wood burner - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

leakygoose · 12-17-2007, 11:27 PM

Heres a question for all you hvac guys . I plan on putting a wood burner in my basement real soon and I'm thinking of using the cold air return duct and fan to circulate the heat to the first and second floors . Basement is almost ready for drywall and I was thinking of one or two power operating vents in the side or bottom of the duct[ceiling] that would be controled by a thermostat that can override the other stat or somethink like that when the uptairs calls for heat. My house is eight years old ,9' ceilings, basement and first floor and 8' second . Its a cut up victorian in the cold dark michigan. Am I dreaming or can this be done . Mike

HeatPro · 12-18-2007, 09:38 AM

It can be done. Many old houses had big holes cut in the floor to allow the air to exchange from a central stove. Many also don't exist because a fire could rage through the holes with nothing to isolate or stop them which is a purpose of fire dampers in commercial buildings.

The big point to understand is that the reason the ducts in a home are usually smaller than 26 x 8 cross-section is that furnaces create an air flow over the exchanger that makes the air 50 degrees warmer than when it goes in. When you use a stove, the room can usually only get to about 80 before people complain. That means to move the same air with a furnace fan, you'd need to either make the basement 120F, or get five furnace fans to move five times 80F air as one furnace fan If the stove is big enough to heat the whole house. That would be with a house that can be heated with a stove that is meant to heat a big room only.

So unless the 'wood burner' is manufactured as a wood furnace to enclose an exchanger to make 120F air with a matching fan to deliver it, the idea is amateurish (in the eyes of a heating engineer, but not a dreamer,) destructive to the home for resale, and dangerous.

tinner666 · 12-18-2007, 10:40 AM

Google Outdoor and Indoor Wood Boilers.
Either set-up has a plenum radiator of 'hot-rod' for heated water to use your existing heat unit. I'm looking into one now.
I stared a topic here, but got no help.
http://www.contractortalk.com/f6/outdoor-wood-boilers-29786/

Then, I went here and got lots of help. Maybe I better not place stuff from another forum. I'll PM.

tinner666 · 12-18-2007, 10:42 AM

Well, that was interesting! LG doesn't accept PM's or have an e-mail.

Maybe a moderator can reply here with an OK or thumbs down about a link to another forum??????

HeatPro · 12-18-2007, 11:48 AM

One reason you're getting little help on the topic is that only so many newbies to the idea get started and excited about heating with wood. I was among the many who got their wood stoves back in the 1980's to 'save.' Certainly having 18 acres of hardwood is a good reason; but for most people living in the suburbs or cities, getting wood is difficult and expensive. Even farmers on many acres are loth to clear away their wind screen timber.

Wood heat is attractive to the young, because parking far away from the store instead of fighting for the nearest parking spot is a viable idea, as is felling, sectioning, splitting, piling, loading and ashing SEVERAL TIMES EACH AND EVERY DAY FOR YEARS ON END. Getting the wife to do it while gone is another hazard. Some will opt instead to get a part-time job to 'save' the few thousand for really automatic heat invented a century ago to replace all that labor and mess. There are alway customers who are ready to save a thousand dollars a year by buying an $8000 heating shed.

Problem is that the few, the proud, and the fit are off to Iraq, and the old fogies who wimped out after a decade or so of losing limbs to chain saws, losing backs to lifting, chasing insects and critters out of the carry wood, and just plain crankyness about going out in the woods to keep warm has left few available heroes to emulate.

Bjd · 12-21-2007, 06:51 AM

I also did the wood thing, and yea it does get to you after a while.

But you forgot to mention, you kinda get gun shy after your first few chimmeny fires. That you get over quick , however the wifes reaction is a little more on the gas companys side.

BJD

tinner666 · 12-21-2007, 07:59 AM

A bit gunshy after the first few chimney fires, eh?

Ya reckon?

That outdoor setup will protect the house from them, at least. The chimney fire would just burn itself out. One I looked at had a short horizonal section with a cover plate that pops off for creosote cleaning.