Add-On Wood Burning Furnace Install - *UPDATE*

[buckeyefarmer]

Nice looking chimney.
Would the builder like to come to MD and build me one?
I have the foundation done, but mason work costs here is out of sight.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[djradz]

The advantage of the Bilco-type installation is it keeps the wood covered, and somewhat warm, but not inside. Bugs seem to therefore stay in the wood and not venture out into my basement. Plus, I don't have the wood taking up space in my basement. It certainly would be a more major project however than just adding a coal door/chute and bin, but it is very easy to load, versus having to stack it in the basement. Good luck either way and hope some warm fires are ahead.

 

[JimMorrissey]

I'm blown away by masonry costs here too. Who said every child needs to go to college. The masons I know all have nice houses and camps on the lake. Hard work pays off. I bet all the immigrants are rolling over in their graves. I believe it to be a simple supply and demand situation. Nobody wants to learn a trade anymore.

 

[JSUnlimited]

Almost ready to fire! We just have a couple of wiring issues to complete.

 

[Mavrik02]

Very nice project! I can't wait to hear how it heats the house and how much burn time you get out of a load of wood.

I have a Quadra-Fire fireplace in our house. It is a cross between a fireplace and a wood burning stove. I can load it up, close the doors, turn on the blower and it blows warm/hot air into the house for up to five hours before I have to add more wood. It heats all of the house except two bedrooms that are on the first floor. It is a pain to keep draging the wood into the house and since I have been running it ~20hrs/day, 7days/week since October I have been consuming a LOT of wood and have had to rethink my wood placement and stocking strategy.

Good luck!

 

[Paddy]

Now that you have the venting of the smoke and gasses, you need to think about the air feeding the stove.

People often don't consider the source of the combustion air. With out an outside source, it will pull from every crack. It doesn't matter how well you sealed the house, air will come from outside, i.e., cold air!

I have used 1-1/2" to 2" PVC pipe from the out side direct to the stove. If you go through the band board, (that is above concrete but below floor), you won't need your buddy to drill the conrete again. Have the pipe end about 10" away from the stove intake. When you have a nice fire on a cold day you can feel just how much cold air is pulled in! When the stove is not in use, just throw a cap on it. In fact when the stove is not running, it won't pull much cold air.

I did this for my fire place as well but of metal.

Patrick

PS. You can't over do it keeping your flue clean!!

 

[ruglad03835]

Nice Job. Good Luck. Just make sure everone in the house knows how to run the stove ( everyone that possibly will be running the stove) I work in the Oil and Propane business and remember a customer who almost melted down a wood fired boiler because of 3 mistakes. 1) someone turned off the automatic water feed. 2) No one looked at the pressure gauge on the boiler. 3) someone stoked this thing and opened the damper. When I got there the temp gauge read 250 degrees. I turned on the water feed, which thankfully filled from the bottom up. This boiler started to shake when I refilled it. Everybody was lucky that day.

 

[beenthere]

This you probably already know, or it will say in the manual, but on 'first' fire-up, there will likely be hot oil and burned paint smoke that fills the air and trips a few smoke detectors. Also, a stink that is not so pleasant.
It will pass, but can be a bit annoying at first.

One thing I had happen, with a clay thimble like yours in the concrete wall, was the inserted stove pipe expanded and cracked the clay tile. Just thought about that as I saw your long clay thimble sticking out into the room with the black stove pipe stuck inside. I don't have any suggestions on how to avoid it, although a good heavy clamp around the outside of the clay tile may help.

 

[JSUnlimited]

Hopefully I cover the last couple of replys,

Mavrik02, I have not even lit the this thing yet...but I do have at least a face cord carried down the steps and let me tell you.....I'll have a walk-in basement by next winter!

Paddy, I've been thinking about the "combustion" air supply situation. I'm going to do the famous "wait and see what happens" before I change anything else.

ruglad03835, being accustomed to the fire service and the fact that we always have some sort of "inservice"....believe me, we'll have an inservice here!

beenthere, that's a 8" thimble and the pipe is only 6". The HVAC guys pushed the black pipe through the thimble until it just reached the flue. There is a little room for expansion/contraction, so hopefully no cracks.

Still no fire yet...low voltage dampers out of stock (to keep gas furnace from fighting with wood furnace). Monday is going to be 70 degrees with thunderstorms....also the first day of deer gun season!

BTW, thanks for all of the feedback.

 

[Mavrik02]

Yesterday I loaded up my 60" bucket four times with wood and dumped it outside one of the doors to my great room. The wife asked if I was going to stack it...I just looked at her...she said "I guess it'll go pretty quickly so no need to stack it". Yep! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Paddy brings up a very good point.

When I close my fireplace doors (they are air tight) and have the outside combustion air vent open and the hot air blower on (into the house) it actually creates a positive pressure in the house and cold air does not try to get in.

If I leave the outside air vent closed (combustion air pulled from inside the house) there is so much house air going up the chimney that you can actually feel the house sucking the cold air in around the doors and window frames (anywhere it can get in...and my house is pretty tight).