Hearth

In medieval times, most homes had a 'hearth' at their centre. It was mostly used for heating the home and for cooking.

I think it should resemble the Furnace, Blast Furnace & Smoker blocks. That way you could easily build a custom chimney for it.

Now, we use Furnaces and Blast Furnaces to smelt ore, and we use the Smoker to cook food, so I think the Hearth should simply be used for 'heat' (light) and as a way to keep mobs away from the home.

It could work like a Beacon, with an effective 'range', where mobs wouldn't spawn, nor venture.

This way, players wouldn't have to be so careful about lighting up their base perfectly.

As long as you had a Hearth somewhere around the centre of your base (and as long as it was actively burning wood/fuel), you wouldn't have to worry so much about mobs killing you.

I don't know what the best range should be, maybe 10 or 20 blocks in every direction?