Is it
possible to place the TV above the fireplace?
Is there a risk of damaging the device?
In
this in-depth article we explain in detail all you need to
know for an optimal and risk-free installation.
In order to obtain an efficient result, a little foresight must
be taken into account. This will depend on:
Dimensions and heat output of
the fireplace
TV
dimensions
Before
describing the what-to-do “recipe” it is important to understand why this
foresight needs to be adopted.
It is therefore important to understand in which way a fireplace warms
the environment up:
KEY
CONCEPT: Warm air rises
Transfer
of heat usually
happens in 2 ways: convection and/or radiation.
A
traditional wood burning fireplace warms the room up through radiation: the
combustion attracts cold air from the air inlet and from the environment. This
air comes out from the chimney.
Warm air does not come out directly from the fireplace though, otherwise we
would also get the smoke.
SO HOW DOES
IT HEAT THE ROOM?
Infrared
radiations that come out from the fireplace hit the room’s surfaces and warm them up,
which, in turn, warm the air up. From the fireplace there is no emission of hot
air.
In
bioethanol fireplaces, though, there is no chimney, so the air warmed up from
the fire comes out, at a considerable temperature, from the upper part of the
fireplace. As per the concept highlighted before, this warm air goes
immediately upwards, touching the vertical wall.
For the
convection principle,
the rising air warms up everything it encounters. If a TV is in the way it will
damage it permanently.
For this
reason, it is necessary to put a barrier between the fireplace
and the TV that moves the hot air flow onwards, over its dimension.
This
barrier can be obtained in different ways:
NICHE | Move the TV back into
the niche
SHELF | Place a fireproof shelf
between the fireplace and the TV.
The lenght
of the shelf and the Heat Deflector TV-SAVER will depend on the size of the TV.
Please take
in into account that the shelf/deflector must be:
20 cm largeron each side compared to
the TV
Placed right under the
TV or the soundbar, if any
Installed 20/30 cmaway
from the fireplace
CONVECTION
AND THERMAL RADIATION, IN SHORT, FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO DEEPEN THEIR
UNDERSTANDING:
Convection harnesses the phenomenon as
per which a fluid (water, air,gas…) expands and rises attracting
the cold air flow downwards, when heated.
Examples: a hot water pot, a hot air
balloon, a radiator or any heating system which requires air heating.
The typical
flaw is to have very warm air close to the ceiling instead
of having it below, unless you have a forced-air circulation system or
underfloor heating.
Thermal
radiation occurs
through electromagnetic waves, emitted from a source, the
waves turn into heat when they hit a surface.
These waves only slightly warm up the air they pass through and move in a
straight line.
Examples: the sun, in particular the infrared rays of its light, the
light emitted from a burning fire, the infrared rays heaters that can be found
outside public premises.
The typical flaw is feeling the part of the body which is hit
from the warm radiation hot and theother side cold. As
soon as the emission stops (even by putting a panel as a barrier) the feeling
of heat stops immediately.
For those
who would like a morein-depth
explanation:
