I own a ranch style house with 2400 sq. feet, not including the full basement. My furnace and all duct work is in the attic. I installed a wood furnace in the basement and tried running an 8 inch duct to the plenum in the attic. My problem is trying to move enough air to the plenum in the attic, filling it and having heat come out the 13 vents in the system. I installed a 4 speed blower on the wood furnace, ran it on high with very little improvement. the run from the basement to the attic was about 30 feet plus about 13 feet of rise. without blowing all the heat out in the basement the only thing I am heating is the plenum and duct work on the furnace. Does any body have any suggestions that would make this work out for me?
whole house heat???
- Thread starter badtry
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HUSKYMAN
Addicted to ArboristSite
If you run the furnace fan and the fan in the basement does it blow any heat out the vents?
HUSKYMAN
Addicted to ArboristSite
Also with that kind of duct work a whole lot of ceiling fans are going to be needed.
Festus Haggen
ArboristSite Operative
Without a cold air return of proper size your system will never work properly. You're basically pressurizing the supply side, the cold air has nowhere to go, so the blower is working 10x harder than it needs to and still isn't moving heat. Your system needs to be balanced and have proper circulation, you need a source of air for that furnace to heat, now you're probably producing negative pressure in the basement, which is a good way to suck smoke and other not nice things back into the house. Calculate the proper size for the ducts, both supply and return. If you can't do this, find someone who can. The system WILL work, I heat my odd layout of 1400 sq ft solely with a wood furnace. Hope this helps.
ericjeeper
Addicted to ArboristSite
Wow what an odd setup
I would throw some new FLOOR registers in and a few feet of ductwork in the basement. If nothing else just a couple of ducts to a few registers.
I would throw some new FLOOR registers in and a few feet of ductwork in the basement. If nothing else just a couple of ducts to a few registers.
58hydraglide
ArboristSite Operative
You HAVE to be able to pull the cold air from the main floor to the wood furnace.(i.e circulate the air throughout the house) Similar to what your existing furnace does. As Festus said, you need to determine the volume of air that needs to be ducted to your wood furnace. Any cold air ducting will help, but the proper size will make all of the difference in the world. My .02 cents, hire a heating and air contractor to calculate and run the return duct work and it will pay for itself many times over.
the other posts are what you are looking for .
you need to pull hot air not push it .
get yourself a small DJ fogger like they sell around halloween and fill a room full of fog and see whats going on.
you will then see how air is being moved around and also how having a return air duct at the top of the room for winter and the bottom for summer .
you need to pull hot air not push it .
get yourself a small DJ fogger like they sell around halloween and fill a room full of fog and see whats going on.
you will then see how air is being moved around and also how having a return air duct at the top of the room for winter and the bottom for summer .
Husky137
Addicted to ArboristSite
An 8" line isn't going to feed the whole system either.
mga
wandering
how does it attach to the wood boiler?
laynes69
Addicted to ArboristSite
Sounds like an englander with a 8" outlet. No matter what you do, thats definitely not enough to heat 2400 square feet. I would duct it in the basement as a stand alone unit, and be done with it. I believe there are no other ways to use it properly with a setup like that.
PA Plumber
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yep.
I'm guessing you need about a little over 3 ton of A/C to cool your house. Change that over to heating load and your looking at about 1200 cfm's for proper air movement to heat consistently.
An 8" duct at a .1 static pressure is only moving 200 cfms at best, and this is with proper "make up" air returned back to the unit.
What about setting up another duct run in the basement using a central return? It won't be perfect, but do pretty well and you could keep the fan on the attic unit running to help circulate the air.
the stove says ORC lacrosse on the door. And this sounds way to complicated for me to make it work. Sounds like getting enough air to the plenum would take a real big duct. Think ill have to do the basement run and maybe update to a bigger furnace. Gonna have to convince my wife to let me cut holes in the floor, or else freeze! Tractor supply has a 1557 hotblast on sale for 859.00, think that would be enough? My house was built all elect. in 1974 with double drywall and seems to be well insulated, the attic needs a few more inches of ins. The stove is centered in the basement so I would need about a 35 ft. run to get to the back bedroom, is that too long?
Ken05
ArboristSite Member
One other thing to add. A wood furnace burns at about half or less of the temp of an oil/gas burner. Also the the heat exchange rate is much lower so a high cfm blower is just going take heat off the wood furnace at a rate much faster than it can recover. That is why you only have 8" duct openings and the factory blowers for wood furnaces are low/variable cfm.
It seems unlikely that you would be able to use the existing duct work with any success.
A more viable option would be adding short runs of insulated duct and registers through the floor of the main floor and of course as others have mention - adequate return air.
Wow! my brain is working good today - I better go get a beer.
It seems unlikely that you would be able to use the existing duct work with any success.
A more viable option would be adding short runs of insulated duct and registers through the floor of the main floor and of course as others have mention - adequate return air.
Wow! my brain is working good today - I better go get a beer.
Ken05
ArboristSite Member
Sure - he thought of all that while I was typing the last one. Sheesh.
PA Plumber
Addicted to ArboristSite
A real HVAC guy would probably be able to help you with a lot more than I, but I'll give it a go. Haven't done any HVAC stuff in a few years.
Here's an idea I have kicked around but haven't put into practice. It may be total hogwash, but it's still an idea.
You wouldn't have to cut a bunch of open holes in the open part of the floor. You could cut in return grills on inside walls in the wall space. Just cut a 14 x 8 opening, through the drywall, in a wall space about 6 to 8" off the floor. Use a right angle drill and drill out the flooring, in the wall space, with a 2 1/2 to 3" wood bit (you'll need about 4 holes). The air from the basement should be able to rise up through the wall space and out the grill. I would also take a piece of fiberglass duct(or something similar) and seal off the space above the new grill. Just do one and see if you notice the heat coming up through.
You would have to pan off the joist spaces with cardboard, to the duct, but it might work. Again, just an idea.
We do have a woodburner free standing stove in the basement. We just leave the door off to the basement, in the winter, and it heats pretty well.
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mga
wandering
why not put the wood burner on the main floor?
i heat my ranch (2,000 sq.ft.) with just a fireplace.
i heat my ranch (2,000 sq.ft.) with just a fireplace.
my house is 88 feet long and L shaped with the kitchen and den off to the side. I have a hitzer anthracite coal stove in the center of the main part of the house and cant get heat to the back bedroom or the kitchen and den. I have to burn wood in the fireplace insert to heat the den and kitchen. I want to try to eliminate the coal stove. Coal is about 200 bucks a ton and I have used 1.5 ton so far this winter. I tried to circulate air with the furnace, but it moves so much air it makes it feel cold. If I could slow the furnace blower down it seems like it would help???
mga
wandering
you can always change the blower to a three speed with a manual switch.
i have an L shape ranch too and my central air is in the attic. i put a manual switch for the blower next to the thermostat so i can control the air flow. when the a/c is off and i just want air flow, i run it on HI to MED. on a/c i run it LOW to MED, depending on the humidity. however, i block and close it off during the winter. i plug all a/c vents with foan that i cut to size so that it isn't visible.
i had to install the a/c in the attic because i have hot water baseboard heat
i also have ceiling fans. the one in my living room runs 24/7 and is never turned off. the ceiling fans do push the warm air from the fireplace into other parts of the house. the coldest the master bedroom has ever been was 67 degrees.
unless you do it perfectly and, it appears, costly, you may not be able to get your idea to work efficiently.
