireplace according to claim 13 wherein said vertical vent is spaced from the exterior vertical wall of said forced air chamber and said directing means includes an accumulation of air between said exterior side wall, said front wall and said vent for directing said exit air to converge.
- 15. The fireplace according to claim 14 wherein said directing means includes an L-shaped vertical lip mounted to the exterior of said front wall extending across a portion of said vertical vent to accumulate air between the front wall and the lip for directing said exit air to converge.
- 16. The fireplace according to claim 14 wherein said exterior vertical wall forms an angle with said front wall less than ninety degrees.
- 17. The fireplace according to claim 13 wherein said directing means includes a vertical plate interior said forced air channel for directing said exit air to converge.
- 18. The fireplace according to claim 13 including a vertical lip mounted to the exterior of said front wall extending across the outermost lateral edge of said vertical vent and said directing means includes an accumulation of air behind said lip.
- 19. The fireplace according to claim 13 wherein said directing means includes second means extending across said vertical vents for directing said exiting air downward.
- 20. The fireplace according to claim 19 wherein said second means includes a mesh extending across said vent having substantially horizontal portion inclined relative to the plane of the vent.
- 21. The fireplace according to claim 13 wherein said directing means includes an open mesh extending across said vertical vents having a plurality of vertical surfaces inclined relative to the plane of the vent for directing said exiting air to converge.
- 22. The fireplace according to claim 1 wherein said first means cause convergence as close as possible to said opening without drawing gases from said opening.
- 23. The fireplace according to claim 13 wherein said directing means cause convergence as close as possible to said opening without drawing gases from said opening.
- 24. The fireplace according to claim 2 including a horizontal plate extending from said front wall separating said opening and said horizontal vent.
- 25. The fireplace according to claim 13 including a horizontal plate extending from said front wall separating said opening and said horizontal vent.
- 26. A free-standing forced air heater comprising:
- a fire box;
- forced air channel along the exterior of at least the back of said firebox;
- inlet means in the rear portion of said forced air channel spaced from the bottom of said firebox for receiving air from above and around the heater;
- outlet means in the front of said forced air channel for providing forced hot air adjacent the bottom front of said heater;
- blower means for drawing air into the inlet from the top and sides of the room in which the heater is placed, and exiting said outlet along the floor of said room to uniformly mix the air temperature in said room;
- said forced air channel including a portion along each side of said firebox and said outlet means including two vents on each side of said firebox directing forced air downward.
- 27. The fireplace according to claim 26 wherein said forced air channel includes a portion along the bottom of said firebox and said outlet means includes a vent below said firebox.
- 28. The free-standing forced air heater according to claim 26 including second means cooperating with said vertical vents for directing exiting air downward.
- 29. The free-standing forced air heater according to claim 26 wherein said inlet means is in the back wall portion of said forced air channel and said blower means is mounted to said rear wall portion behind said firebox.
- 30. The heater according to claim 27 wherein said air introducing means draws air from in front of said unit exterior of the area defined by said vents.
- 31. The heater according to claim 27 wherein said fire box includes an opening in a front wall for providing access, and said vents in said front wall are adjacent the sides of said opening to surround the substantial portions of said sides and bottom of said access opening with exiting forced air.
- 32. The heater according to claim 31 including a horizontal plate extending from said front wall separating said opening and vent in said bottom air channel.
- 33. The heater according to claim 27 wherein said back air channel is interconnected to said two sides and bottom air channel and said bottom air channel is interconnected to said two side air channel.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 693,805, filed June 7, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,976.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
135415 |
Nov 1919 |
GB |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
693805 |
Jun 1976 |
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