daka forced air wood furnace?

What are you needing to know? I run one for going on 4 years now.

aandabooks - Any pictures of how you have your's set up? I'm wondering if I really need to put the anti-backdraft dampers in the output pipes or not.

Mine runs good. I haven't had any problems with it. If you do the normal maintenance and oil the moving parts. I have dampers in each of the 8" pipes. They are just the sheet metal plates. I close them in the summer so the air conditioner doesn't flow into the Daka's jacket.

I really don't have a comparison for wood usage. I consume between 3-5 cords per winter. My house is heated on all three levels, 2000 sq. ft. and pretty well insulated. It will keep the house at 75 F down to about 20 F outside. After that it starts slipping and if it is below 0 F outside, I might need an occasional assist from the NG Furnace.

The thing to remember with the Daka is it is about the cheapest woodburning furnace on the market that is rated at that size. You could spend more and the other furnaces might be better but I think the Daka is a pretty good bang for the buck unit. I like that it is in the basement and not taking up living space. The mess stays down there and I don't have the wife mad all the time because of the wood/ash mess in the livingroom. My FIL hears it all the time.

Here's a pic. It is up on blocks about 3" high. It seems to promote better airflow up the jacket.

Do you have it plumbed into your furnace plenum or straight into your duct work? My house is a standard ranch style with a full basement that will be heated also. I'm pretty sure I have less square footage than you, so I think I'll be OK as far as heat output. I'm planning on tying my Daka's into my existing cold air return. As far as the backdraft dampers go, I'll put one in each output pipe and then one in each pipe leading from the cold air return to the Daka's intake.

I'm into the plenum above the air conditioner coil. I don't think I'd put it into the cold air return on the furnace because then wouldn't you be blowing the heat through the air conditioner coil? I've heard some people claim that this could damage a coil.

To my knowledge, and this is unless I missed something, the Daka doesn't have an intake. There is the filter box on the back that surrounds the blower. I find that leaving a casement window in the furnace room partially open more than suffices for fresh air. A page in the installation manual covers this subject.

The other thing with the Daka is that you don't have control of the blower on it. It is on a snap disc controller and turns on when the jacket reaches 110F. The couple of years I had mine, I installed a secondary control in the plenum to make the blower on the furnace turn on and off at certain temps. I find that I have better control of the heat in the house just running the blower on the main furnace myself. I always seemed to be letting it kick off and then waiting for it to turn on when I got the plenum up to temp.

I plan to plumb the output pipes into my plenum above the AC coil, like you have yours installed. I believe that my system already has a fan control as my thermostat upstairs has a "ON" and "AUTO" setting. Is my thinking correct on that?

As far as the "intake" goes, I guess I should have specified what I am doing a little better. I'm going to build a duct to connect the house cold air return to the filter box of the Daka. My cold air return also has a outside air make-up line coming into it right above where I'm going to tie into. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/ikessky/100_6958.jpg

I thought you were suggesting going into the cold air return before the coil. Right into the plenum is the way they recommend. The add on was a Honeywell snap disc controller thermostat that was attached to the plenum. The same thermostat that is in a furnace below the heating element. I'm happier with mine just controlling it from the livingroom thermostat.

Bringing the cold air return to the back of the Daka is an excellent idea. I don't have room for it with the way mine is situated. Right behind mine is a masonry chimney and still further back in the room is the hot water heater and a water softener. If I brought the cold air return around to the filter box, I wouldn't be able to access the other appliances in the room.

I have my FIL coming over to help with the duct work and setup. He's pretty knowledgable in this type of stuff.

Thanks for the tip on raising the Daka a few inches off the floor. Wisconsin winters can get pretty cold, so anything I can do right away to make this more effecient will help out. I'll be burning a lot of maple, oak, and ash, so I'm hoping to get some good heat moving.