air intake duct pipe through ash openning, is it a good idea?

[ba_jie]

Hi, I found that there is a rectangle swirling metal door on the bottom of my fireplace. If i open that, i can see ash inside.
I then went to my furnance room in the basement, not supprised, there is small door on the wall of the chimney. I guess that for removing ash.

Now, my question is, since my firebox installation suggests a duct pipe connected to the back air intake if appropriate. Is it a good idea to
install an air intake duct pipe that goes through the ash bin, and have it exposed to the fresh air in the basement.

If so, can a regular duct pipe do the job? or do i need to install stainless steel pipe as well?

 

[ba_jie]

bump.

or is the question too vague?

 

[billb3]

You don't gain anything.
The "fresh air" is still coming from the interior envelope of the house.

You could open a basement window or door and keep the little cleanout door open in the bottom of the chimney but your basement will get mighty cold.

 

[billb3]

Or, look at it another way: If that little access door was sealed shut tight or didn't exist, then you'd be trying to suck the air out of a box that is essentially a coffin. There is no fresh air in there. Or shouldn't be.

 

[ba_jie]

Thanks for the info. Looks like unless the duct pipe goes all the way out to the basement, there is nothing gained.
I probably won't bother then.

You don't gain anything.
The "fresh air" is still coming from the interior envelope of the house.

You could open a basement window or door and keep the little cleanout door open in the bottom of the chimney but your basement will get mighty cold.

 

[oconnor]

I was considering the exact same thing jie, and it wasn't because I wanted to draw combustion air from outside, but because I wanted to draw air from a colder part of the house, which is probably what you are thinking.

Then I remembered that the basement is going to be below the pressure plane that the stove is at, and it would be harder for the stove to draw air from an area of a lower relative pressure compared to the stove.
So if you are looking for a true ducted air supply, stopping at the floor of the basement would be worse than not having it at all because of the pressure issues. How much worse, I have no idea

SO instead, I am considering ducting the same space and installing a fan to push air up from the basement thru a 4" duct to the space behind the insert (aka the firebox ash dump on the floor of the old fireplace), but NOT CONNECTED to the air intake. I would essentially be using the ash dump as the chase for the duct. (conecting a fan forced feed to the intake of my wood stove would be WAY BAD AND SILLY). I'm hoping to basicly get some of the effect of the blower, without the noise being right in the livingroom.

I'm not going to do this without some feedback, mostly just thinking out loud. So if this sounds stupid, please let me know. And if it might have merit, let me know too.

 

[Xena]

Guys , with my pellet stove I went through the ash dump, then increased my vent
to 3" for the last 5 or so feet, exiting into a 3" dryer style vent
but removed the flap inside.
Installed it a couple weeks ago and it's working fantastic.

Excuse the crappy cell phone pics but they're all I have of the intake.

 

[ba_jie]

Hi,
What kind of duct you use for air inlet? will a regular noncombustible duct do the job?

 

[fossil]

Is your basement a basement, or is it a crawl space? Is it finished? Is it vented? How airtight is it from the outside? There's a forum member who goes by "highbeam" who ran his OAK (Outside Air Kit) hookup straight down from his hearth into the crawl space beneath the floor, and he reports that it works just fine & he's quite happy with it. You're basically talking about doing the same thing through the old ash dump/ash cleanout. You could take it all the way outside, or you may not need to do that additional piping. Rick

 

[ba_jie]

It's a finished basement. But in future i could cut a hole on the basement wall so the pipe can take fresh air from thert. Just one possibility.
My house has good insualtion. I am concerned it may too air tight.
Since i don't want to move the firebox once it's installed. I think i should pre-wire everything i can think of.

But i don't know what non-combustible duct(suggested by the stove manual) i should use. Will those used by dryer do the job?

 

[coHoser]

Installed the PE Pacific with the fireplace floor ash door removed, it flows out to the outside where I drilled about 30 1/4 inch holes through the outer door to allow air in and keep critters out - after I removed all of the ash that had accumulated in the trap. Seems to work great as an air intake.