Ruins of the hypocaust under the floor of a Roman villa. The part under the exedra is covered.

A hypocaust is an ancient Roman system of central heating. Download high resolution version (1536x1024, 172 KB)Hypocaust from a late Roman villa. ... Download high resolution version (1536x1024, 172 KB)Hypocaust from a late Roman villa. ... An exedra adopted by James Cameron for a neoclassical interior space, at the Hermitage In architecture an exedra is a semicircular recess, headed by a half-dome, which is usually set into a buildings facade. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that existed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East between 753 BC and its downfall in AD 476. ... HVAC may also stand for High-voltage alternating current HVAC is an initialism that stands for heating, ventilation and air_conditioning. This is sometimes referred to as climate control. ...

Roman engineers devised an ingenious system of heating the baths – the hypocaust. The floor was raised off the ground by pillars and spaces were left inside the walls so that hot air from a furnace (praefurnium) could circulate through these open areas. Rooms requiring the most heat were placed closest to the furnace, whose heat could be increased by adding more wood. An engineer is someone who practices the engineering profession; a professional practitioner of engineering; someone who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and produce goods for society. ... Palladian Pulteney Bridge and the weir at Bath Bath is a city in south-west England, most famous for its baths fed by three hot springs. ... A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects space. ... A red-hot iron rod cooling after being worked by a blacksmith. ... A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood is an organic material found as the primary content of the stems of woody plants, especially trees, but also shrubs. ...

A derivation of hypocaust, the gloria, had been in use in Castile until the arrival of modern heating. After the fuel (straw, paper, refuse) has been reduced to ashes, the air intake is closed to keep hot air inside and slow combustion. A former kingdom of Spain, Castile comprises the two regions of Old Castile in north-western Spain, and New Castile in the centre of the country. ... Combustion or burning is an exothermic reaction between a substance (the fuel) and a gas (the oxidizer), usually O2, to release heat. ...

Korean traditional houses use an Ondol which is similar to a hypocaust, drawing smoke from a wood fire typically used for cooking. Ondol is a traditional Korean underfloor heating system, similar in principle to a Roman hypocaust. ...

See also

• gloria in the Spanish Wikipedia.

External link

• A picture of the skeleton of a dog found in the hypocaust of a bath in Germany; it had apparently crawled beneath the floor seeking warmth and been asphyxiated by the fumes.