Ondol underfloor flue heating
Ondol, calefacción de suelo por conductos de humo
- Date
- c. century I a.C. (antecedentes anteriores) · confidence low
- Place
- Pyongyang, North Korea
- Credited to
- Peoples of the northern Korean peninsula (Okjeo, Goguryeo)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A system in which the smoke and heat from a hearth run through flues beneath a stone floor sealed with clay, warming it evenly. It made very cold winters bearable and let people sit and sleep on the floor, the basis of Korean domestic architecture.
Origin and date are debated: hearths with a flue under the floor appear at sites in the northern peninsula from the Bronze Age, and full-room ondol is documented under Goguryeo (1st-4th centuries AD). It is related to the kang of north-east China and independent of the Roman hypocaust.
What it led to
- traditional Korean housing (hanok) and floor-based living
- spread across the peninsula under Goguryeo, Silla and Joseon
- hydronic radiant floor heating (modern ondol) in contemporary Korea