Can i install a wood burning stove in such a way that i can utililize the heat made by the wood burner to assist my exsisting LP fired furnace?

i was thinking of adding a wood burner to help keep down the heating bills....any suggestions

thanks

-- Dan Tremor (dloder2449@aol.com), January 07, 2002

Answers

Yes you can! I turn on the base fan to the furnace to move the air through the house. You can also put a fan to move to the colder parts of the house. Ceiling fans help also. Happy Future, Jim

-- Jim Raymond (jimr@terraworld.net), January 07, 2002.

Yes, you can do this quite successfully. I agree with the above response, airflow will determine how successful the wood stove is in helping to heat your house. Before installing, check with your home insurer to see if they have any special requirements. Our agent had to come out and look at the stove himself before he would insure us.

-- rose marie wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002.

I have seen a couple cases where a second thermostat will be placed near the furnace. When the temp raises to a preset value the thermostat near the wood burner will turn on the furnaces fans.

I use my wood burner in the evenings and dont use the furnace. Keep the stove running when I am in the house, stoke it for the night when I go to bed then when the fire dires out the furnace and keep the house warm.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 07, 2002.

thanks for writing, but i was thinking about somehow sending hot air from the wood burner into the furnace box that would then distribute the hot air.. or using the exsisting duct work to get the hot air to all parts of the house.

thanks

-- dan tremor (dloder2449@aol.com), January 07, 2002.

IN a previous home, the woodstove was in the basement. I made a sheet metal hood that was place directly above the woodburner. I made the hood so that it was recessed in the ceiling. The hood (which was like something you'd see above a fry grill in a restaurant) was connected to the homes return air duct system to the forced air furnance. I covered all the other return air vents in the house. So, when I turned on the furnace fan, it would "suck" the hot air coming from the woodstove and distribute it throughout the house via the warm air vents. --Happy trails, Cabin Fever

-- Cabin Fever (cabinfever_mn@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002.

Dan; Your question made me remember seeing a Harrowsmith article in a Horrowsmith Reader or Harrowsmith Country life book, that showed how some folks had a metal box built around thier wood stove. The air in the box was heated and transfered to a duct system, forced by a fan. The initial metal work, and duct work might be a financial jump, but you will undoubtably save money in the end. You might be able to find something suitable at the local refuse dump, or a demolition site. Just make sure you haven't violated any fire, or building codes, and can safely clean your fireplace, and chimney. Have it inspected by a fire marshal or some equivelent authority.

-- roberto pokachinni (pokachinni@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002.

No matter how good it works those hoods and boxes are illegal in Ontario. Too much chance of carbonmonoxide poisoning they say. You should have a detector anyways. I went with a wood furnace and then added an oil burner beside after 2 years of heating with just wood. Here you can add two burners any type to one chimney if it's on the same floor; but I've heard that practice can be illegal in other parts so check out your local regs! My brother has a stove in one end of his house and blows hot air through a hole into the upstairs and feeds "cold" air through the room door with another fan. His oil bill for Oct, Nov, and Dec, was $54

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 07, 2002.

Dan, By running the fans your drawing the warm air into the cold air returns and then using the duck work. Granted its not a direct attachment to the furnace but will help a lot.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 07, 2002.

Several here in Minnesota are doing exactly that. A friend has a furnace that has a heat jacket & ducts into the furnace plem, uses the furnace fan to duct the heat just like you say. Don't know the name of the furnace, can check if you want. It appears to be a factory job. Works very well.

There are also the outdoor furnaces, not what you are looking for right?

Some issues: It is not allowed to use the same chimney flu for gas & wood burning systems 'here'.

Insurance company needs to like the system.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

Dan, We have an outside boiler from central boiler that uses the furnace to heat the house works great, here is there email address http://www.centralboiler.com/home.html

-- Kevin in SC Mo (rosewd@fidnet.com), January 07, 2002.

Well, the technicalities escape me, but we have a wood "furnace" in our basement that uses our regular furnace to heat our house. It's all ducted through and thermostatically controlled. The furnace is shared by the wood stove and the LP. We disconnected the LP long ago and got rid of the tank as we heat entirely with wood. The thermostat isn't very accurate, sometimes it gets up to 80 in our house and we just open the windows. We have 1800 square feet, not huge but the wood heat piped through the house more than adequately heats it.

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), January 07, 2002.

Hi Dan,I have a hot blast add on wood burning stove made by US stove (www.usstove.com)It is designed to do exactly what you inquired about,it is basically a wood burner enclosed in a metal box,and its own fan and thermostat.I have had it for 3 yrs and would not do with out it.right now I just have 8"duct pipe coming from it to a register in our living room and it keeps our first floor toasty even without the fan on it running, it gives us a nice flow of heat.I am in the mix of finishing the upstairs of our home and will soon need to have it tied into our existing furnace which will cost about $450 (check around for best price on hvac work or do it yourself.the furnace itself cost right around $700 but I now see them for around $600 at Fleet Farm.I would say it payed itself off in the first year(compared to propane) and my city wife hates cold forced air now and complains when there is no fire going.One of my favorite things about it is the firebox which is deep enough to hold a log 26"+ which means less cutting and handling of smaller sizes.E-mail me if you need more.Dave

-- Dave (duckthis1@maqs.net), January 07, 2002.

Dan,

You might want to try the following, this will allow either the furnace or the stove to distribute heat to the house using the furnace fan. On our furnace we have a thermostat in the duct above the heat exchanger. This closes the FAN motor circuit when the temp reaches the dial setting. If you add an simular (found on many furnaces wood, oil and gas) in parrell with the one on the furnace and place it near the cold air return/stove the FAN should operate when the stove area is hot. I may take some adjusting of placement and dial setting.

If your willing to run both all you need is a good cold air return located by the stove and perhaps a ceiling fan to keep the warm air off the celing.

good luck, we have greatly reduced (75%) our LP usage with a small wood stove!

Tim

-- Tim Rittter (cbrooke@frontiernet.net), January 08, 2002.