Help please!! hot blast 1557 will not keep house warm

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trav787

New Member
Nov 26, 2013
9
Cumberland,MD
So this year I bought a brand new hot blast forced air furnace and it will not keep my 1100 sq ft house warm when temps get below 30 degrees. I have tried everything. The unit is enclosed outside of house. 15' of 6" chimney so draft should be fine. Unit in tied into central duct work via 12" duct pipe.

Thanks in advance for any help as I have a 2 yo and temps dropped to -2 this week
 
Rated at 139,000 btu according to specs. I would take that with a grain of salt. That said...an 1100 sqft house shouldn't require over 80,000 btu (or even much less). I run an 80,000 furnace (forced air) to heat 1750 sqft of old under-insulated farmhouse on a hill with no issues. So you issues lend itself to "heat produced" and distribution.

Please explain your operation of the hot blast. Loading, fuel (how long cut/split/stacked), operating temps, etc....
 
The wood furnace is tied into the plenum for the central heat/air. I have an electric furnace also but it's really hard on electric. My wood is seasoned ash and red oak stored under roof 20-24" long most 4-6" diameter.the wood furnace is struggling to keep house at 66° on 30° days. I bought this unit as to replace broken Englander pellet stove. If you need more specific information let me know what you need to know
 
Define "seasoned".
Also - do you know what type of run temps the furnace is running at? Do you know what kind of hot air temps are being run into the ductwork?

Will the electric actually heat the house? And if so, what kind of duct temps does it heat the air to?

You need to have some kind of info to tell you where the weak link is. Is it running the wood furnace too cool? Is the heated air too low to be effective? Etc. Need more info. A digital kitchen probe and a small hole in the duct work can yield a bunch of useful info. You can always use a screw or something to repair the hole when you are done (or duct tape or JB weld or something).
 
I will pick up a probe and let you know the answers to these this evening. Yes the electric heats the house fine just very costly. The the wood has been seasoned under roof for approximately 14 months. And it feel like air from wood furnace just isn't warm enough to be effective
 
trav787 said:
And it feel like air from wood furnace just isn't warm enough to be effective
Click to expand...

I believe you are on to it here. Get your temp readings and then you will have a baseline to compare the two furnace outputs and what will be needed out of the wood furnace to do the job.

Do you know the btu rating of the electric furnace? That is another spec that would be interesting.
 
Do you have a model number for this furnace? I'd like to look it up just to get a better idea about it. (Ignore that first line, I just realized you did have the model # listed already) You said its enclosed outside and has duct work running to it. Is this duct work insulated and how long is it? I agree with Jags, get some temperature readings in that duct work. I'd check four places,

Once in the return vent just as it leaves the house.
Once in the return vent a few inches from the wood furnace.
Once in the supply vent a few inches from the furance.
and once in the supply vent just as its entering the house.
 
Last edited:
These are a basic firebox furnace, and that's it. They will produce the btu's listed, probably more with a 6.5 cuft firebox. We had one for 25 years or so here. If you have the furnace outside, your losing alot of heat. These furnaces produce quite a bit of jacket loss, and the front is all steel producing a bit of heat. Our home before upgrades had terrible air loss, poor insulation and we heated 2400 sqft, tall ceilings plus a 1200 sqft basement to 80. How is your return tied into the system? Like I say, your experiencing alot of heat loss.
 
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Can you post a picture? Also describe the supply and return connection in detail including insulation.
 
Yeah, if it's outside, you're losing tons of heat. Mine would keep my 1600 sq ft ranch in the mid 70s on any day, no matter how cold, and the drafty basement in the upper 60s.

The basement had no warm air ducted into it. That heat was all from the cabinet and front of the furnace, and little bit of duct loss.

laynes69 is correct, it is a heat monster. A monster that can chew through enormous quantities of wood.
 
Sorry guys been really busy last day or so. Water froze and busted water line going to house so had to fix that. On a more positive note I did find one small problem with furnace and fixed it. Apparently while I was out of town at work my father in law decided fire box didn't hold enough wood so he removed 2 baffle deals out of inside of firebox. Once I reinstalled these the air coming out of register is noticably warmer. I will get readings and try to post up pics as soon as I get a few minutes
 
trav787 said:
On a more positive note I did find one small problem with furnace and fixed it. Apparently while I was out of town at work my father in law decided fire box didn't hold enough wood so he removed 2 baffle deals out of inside of firebox. Once I reinstalled these the air coming out of register is noticably warmer.
Click to expand...

Oy vey!! Family!
 
Also, 14 month old seasoned red oak is not really very dry. Generally speaking oak needs 2+ years to dry out and burn hot. 3+ years is even better.
 
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Yep wet wood. Hotblast is really a coal furnace- that said it can burn wood as an after thought. So ya might try some coal for this year until ya get your wood dry enough.
 
Nice to see someone on here from my area
 
Ok so as an update. Furnace up and going again. Still not 100%. But at least it's heating a bit more than it was but now blower fans are going on and off every few minutes. Temps were 125° at discharge on stove and roughly 110° coming out of registers. Electric furnace only about 95°out of registers but blowing much more volume
 
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