There is an old wood furnace in our house that is hooked up to our propane forced-air furnace in the basement. We don't know a very much about the wood furnace. The woman we bought the house from said her parents used to only heat the house with wood and electric baseboard heat.They had the gas furnace installed a few years ago, and the wood furnace is hooked up to the gas furnace.
We had no plans to use the wood furnace until last Thursday when our propane supplier called us and told us propane was up to $5.99/gallon (we paid $1.99/gallon back in November so we were pretty shocked). After spending almost $700 for 110 gallons of propane, we decided that it was time to try out the wood furnace because there is no way we can afford to heat our house with propane at this time.
We are not at all prepared to heat with wood, but we really don't have a choice now. I'm pretty sure the wood furnace is homemade. It seems to be build pretty well. The sides stay cool enough to touch while a fire is going. What we are confused about is how it works. There is a big steel box attached to the side of it, and we assume it used to be the blower for the furnace because it is attached to duct work that is not attached to the gas furnace. Except now, it sucks air out of the unused floor vents and into the wood furnace when it turns on so I guess it's now a cold air return. The ducting that comes out of the top of the wood furnace is attached to the plenum of the gas furnace, so when the cold air return comes on, the gas furnaces blower motor turns on and sends the heat up through the new ducting and floor vents. There is a damper on the front of the wood furnace, and it looks like it should be automatic, but the motor seems to be seized up so we have been opening it and closing it ourselves.
I have been using the top-down method to start fires, and I am having much better luck with the furnace than my husband. I'm using the north-south orientation when I load the wood. I am not using as much wood as I would like because our wood supply is very limited until we get a delivery (hopefully) in the next couple of days, and the temps could get down to -20 in the next two days. I can usually get the house up to about 61 degrees. I let the fire burn down and start it back up in 4-5 hours when the temperature gets down to around 57.
I guess my main question is about what I think is the cold-air return/intake. Is it making this process more or less efficient? Part of me feels that it's a waste of electricity (which is also insanely expensive up here) and make the wood burn too fast, but the other part of me feels that it must make the wood burn hotter and therefore is better for creating more heat. I'm assuming part of the reason the wood is burning so fast is because it's really old, too dry, and some of it is pine. Also, any tips to make this process work better? Buying a new wood furnace is not an option at this time. I just feel like I am putting in a lot of work and I'm still pretty cold.
Sorry about the long post, but I'm at a loss right now, and I'm kind of panicking because there doesn't seem to be any relief coming in the weather or propane prices. We have our gas furnace set to kick on if the house gets to 50 degrees, and it hasn't kicked on since we started using wood. We plan to use wood again next year and will actually be prepared for it. I will really appreciate any advice!
Cassie
We had no plans to use the wood furnace until last Thursday when our propane supplier called us and told us propane was up to $5.99/gallon (we paid $1.99/gallon back in November so we were pretty shocked). After spending almost $700 for 110 gallons of propane, we decided that it was time to try out the wood furnace because there is no way we can afford to heat our house with propane at this time.
We are not at all prepared to heat with wood, but we really don't have a choice now. I'm pretty sure the wood furnace is homemade. It seems to be build pretty well. The sides stay cool enough to touch while a fire is going. What we are confused about is how it works. There is a big steel box attached to the side of it, and we assume it used to be the blower for the furnace because it is attached to duct work that is not attached to the gas furnace. Except now, it sucks air out of the unused floor vents and into the wood furnace when it turns on so I guess it's now a cold air return. The ducting that comes out of the top of the wood furnace is attached to the plenum of the gas furnace, so when the cold air return comes on, the gas furnaces blower motor turns on and sends the heat up through the new ducting and floor vents. There is a damper on the front of the wood furnace, and it looks like it should be automatic, but the motor seems to be seized up so we have been opening it and closing it ourselves.
I have been using the top-down method to start fires, and I am having much better luck with the furnace than my husband. I'm using the north-south orientation when I load the wood. I am not using as much wood as I would like because our wood supply is very limited until we get a delivery (hopefully) in the next couple of days, and the temps could get down to -20 in the next two days. I can usually get the house up to about 61 degrees. I let the fire burn down and start it back up in 4-5 hours when the temperature gets down to around 57.
I guess my main question is about what I think is the cold-air return/intake. Is it making this process more or less efficient? Part of me feels that it's a waste of electricity (which is also insanely expensive up here) and make the wood burn too fast, but the other part of me feels that it must make the wood burn hotter and therefore is better for creating more heat. I'm assuming part of the reason the wood is burning so fast is because it's really old, too dry, and some of it is pine. Also, any tips to make this process work better? Buying a new wood furnace is not an option at this time. I just feel like I am putting in a lot of work and I'm still pretty cold.
Sorry about the long post, but I'm at a loss right now, and I'm kind of panicking because there doesn't seem to be any relief coming in the weather or propane prices. We have our gas furnace set to kick on if the house gets to 50 degrees, and it hasn't kicked on since we started using wood. We plan to use wood again next year and will actually be prepared for it. I will really appreciate any advice!
Cassie
