Masonry Magazine May 1980 Page. 18
THE QUEEN AIR
George Mayer Manufacturing, Inc.
Masonry craftsmen have been designing and building aesthetically-pleasing, functional fireplaces for countless decades, employing their skills to the fullest extent of their ancient and honorable craft. In recent times, however, theories regarding traditional fireplace design began to change. One of the most dramatic was the introduction of the pre-engineered circulator unit that rapidly grew in popularity and acceptance in the masonry industry. The reasons are obvious: the circulator not only minimizes the chance of human error in installation but makes the fireplace vastly more energy-efficient.
Now, a Hinckley, Ohio, mason contractor, with years of experience in fireplace construction, has discovered yet another type of unit-the Queen Air forced air fireplace/furnace manufactured by George Mayer Manufacturing. Inc., of Miami, Oklahoma.
Though it looks like a conventional masonry fireplace, this novel device is, in effect, a whole house heating system. It can generate upwards of 200.000 BTUs and totally heat a 3,000 to 4.000 square foot home. Or, if the climate is too severe, it can serve as a welcome back-up to the existing central heating plant of virtually any residence.
Installed much like a circulator, within total masonry. the unit works on a system of built-in heat exchangers and squirrel cage fans. Air picks up the fireplace heat as it is directed through these heat exchangers on the fireplace unit. This air is then distributed via heating ducts throughout an entire house at the rate of 1,000 cu. ft. per minute. Since the system's metal remains hot after the fire has died, warm air continues to circulate from the fireplace for two to three hours. Thus wood BTUs are used to their fullest extent. In comparison, a conventional fireplace offers some radiant heat when going full blast, but has absolutely no heat when it has died down.
The manufacturer suggests that glass doors be used on the unit to prevent heated room air from being sucked up the flue. The glass doors can remain completely shut, since the combustible air is drawn from the outside through the ash dump. This also results in more radiant heat and better, more efficient burning of the wood.
To master fireplace craftsman Jim Snell of Hinckley, who has been building fireplaces for 22 years, this forced air system is the only way to go when installing a fireplace. And he has seen them all. Snell built his first fireplace in 1958 while working for a mason contractor now retired. He did the work entirely on his own, using only what knowledge was available at the time. Vowing to learn all their was to know about fireplace construction, he decided to specialize solely in fireplaces "because I found the work more satisfying creatively."
Today, after seven years as an independent mason contractor and countless successful fireplace completions. Snell generally contracts an entire house just to get a fireplace. He hopes in the next three years to reach the point where he can do fireplaces only, nothing else. And he solidly favors and promotes manufactured fireplace units, which he thinks are a vast improvement over the fireboxes built from the ground up."
"Fireplaces are better when manufactured," he says. "Less mistakes occur with a pre-engineered unit than when a man builds a firebox to his own specificiations. Many times as much as 95 percent of the conventional fireplace's heat goes up the stack."
A show-me type of man who's not easily sold on a product. Snell quickly developed a high appreciation of circulator fireplaces. Since 1973, when the energy crunch first rocked this nation, Snell has urged his customers to incorporate circulator units into their fireplaces. "I looked
Investigation into how to improve fireplaces orginated with the work of Count Benjamin Rumford, who is credited with the discovery of convection currents in 1798. He is regarded as the father of modern fireplace design. Rumford was the first person to be concerned with heat efficiency as he narrowed the throat where the fireplace merges with the chimney, a feature that slowed excessive draft, reduced heat waste, and improved the capacity of a fireplace to heat a room.