I just wanted to know how you guys with the add-on style indoor wood furnaces have your fans and any other electrical items associated with the units hooked up. Mine which was in the house when I bought it last April just has a plug for the blowers with no switch type control. I plan on hooking something up to the furnace to shut the blowers off when it gets below a certain temp (mainly for night) but would like to know what other things you guys might do to keep a steady temp in the house.
Electrical controls on Wood Furnace
- Thread starter kdzjeff
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wdchuck
Addicted to ArboristSite
There is a disc limit switch(on110/off90) on my add-on's warm air housing that controls the add-on warm-air blower, the power cord is just plugged in.
The F/A furnace works in conjunction with the add-on via a cambistat; an adjustable temperature type switch with a 5" probe that is mounted on the hot air plenum, mine is set at 130*on, 90*off. When using this to control the F/A fan the thermostat is in the AUTO position. As long as the add-on supplies hot enough air the cycle continues, when it stops then it's time to add some wood or stir the coals.
If I don't want to use this, then I leave the F/A fan in the ON position, and the fan runs constantly. This is the choice when it's going to be below zero at night, the thremostat can be programmed to HOLD a set temp and when the wood furnace is no longer supplying enough heat then the F/A furnace carries the temp the last couple hours of the morning.
The cambistat is around $40, available at an HVAC supply house, easy to wire in, just ask the supplier where to put the wires on your particular furnace.
Hope this helps.
The www.DAKA.com has the whole setup in PDF.(when the site is up, anyway)
The F/A furnace works in conjunction with the add-on via a cambistat; an adjustable temperature type switch with a 5" probe that is mounted on the hot air plenum, mine is set at 130*on, 90*off. When using this to control the F/A fan the thermostat is in the AUTO position. As long as the add-on supplies hot enough air the cycle continues, when it stops then it's time to add some wood or stir the coals.
If I don't want to use this, then I leave the F/A fan in the ON position, and the fan runs constantly. This is the choice when it's going to be below zero at night, the thremostat can be programmed to HOLD a set temp and when the wood furnace is no longer supplying enough heat then the F/A furnace carries the temp the last couple hours of the morning.
The cambistat is around $40, available at an HVAC supply house, easy to wire in, just ask the supplier where to put the wires on your particular furnace.
Hope this helps.
The www.DAKA.com has the whole setup in PDF.(when the site is up, anyway)
Last edited:
jab6
ArboristSite Lurker
the way i have mine set up is real simple...you can go to lowes and get a 110 volt thermastat made by honeywell...my stove is in the basement so i drilled a small hole in the floor just below where i mounted my thermastat..cut 1 wire that goes from the plug to the fan and spiced in my thermastat...the wood furnace keeps it so hot in the house the gas furnace never turns on...
wdchuck...the disc switch is what I think I have ordered. So is it safe to say your blower is running most of the time you are burning wood? And how often then does your F/A fan operate? And they would run no matter the temp in the house? I did a search for cambistat and only found tree growth regulator, any other words or links I could use that you know of?
jab...so do you have one thermostat for the wood furnace and one for the gas furnace?
jab...so do you have one thermostat for the wood furnace and one for the gas furnace?
drmiller100
ArboristSite Guru
it costs something stupid like 40 cents a day to run your home furnace fan only.
much cheaper then running the furnace, and it spreads the warmth around the house sooooo well....
much cheaper then running the furnace, and it spreads the warmth around the house sooooo well....
jab6
ArboristSite Lurker
thermastat
yes i have one themastat for the wood furnace and one for the gas furnace...gas furnace set on 60...wood furnace set on 80..----->wife..lol..gas furnace never runs all winter long...
yes i have one themastat for the wood furnace and one for the gas furnace...gas furnace set on 60...wood furnace set on 80..----->wife..lol..gas furnace never runs all winter long...
wdchuck
Addicted to ArboristSite
Camstat is the name, brain was hung-up on a thread here about cambistat, sorry.
The disc switch only controls the wood furnace fan, on @ 110*, off @ 90*, runs 23-1/2+ hrs/day.
