Warm air heating and fire-place system

Claim 1

A warm air heating and fire-place system comprising, in combination, an open hearth jacketed fire-place opened at the front and including an outer casing and an inner wood-burning chamber separated from the outer casing by an air heating space, a bonnet upstanding from, and in communication with, the top of said chamber at its lower end, extending through said heating space and adapted to communicate with a smoke stack at its upper end, said outer casing having a side wall provided with a lower air inlet and an upper air outlet, and an auxiliary air heating assembly comprising an air plenum housing disposed adjacent said side wall of said outer casing and having a lateral outlet communicating with said lower air inlet of said outer casing, first and second upright air conduits disposed side by side on top of said air plenum housing and having lower ends in direct communication with said air plenum housing, said second upright air conduit being disposed adjacent said side wall of said housing and said first upright conduit being disposed in the opposite side of said second upright air conduit with respect to said outer casing, said outer casing, air plenum housing and first and second upright air conduits being in general alignment, said first and second upright air conduits having top ends adapted to be connected to the return air conduit network and the warm air conduit network, respectively of a house to be heated, said second upright air conduit having a lateral opening spaced upwardly from the lateral opening of said air plenum housing and in direct communication with said upper air outlet of said outer casing, a motor-operated air blower located within said first upright air conduit to circulate air downwardly within said first upright air conduit from its top ends towards said air plenum housing and from said air plenum housing either through said air heating space within said outer casing and then to issue through the open top end of said second upright air conduit or directly from said air plenum housing through said second upright air conduit to its open top end, an electric heating element mounted within the assembly of said first and second upright air conduits and said air plenum housing, downstream from said air blower, and valve means mounted within said assembly and operable to take a first limit position in which said valve means block air circulation through said air heating space within said outer casing, while they allow direct air circulation frm said air plenum housing upwardly through said second upright air conduit and a second limit position in which said valve means block air circulation from said air plenum housing through said second upright air conduit, while they allow air circulation from said air plenum housing through said air heating space of said outer casing and back into said second upright air conduit through said upper air outlet of said outer casing, so arranged that, when said electric heating element is operating, air heated thereby can flow directly from said first to said second upright air conduit without circulating through said outer space where the heated air would lose heat in heat exchange with said inner chamber.