US Stove 1537 parallel install help

[Nicole6]

We just installed the furnace and have it wired for a parallel installation. The problem seems to be that the fan & limit control for the oil furnace (a 3 year old Thermopride) is too far away from the plenum and doesn't kick on the oil furnace fan nearly enough to move the wood heat through the ducts.

What is the easiest solution to fix this without altering the way the oil furnace works? Another fan & limit control in the plenum or is there something cheaper/easier to use like a thermodisc similar to what the 1537 uses to kick on its blowers?

On a related note, is it better to have this stove running parallel or in series? It seems as if having 3 fans (the 2 on the wood furnace and 1 on regular furnace) all blowing the same air might cool it down too much.

I have a lot of tweaking to do yet (cold air return hookup, modifying the ducting from the 1537 to the plenum, etc.), but first I need to get the hot air I'm getting now moving upstairs. Before the Thermopride I had an old wood/oil combo and that heated the house fantastically on wood.

Thank you guys!

 

[Slvrmple72]

I am looking at purchasing the 1537 or similiar from TSC. With the oil furnace is there a way for you to have a fan running continuously? We have a gas furnace and I have the fan(blower) running constantly to circulate and filter air. The switch on the thermostat for fan is set to on and when I hooked up the blower I adjusted the voltage to get the appropriate speed I needed. Maybe you could adjust the blower speed on the oil burner so it works better with the wood burner. Hooking them up in series will be a lot easier to duct work but you will have to adjust all the fans so you don't have too much air circulation!

 

[Nicole6]

I think I've decided to go with another fan & limit control in the plenum. I don't like the idea of running the furnace fan constantly. My father's been helping me out. He's a union carpenter and is fine with standard residential electricity, but relays, switches, and these other setups I've read on other threads are pushing it. I would like the oil furnace blower to blow slower than it normally does. I'll have to see if there's some way to change that without messing anything else up. I know my blower fan is variable speed.

I've had the stove going all day today and it heated up my house decently. I'd like to get more heat out of it though. I think it'll work better with the cold air return hooked in and with the oil furnace fan controlling itself. I've been switching it on and off manually--that's been fun!

The stove's blowers were on non-stop. I'm a bit worried with how much electricity they use. With the way the wood furnace is ducted into the oil plenum, I need those blowers to move the heat into there. I tried without them and it didn't work. Might try unhooking one of the blowers and see how that does. I know the Daka only comes with one 550 cfm blower, so maybe one would be sufficient. A single fan might help keep the stove temp up better too.

After the cold air return, next on my list is to modify the ducting from the wood to the oil furnace. We did it one way originally and had to work around cold air ducts being in the way, but moved the wood furnace to the other side afterwards and just flipped the big rigged duct. Where it is now, I can put the hot air into the plenum a lot more directly which should help throw more heat in there.

I'm kind of missing my old oil/wood combo furnace I had before. She just required a wood feeding every once in a while and a good poking. Everything else was idiot proof! LOL

 

[Slvrmple72]

You should be able to tell by the electrical diagram if you have variable voltage connections to adjust the fan speed on your blower. They make them adjustable according to the square footage range the furnace will be heating. With more heat going into the system, from your wood burner, the oil furnace will not have to work as much but you need the fan to circulate the heated air. We circulate our air continuously to filter it for medical reasons. I am assuming that the cold air duct goes into the wood stove first and the heated air blown out by the fan on the wood stove sends it into the cold air side of the oil furnace where that unit blows it into the ductwork to the rest of the house. I am going to have a heck of a time trying to get mine hooked up with the ductwork and chimney flue all of which sits right under the stairs to the basement. The furnace is a newer Coleman version we bought from Carter Lumber that uses PVC pipes for the intake and exhaust combustion air. Natural gas 92%+ efficiency. I guess in hindsight I wish I had bought a dual gas/wood unit. How much was the 1537? I see the Clayton model for around 1800 at TSC.

 

[Nicole6]

No, the heated air from the wood furnace goes into the regular heat plenum. All the manuals for different wood furnaces had it in big bold letters not dump the heat into the cold air return side of the main furnace.

I got the 1537 from Doitbest.com, delivered to a local hardware store, at the end of the summer for $1040. I think I found a 15% off code when I ordered it. TSC also sells them for just a little more than that.

I know my old wood/oil combo was terribly inefficient on the oil end, but it burned wood like a dream. It used the same combustion area for both the wood and oil. I think the newer ones have separate areas.

 

[reaperman]

The stove's blowers were on non-stop. I'm a bit worried with how much electricity they use. With the way the wood furnace is ducted into the oil plenum, I need those blowers to move the heat into there. I tried without them and it didn't work. Might try unhooking one of the blowers and see how that does. I know the Daka only comes with one 550 cfm blower, so maybe one would be sufficient. A single fan might help keep the stove temp up better too.
LOL

I wouldnt worry about the blowers using too much electricity. The plenium fans need to run when the furnace tells them too, otherwise your wood furnace could overheat. The blowers are duel purpose: To distribute the heated air, and second; to keep the furnace from overheating. If there is a snap disc on your unit, let it do its thing.

The blower on my wood furnace runs constantly when my unit is hot. And my power bill in the winter is no different than it is in the summer (excluding AC).

 

[Nicole6]

Thank you. That's a more reassuring. I was envisioning giving the electric company the money I was "saving" on fuel oil.

 

[Slvrmple72]

Thanks for clarifying. Based on your setup you have your furnaces in parallel then which makes sense since you don't want to mess up the oil burner by sending hot air into it from the wood furnace when a thermostat upstairs is calling for heat. Do you have one thermostat running both furnaces then?

 

[Nicole6]

Thanks for clarifying. Based on your setup you have your furnaces in parallel then which makes sense since you don't want to mess up the oil burner by sending hot air into it from the wood furnace when a thermostat upstairs is calling for heat. Do you have one thermostat running both furnaces then?

Yes, they're set up parallel--or at least trying to be parallel

The wood burner doesn't have a thermostat. You can get an add-on draft induction kit that includes a regular thermostat which kicks on another blower to blow air on the fire when the temp drops below the thermostat setting. The wood furnace came with a thermodisc that triggers the small stove blowers to kick on. I just have my regular oil furnace thermostat upstairs.

The parallel installation is supposed to be designed so that you can have the wood furnace and the oil furnace running at the same time if needed. Today with the fire going and me manually kicking on the oil furnace fan to move the heat, the oil burner didn't come on at all. I had the house well above what I have the oil heat set at (which isn't very high anyway).

 

[Slvrmple72]

I would avoid the add-on draft induction kit. You will be burning more wood than you need to. It is more suited to burning coal. The more you blow on a fire the faster it will combust and if you are using good seasoned hardwood then that will be overkill provided your furnaces are sized correctly for the square footage you are trying to heat. Do they have an add on kit for hot water? I have an old Treemont fireplace insert in the basement fireplace and despite protests from the wife set up copper lines to capture heat from it to assist the ole water heater. She isn't complaining about the extra hot water for her baths!

 

[Slvrmple72]

Never mind about the hot water kit I found this!
http://www.hilkoil.com/product.htm

Can't beat finding the supplier.