The camsat is a heat regulated switch, adjustable with a 25*difference in on/off temperatures. With the house furnace thermostat in AUTO, the hot air from the wood furnace blows into the hot air plenum of the house furnace and builds up heat, when it gets to the temp you set, the main fan comes on and runs until the plenum temperature cools enough for the camstat to open. This cycle is frequent in the beginning of the burning cycle and gets much less frequent when there is only a small bed of coals remaining.
.....When using this setup, if your main house furnace has a plastic type secondary, you need to have a backdraft damper put in the hot air plenum, if not, it can ruin the furnace. Now, if your furnace has a stainless steel secondary then you have less to worry about, but the A-coil will still need to be protected from the wood furnace hot air, if you have C/A.
Yes, house temp does not matter, the wood furnace keeps going, you can have some effect on this by damping the wood furnace down, but you'll invite creosote build-up, and more frequent chimney cleanings.
....You could always walk around less dressed, crack a window, not feed the fire constantly, just have shorter/fewer burn cycles.
....Some mfgr's. have combustion blowers that will run off a seperate thermostat and that blower comes on when the thermostat calls for heat, and the fire is damped to a minimum the rest of the time.
With our very old, drafty, uninsulated 3000sq/ft, two-story farmhouse, the average house temperature has yet to exceed 74* on a typical winter day. When it's -5*, windy, the exterior areas of any room are noticeably cooler, 68* for a house temp, with exterior areas having a 5* drop.
In a modern home, we'd be runnin around naked and sweatin.
The disc switch only controls the wood furnace fan, on @ 110*, off @ 90*, runs 23-1/2+ hrs/day.
The camsat is a heat regulated switch, adjustable with a 25*difference in on/off temperatures. With the house furnace thermostat in AUTO, the hot air from the wood furnace blows into the hot air plenum of the house furnace and builds up heat, when it gets to the temp you set, the main fan comes on and runs until the plenum temperature cools enough for the camstat to open. This cycle is frequent in the beginning of the burning cycle and gets much less frequent when there is only a small bed of coals remaining.
.....When using this setup, if your main house furnace has a plastic type secondary, you need to have a backdraft damper put in the hot air plenum, if not, it can ruin the furnace. Now, if your furnace has a stainless steel secondary then you have less to worry about, but the A-coil will still need to be protected from the wood furnace hot air, if you have C/A.
Yes, house temp does not matter, the wood furnace keeps going, you can have some effect on this by damping the wood furnace down, but you'll invite creosote build-up, and more frequent chimney cleanings.
....You could always walk around less dressed, crack a window, not feed the fire constantly, just have shorter/fewer burn cycles.
....Some mfgr's. have combustion blowers that will run off a seperate thermostat and that blower comes on when the thermostat calls for heat, and the fire is damped to a minimum the rest of the time.
With our very old, drafty, uninsulated 3000sq/ft, two-story farmhouse, the average house temperature has yet to exceed 74* on a typical winter day. When it's -5*, windy, the exterior areas of any room are noticeably cooler, 68* for a house temp, with exterior areas having a 5* drop.
In a modern home, we'd be runnin around naked and sweatin.
Last edited:
wdchuck
Addicted to ArboristSite
One of the guys here changed his duct routing, ran his wood furnace in series with the regular furnace, has some pics too.
Basically ran duct from the hot air plenum to the bottom of the wood furnace, removed the wood furnace fan, and had an equal amount of duct running back to the hot air plenum. This way only the larger, distribution fan runs, based on a temp switch. Another way to approach this.
....But you have to reverse it or block it off when using the air/conditioner or you'll rust out the wood burner from condensation.
Basically ran duct from the hot air plenum to the bottom of the wood furnace, removed the wood furnace fan, and had an equal amount of duct running back to the hot air plenum. This way only the larger, distribution fan runs, based on a temp switch. Another way to approach this.
....But you have to reverse it or block it off when using the air/conditioner or you'll rust out the wood burner from condensation.
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