Oil Furnace Blower Speed

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charly

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Wondering what would be the best way to slow down my forced hot air blower speed. I'd like to circulate my woodstove heat, thru my house at a very gentle speed. I see variable speed motors can be big money. Perhaps changing the motor pulley size? Then again would I be screwing myself if the oil needed to come on, using a slow blower speed ? Just wondering if anyone else has ever attempted to do this, and what worked. Any feedback would be great :)
 
Most often this approach does not work due to heat loss in the ductwork. However, many folks get good results by using a fan, on the floor, blowing air from the cooler zone of the house towards the room with the woodstove. This sets up natural convective currents that can do a nice job of distributing the heat. Low speed on a box or 12" table fan works fine for this purpose.

That said, there may already be a multispeed blower on the furnace. Look to see if there is a 2 wire or multi-wire bundle coming out of the motor. If multiwire, look at the motor nameplate for the color code of the speed taps. But don't lose track of the current speed and connections. You'll want to return back to that setting to run the oil furnace. There is a risk of overheating the furnace if the fan speed is too slow.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll check things out , see what works once the heating season comes around. 94 °F is forecast for the next couple of days here,yikes!!
 
do you plan on hooking up yur wood stove into the duct work?
 
No, , not hooking the woodstove into the duct work. I was just going to try to move some air, to a couple of rooms, towards the other side of the house. For the most part, the house is pretty open.
 
It shouldn't be necessary and would be a serious code violation.
 
One that ends up harming someone.
 
BeGreen said:
One that ends up harming someone.
Cute, but not a very good answer, I was trying to learn something but not today I guess.
 
Sorry, it came of as a flippant question, such is the internet. Code states the return air register must be at least 10 ft from the stove. It's been mentioned in previous several threads if you want the actual article.
 
I was thinking he had a stove that hooked into the plenium (sp?) on his forced air furnace.
 
Based on the other posts, I don't think the stove is bought yet or that the intent is a direct connect. This seemed more in the realm of the theoretical. In order for a stove to be connectible to an existing heating system it needs to be tested and certified as safe and compliant with the regs for furnaces.
 
No, stove hasn't been bought yet. Chimney guy comes today, going to install a liner in the existing chimney. Going to look at a few more stoves. Quadrafire 5700 might be in the works.
 
BeGreen said:
Based on the other posts, I don't think the stove is bought yet or that the intent is a direct connect. This seemed more in the realm of the theoretical. In order for a stove to be connectible to an existing heating system it needs to be tested and certified as safe and compliant with the regs for furnaces.
I should have posted I was thinking he was thinking about buying a furnace type stove, but as some one stated in a post probably not going to gain you much.
 
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