A tale of two wood heating alternatives (part 2)
In contrast with the woodburning device we built in the living room, the corner fireplace we built in our bedroom has been a resounding success.
This project was pretty simple. We knew we wanted a New Mexico style kiva design (I once lived in Santa Fe and never got over it). Our big concern was to build something that worked; most fireplaces don’t heat very well. So it was back to the internet, where I found a dandy website called The Buckley Rumford Company, which is a veritable treasure trove of information on building something called Rumford fireplaces and kiva fireplaces incorporating Rumford principles.
Rumford fireplaces are named for their inventor, a certain Count Rumford born in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts, whose work with fireplace geometry resulted in such impressive heating efficiency that the principles are still in use today. Mr. Buckley of the website found many similarities between Rumfords and traditional New Mexican kiva fireplaces, and has combined them into the Rumford-Kiva. Detailed plans and instructions for all manner of these fireplaces are provided on the website, along with a wealth of related information, pictures, and links. I enthusiastically recommend anyone planning to build a fireplace to avail themselves of this resource.
Our fireplace, built by the Mexigringo with Alejandro the albañil (mason), ended up an amalgam of Rumford proportions, kiva looks, local building traditions, and the whims of the two builders. It’s a corner fireplace, constructed of burnt-adobe bricks against regular adobe walls, and lined with firebrick. And miracle of miracles, it works like a charm!