Black Exterior Air Pipe

[mgills]

Hello -

I have been helping a buddy install a wood stove at his house, including a external air supply. I installed an external air supply for my stove and found it to be hugely beneficial for moving air throughout the house.

The stove is a Drolet and the external air supply is 5" diameter, ideally a flexible HVAC pipe. Those are not hard to find, but they are hoping for a black pipe to look a little nicer than the typical silver HVAC piping. Does anyone know of such a pipe? Any solution other than painting the pipe black?

Thanks in advance!

 

[begreen]

There are many sources in black, but most if not all are thermoplastic. For metal, just paint it.

Note, 4" is more than adequate for most stoves, many connect to 3" duct for the OAK with 4" being reserved for long runs of duct.

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

Hello -

I have been helping a buddy install a wood stove at his house, including a external air supply. I installed an external air supply for my stove and found it to be hugely beneficial for moving air throughout the house.

Someone will have to explain to me very clearly how outside air connected to the stove moves air throughout the house !

 

[mgills]

Someone will have to explain to me very clearly how outside air connected to the stove moves air throughout the house !

My house is a "shotgun" style, meaning rooms lined up and it's an old farm house that leaks air. Before the outside air, the stove burned the air in the family room, which was replaced by air from other rooms and brought into the house from various leaks. The outside air stops the "rush" of air into the wood stove room for combustion and instead allows the warm air to move through the house via transoms above several doorways.

 

[mgills]

There are many sources in black, but most if not all are thermoplastic. For metal, just paint it.

Note, 4" is more than adequate for most stoves, many connect to 3" duct for the OAK with 4" being reserved for long runs of duct.

Noted, thanks! I found the same regarding thermoplastic.

I would only have 5" as recommended from the manufacturer.

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

My house is a "shotgun" style, meaning rooms lined up and it's an old farm house that leaks air. Before the outside air, the stove burned the air in the family room, which was replaced by air from other rooms and brought into the house from various leaks. The outside air stops the "rush" of air into the wood stove room for combustion and instead allows the warm air to move through the house via transoms above several doorways.

Does Outside Air increase the Efficiency of woodstoves?

Outside air does not increase the efficiency of woodstoves. (A controversial post for my first one) Googling around about outside air increases in efficiency didn't yield any quantitative results. So the engineer in me decided to calculate it for myself. I looked up the heat capacity of air...

www.hearth.com

 

[vatmark]

Does Outside Air increase the Efficiency of woodstoves?

Outside air does not increase the efficiency of woodstoves. (A controversial post for my first one) Googling around about outside air increases in efficiency didn't yield any quantitative results. So the engineer in me decided to calculate it for myself. I looked up the heat capacity of air...

www.hearth.com

I do not look at outside air as a means to increase wood stove efficiency. To me it is no different than having makeup-air for a vent hood. My vent hood over my range, my water heater and my wood stove each have their own air source.

 

[kborndale]

I do not look at outside air as a means to increase wood stove efficiency. To me it is no different than having makeup-air for a vent hood. My vent hood over my range, my water heater and my wood stove each have their own air source.

I must be missing something, how could your vent hood work if it had its own air source? It's sole purpose is to take the smoke and air above your stove and vent it outside. How can it do that if it's air source isn't the room air?

 

[vatmark]

I must be missing something, how could your vent hood work if it had its own air source? It's sole purpose is to take the smoke and air above your stove and vent it outside. How can it do that if it's air source isn't the room air?

It's called makeup air and is required by code for range hoods over 400 cfm. Yes the sole purpose of vent hoods is to remove smoke, grease and fumes from cooking but it also removes air from the room which needs to be replaced. You do not want to depressurize the house and draw combustion gases from other appliances in the home. The makeup air is brought in through a vent that is in the room. There is a sensor on the hood which detects when the hood is in operation and opens a damper to outside air located away from the hood. I have included a picture. You can see the vent in the upper lefthand corner of picture. You can see the vent hood on the right. Ignore all the stuff this picture was from the day we moved in.

 

[BillBurns]

I second the painting of it. A coat or too of Hi Temp paint, and youre good to go.

 

[mgills]

As a quick note, I hope to install the exterior air supply to increase heat distribution across the house, not the combustion efficiency of the stove. I don’t expect a greater heat output from the stove, just less concentrated heat in one room/area but I do expect less drafts from the distal ends of the house