Ducting options for Englander 28-3500 furnace

Yes, that would be fine. If you are going to put it in the basement, it would be good to keep the door open so that the cold air can be pulled downstairs when the furnace's blower is running. Also, look into having a cold air return box made up to place around the blower so that you can put a filter on it and keep the air cleaner. I am looking into having one of these made right now for my Englander since the company does not make one for this unit. It will help filter the air before blowing it through your duct work.

Do not use flex duct. You can exceed the ratings of theflex duct. I've heard of people melting them running them with a woodfurnace. You need all galvanized ducting. Also you need to follow clearances with your ducting, for the floor above.

I have my unit tied directly into the hard trunk of my HVAC unit in my basment. From there, it feeds into several flex ducts supplying the floor registers. I use the 850 cfm blower on the Englander to push the air through the duct work and it works fine. I have a 2200 sq. ft. colonial and this unit has no problems heating the entire house even on cold days. This is my second winter with this furnace and I have never had a problem regarding the flex duct work. These are not forced draft furnaces therefore, their temperatures will not get as high. The warm air from the stove to the main trunk of my system is usually only between 100-120 degrees. As long as you have some type of hard trunk that you feed directly into first, you should not have a problem running flex duct off of that. However, I would not use any flex duct near the area of the hard truck where you will feed directly into from the furnace. Here is a link regarding temperature ratings:

http://www.rewci.com/6infldu25fol.html

ronoz said:

I have my unit tied directly into the hard trunk of my HVAC unit in my basment. From there, it feeds into several flex ducts supplying the floor registers. I use the 850 cfm blower on the Englander to push the air through the duct work and it works fine. I have a 2200 sq. ft. colonial and this unit has no problems heating the entire house even on cold days. This is my second winter with this furnace and I have never had a problem regarding the flex duct work. These are not forced draft furnaces therefore, their temperatures will not get as high. The warm air from the stove to the main trunk of my system is usually only between 100-120 degrees. As long as you have some type of hard trunk that you feed directly into first, you should not have a problem running flex duct off of that. However, I would not use any flex duct near the area of the hard truck where you will feed directly into from the furnace. Here is a link regarding temperature ratings:

http://www.rewci.com/6infldu25fol.html

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Keep in mind though that a large part of the installation requirements for clearances and such are based on what happens if the power goes out and there is no longer any blower to circulate the hot air out of the trunk area above the furnace... This isn't a problem with fossil units, as they won't burn w/o power, but the wood unit will keep on burning and putting out heat regardless... This can cause problems for some people when trying to tie into an existing duct system, as the clearance requirements for a fossil duct are less than they are for a wood duct...

Bottom line, follow the install instructions and requirements, along w/ any local codes...

My question for the OP, is what is he heating with now - unless its electric baseboard, I'd think he would be better off to tie into the existing heating system than to try and add forced air... (More money, but if I had to add something, I'd want to add hot water anyway...)

Gooserider

jreed said:

Gooserider, I am currently heating with electric baseboard and supplement with a wood stove. I dont have any ductwork in my house.

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Well obviously you can't tie in to electric with any other sort of heat... Definitely you'd need to retrofit some sort of distribution system, and the choices are air and water...

Air is somewhat cheaper to install, but will take more room out of the house, as ducts are big and high volume... It also tends to be noisier because of the blower, and have a higher operating cost simply because it takes more energy to move air around than it does to move water (Compare the power draws for a typical HVAC blower vs a hydronic circulator pump - both can move the same number of BTU's of heat, but at a tremendous cost difference...) Some will also claim that a forced air system is lower efficiency because the air circulation causes more air infiltration / exfiltration through the house structure...

Water is more expensive to install, but takes up less space, and will have a lower long term operating costs - it is also supposed to be just about silent in operation if done properly...

Gooserider