To OAK or not to OAK? That is the question.
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bag of hammers
Minister of Fire
BrotherBart said:
great link - that's a good balance to the argument.
fwiw - I was a step away from purchasing my stove from that shop - they had a Kent (I think it was the RoseBay) with the 3-side glass,etc - built like a tank. My insurance company got the jitters (I'm in Canada - the stove was sold in the US - no CSA tag - sigh....). Not like it wasn't safe. Arguing with the insurance company is not my forte.
The owner (tom Oyen) was great at answering a million questions. I just never asked about OAK at the time.
bag of hammers
Minister of Fire
VCBurner said:
yes - that's my situation - building my own place - very well insulated and wrapped. And I also have a pedestal stove with OAK access underneath. John's experience is extremely helpful to me as well. Thanks....
TMonter
Minister of Fire
A lot of the complaints I've heard with OAK's has been with people who install the intake on one side of the house usually on the leeward side of the general wind direction which can cause a negative pressure zone on the intake of the OAK and cause a reverse drafting effect. This problem can be avoided with good duct design, using a larger intake than normally required or connecting the OAK to a tee ducting that extends to both sides of the house to prevent the low pressure effect.
The biggest problem I've seen with OAK's in my experience is people not paying attention to typical outside conditions outside their house and lacking knowledge of how ducting and pressure drops work they install the OAK intake in the wrong location causing problems.
The biggest problem I've seen with OAK's in my experience is people not paying attention to typical outside conditions outside their house and lacking knowledge of how ducting and pressure drops work they install the OAK intake in the wrong location causing problems.
semipro
Minister of Fire
VCBurner said:Thanks Semipro,
Sounds very intersting. I'm not familiar with data loggers or the idea of a heat recovery ventilator. But, I understand numbers and charts well enough to log data by hand and draw conclusions from it. I'd love to understand more about your operation. I also run a heat reclaimer(not connected at the moment), which uses heat from flue gasses in the pipe connectors to blow hot air. The magic heat puts out up to 30,000 btu's. The idea of sucking in air from outside to run through such a device sounds excellentGreat reply, thanks again.
Thanks to Highbeam and Blimp for the clarification on the HRV. In case anyone is interested here's a link to the data logger I'm using. http://www.iobridge.com/
Its amazingly easy to use needing only an Ethernet connection and power. The data you collect is stored online and can easily be accessed. I'm planning to use it next heating season to monitor heat distribution from our stove to the rest of the house.
Cheers.
btuser
Minister of Fire
When I was installing my insert I had to remove the grate that was part of the air intake. I thought about drilling a 2" round hole exactly above the intake into the stove, but instead added some thick washers to the bottom front to jack it up 1/8", not a lot, but there's a gap. When the stove is running I can feel a draft coming from the bottom and when there's no fire there's no perceivable draft, either inside near the stove or outside at the intake.
With the stove not running there's no difference in temp at the gap inside and a 0-2 degree rise outside at the intake (checked with a infrared thermometer)
With the stove running the temp at that very small gap drops about 5 degrees, and a trail of smoke shows a definate path to the stove's air intake.
If anything, it eliminates the drafts in other places. All stoves have an oak. The air has to come from somewhere.
With the stove not running there's no difference in temp at the gap inside and a 0-2 degree rise outside at the intake (checked with a infrared thermometer)
With the stove running the temp at that very small gap drops about 5 degrees, and a trail of smoke shows a definate path to the stove's air intake.
If anything, it eliminates the drafts in other places. All stoves have an oak. The air has to come from somewhere.
Just OAK it. I did and found thst with MY setup it didn't do jack !@% but I have it so I have it hooked up. You won't know until you try and I won't even have an absolute "didn't do jack" answer until sometime next season. But If you hook it up its something more to play with 
Semipro said:VCBurner said:Thanks Semipro,
Sounds very intersting. I'm not familiar with data loggers or the idea of a heat recovery ventilator. But, I understand numbers and charts well enough to log data by hand and draw conclusions from it. I'd love to understand more about your operation. I also run a heat reclaimer(not connected at the moment), which uses heat from flue gasses in the pipe connectors to blow hot air. The magic heat puts out up to 30,000 btu's. The idea of sucking in air from outside to run through such a device sounds excellent
Thanks to Highbeam and Blimp for the clarification on the HRV. In case anyone is interested here's a link to the data logger I'm using. http://www.iobridge.com/
Its amazingly easy to use needing only an Ethernet connection and power. The data you collect is stored online and can easily be accessed. I'm planning to use it next heating season to monitor heat distribution from our stove to the rest of the house.
Cheers.
I just looked up the HRV and thew data logger. Both sound like great ideas! Thank you!
Also thanks Highbeam and Blimp for the answers.
76ER
New Member
Hello all...I've got a question...I plan on putting an OAK onto my stove for next season but want to customize it a little bit. I would like to put an off shoot from the oak that would allow me to draw room temp air on start ups and with the swing of a couple valves I would be drawing outside air once the stove gets going...like a bypass..it is possible but am I breaking any codes by doing this?
Cheers Ian
Cheers Ian
semipro
Minister of Fire
76ER said:
Ian,
You could do that but I'm not sure why you would go to the trouble when all you have to do is open a door on your stove to accomplish the same thing. Maybe your stove doesn't allow that?
Funny, this reminded me that my father always opened a nearby door or window when starting our fireplace to increase the draft. Kind of the opposite of what you want to do.
76ER
New Member
Semipro,
Yep!..opening the door would do the trick...my old PE Vista recommended against leaving the door open during operation but my new Drolet does mention opening the door on start up...leading up to the first man in space NASA put a lot of time and money into developing a pen that would write in zero gravity...the Russians brought pencils...
Ian
Yep!..opening the door would do the trick...my old PE Vista recommended against leaving the door open during operation but my new Drolet does mention opening the door on start up...leading up to the first man in space NASA put a lot of time and money into developing a pen that would write in zero gravity...the Russians brought pencils...
Ian
CarbonNeutral
Minister of Fire
John_M said:
You do imply this in your post, but the biggest change could just be the wood stove, with warmer, dryer (relatively) air in the main living space. Unless you had installed an OAK on a previously installed stove you can't be sure it's the OAK.
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