Outside air...

[Jackfre]

I've been reading over some of the posts related to OA. In my business I did a lot of work with make-up/combustion air on central heating equipment. I intend to add the connection for OA to my 2550 Encore. Rather than simply run it to the outside I am going to "pan" the floor joists below the stove to be able to draw some of the heat off the floor as it is heated by the stove. So, it will be the bottom of the floor, 2-3" open space and then a piece of sheetmetal as the base. This will, I think do two things. One, it will slightly pre-heat the combustion air and two it will cool the floor. I don't expect much heat to penetrate the floor with the new hearth, but I'll be curious to see how it goes. I think I'm going to throw a couple thermocouples in the floor to see. This likely won't be ready until next season, but, what do you think?

 

[begreen]

I don't think that would pass muster because sh!t happens. For example, what if there is a serious backpuff? Would there be exposed wood in its path?

 

[DougA]

+1 to what begreen posted. The OA connection is supposed to be metal.
Second - slightly preheating combustion air makes no sense to me. 100% of the air going in to my stove is outside air, which will be in the minus numbers tonight. I don't see any difference.
Third - why would you want to cool the floor? Kinda counter-intuitive in my mind.
Last - an OAK is designed to use outside air so that your stove will not draw air into the cold house. If the house is tight, like mine, it matters.