Powrmatic wood furnace?

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wabi_sabi_woman

New Member
Jan 11, 2010
1
North Georgia
I hope that someone out there can help me. I have an old (20+ years), massive (8' high, 4 1/2' deep and 2' wide) Powrmatic furnace in my basement. As my central heat was struck by lightning (long story), I would love to put this unit back into operation. I have no model number, the former owner is deceased and it's really cold right now here in Georgia. I can find nothing online and the only Powrmatic company listed in the US says they have not manufactured this since 1980 and have no manuals or information. The company in the UK was no help either. I was told that it was a "wood gas furnace", presumably meaning a wood gasification heating system. The late owner said that he heated the whole house with it and had never used any central heat. It has not been used for 20 years. The top part is made of 2 equal boxes, one of which attaches to the upstairs duct work and one to the main floor duct work. The body of the unit is, or was originally, blue. I removed a lower panel at the rear of the unit and found a blower and a motor, seemingly in perfect condition and well preserved. A part of the vent pipe coming from the left side of the main body is missing, but the rest of the flu remains and can be reconnected. Does anyone out there know what this is? I have had 23 different Heating people come out and they all just look at it, shake their heads and say they've never seen anything like it. Perhaps a northerner will have more experience with this sort of thing. I would love to have heat in my home again!

Thanks,
Suzy
 
Could you post some pics? Sounds interesting.
 
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