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Most older
Portuguese homes have large, open fireplaces situated
within their kitchens and these were the traditional
method of heating homes.
The
fireplaces, open to around shoulder height with
carved wooden lintels supporting the chimney hood, had a
dual purpose, to heat the home and to smoke hams, home made
Chouriço sausage
and other meat products.
These
fireplaces are adept at smoking but are not effective at
heating a Portuguese home. |
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Due to
their design the chimneys for the fireplaces were large,
topped off usually with decorative cowls. However due to
the size of the chimney means most of the heat from the
fire escapes straight outside with the smoke blowing
back into the house.
If you
have purchased or are thinking of
purchasing a property
with a large, traditional style fireplace, and hope to
use it, then you will need to made some rudimentary
changes to ensure you, your family and belongings are
not smoked out on a regular basis. |
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Traditional chimney |
Large Proportions |
Tall Chimney |
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In order
for smoke to be drawn out of a chimney it needs to have
positive draft. However due to the size of traditional
chimneys in
Portugal,
and the cowls on top this can and does cause
negative draft, with smoke blowing back down the
chimney. One way
to overcome the problems of too much heat escaping and
smoke filling up the room, is to fit a free standing log
burner in the fireplace with a metal flue running the
height of the chimney. This will overcome the problem of
smoking out, but to ensure you minimise the heat lose in
the chimney it is best to create a 'cap' at some point
in the chimney using fire retardant material.
If you want to have an open fire in a
basket in the hearth of the fireplace then you will have
to speak with a
builder in Portugal about the possibility to
constructing a smaller inset flue in the existing
chimney to encourage positive draft and to reduce the
amount of heat escaping. |
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