Possible stupid question about dust/ash mitigation

I know this is not what you want to hear, but that is why I had to move my gasifier out of the basement and into its own shed after 4 years. No matter how hard I tried the super fine combustion dust would find its way throughout the house. I tried a shop vac setup thru a water bucket (like the dywall dust vacs) for cleaning, but could never stop the dust. I was not looking forward to moving the 1500 # behemoth out of the basement but in the end is was a good move because i could add storage along with getting rid of the mess. good luck

Combustion dust should only go one way - up the chimney. My gasifier is almost done season 6 and there is no place I would rather have it than in my basement.

Since you're talking a forced air furnace - do you have a filter box and filters in place? I don't think there's a much better way or opportunity to filter dust out, than that whole house filtering method - all house air gets routed thru the duct work & must pass through the filter. They can also be upgraded to varying degrees, maybe even fancy electrostatic setups? Not a furnace guy myself.

If boiler wasn't in the basement I wouldn't have it period. I'm not willing to get all bundled up to go load a boiler in -20 weather with or w/o blowing snow. It was my first year having the boiler in operation on the weekends I was up north. Basement is also my workshop with wood working equipment and a Bridgeport milling machine. It's already a little dusty and when the miller is in use a little smokey if cutting steel. With RFH along with baseboard in the BR's very little dust gets upstairs. Matter of fact I didn't use the insert in the FP much this year and the 1st floor stayed very clean. Much cleaner than years past. I'm very anal about a clean house. I do need to seal every joint in my central AC system that can be used as a whole house humidifier. It has a ton of leaks that need to be addressed.

I do have a ceiling hung shop air filter when the saws or sanders are being used. I also do not have a central shop vac system set up yet.

In a house I manage we removed all the electronic air filters and replaced them with large disposable filters that are about 4" thick. They work much better.

I am glad that my boiler is in a separate building.
I had painted the building bright white when i was done building it.It is now grey getting darker every year from smoke and ash.Lots of ash.And dust and bugs.All separate from the house.
My walk is 125 ft from house to boiler,even at -45C never seems to be a big deal,takes all of a minute to get there.Or blowing blizzard.But i spend most of my day working outside anyway, i bike to work at -40C.So i guess i have become more accustomed to winter than others that don't spend anytime in the elements.
Other benefits, no chance of carbon monoxide poising,no chance of heating related fire,and i have a warm private place to go to work on my stuff all winter,and my bike stays warm for those -40C days it dosn't take long before the bike starts to stiffen up in the cold.

maple1 said:

I don't think there's a much better way or opportunity to filter dust out, than that whole house filtering method

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I think this is the answer, since that Heatpro is moving 1000-1500 cfm. Unless a different filter comes anywhere close to that much air volume, then I don't know how it could stand a chance to remove as much dust.

Most of my ash dust comes from when I shovel into the ash bucket. I try to manage it by waiting to remove ashes until enough have accumulated. I also try to wait until my furnace is colder, since hot ashes seem to puff out of my ash bucket much more. I also try to minimize how much I stir things up in the furnace.

You can always invest in an Oneida Air Dust Deputy and attach it to the smallest shop vac(it has an attachment kit)
and suck up all the dust you are creating when cleaning out the ashes and also when you are cleaning the boiler.

They are available at an Ace Hardware store and directly from Oneida Air in Oneida, New York.

The dust Deputy precleaner helps by utilizing a cyclone precleaner to knock down the dust before the air stream enters the shop vac.

Is the dust from ash removal? Or when in operation?

Do you scoop directly out of the firebox or use the ash pan?
I unplug the furnace while I load...unless it is cold enough that the blower is already off...it helps minimize the ash/dust that gets picked up.
Also, I think it helps to let the ashes build up in the firebox a bit. It helps hold hot coals longer and the additional time in the firebox, and being raked around more, seems to break down and "condense" the ashes...for me it reduced the volume of ashes I haul out by maybe 50%...oh, and it seems to be less apt to try to "fly away" when handling too.
If it really bothers you, I'd probably invest in a really good filter system for the furnace.
Also, hooking the blower box up directly to the return air ducts would help too.

To your original question...never heard of a water filter in a house...sounds problematic too me...

brenndatomu said:

I unplug the furnace while I load...unless it is cold enough that the blower is already off...it helps minimize the ash/dust that gets picked up.

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yup.

I have my blower circuit on a light switch, so I just turn it off when I load. It's probably more of a necessity for me though because of my radiant heat reclamation ducts I have near the furnace door.