Power out! Add on wood furnace help.

[Bwhunter85]

In Michigan without power. What could go wrong if I started a fire in add on wood furnace without to power blowers? Just looking for the radiant heat to come up through duct work. The unit gets hot without blowers on. Hotblast unit . Thanks and merry Christmas!

 

[Fred61]

Those heat exchangers aren't much thicker than a tin can. You can warp it or burn through it. If you burn through it or cause it to crack then you're threatening your live and the lives of your loved ones with carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

[laynes69]

We were without power about 10 years ago here. As long as you keep a small fire, it will be fine. Just don't expect to keep the house very warm. We did it to keep the pipes from freezing in the basement and it did okay. That unit doesn't have a heat exchanger, it's a 7 gauge firebox. If you have a filter box, make sure to remove the filter, or better yet, you can remove one of the side panels to help radiate the heat. The manual specifies power outages, and that's to remove the filter, and not load above the fuel door.

 

[Woodman37]

I would recommend getting a generator just big enough to run your blower on your hotblast. Won't take much to run that plus you'll be warm which is always a good thing.