Home Central Heating

Up until the Romans arrived, the British only knew how to heat rooms by lighting a fire.  The danger from this was many died of suffocation due to smoke getting trapped and also the chance of fire catching light to materials around the home.  It was the Romans who first invented central heating in 100AD.

They created ‘hypocaust’ which is a system in which the floor is suspended on pillars around two feet high.  A fire room was built against an outside wall and air heated by the fire was channelled through vacant spaces beneath the floor and away through pipes within the walls.  The fire needed constant attention so the Romans used slaves to put new fuel on to the fire and rake out the ashes.  The fuel they used was mostly twigs and small branches; logs were not used, as they didn’t burn fast enough to be effective and often blocked the passage of air.