Blowers or no blowers?

[Hunter130]

Hey all!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been on here, hope everyone is doing well and staying warm! Lol

I have a cheap hotblast style furnace. It’s not very efficient at all, and an upgrade is in the future. I will likely upgrade to a max caddy but I’m still pinching pennies for now lol.

Here lately, I have noticed that when running my blowers, I seem to lose so much heat it’s crazy. They must really cool down the air chamber and I have to run it pretty open and really feed it the wood in order to heat my 2100 sq ft house on a basement. It seems that I have to keep the fire burning really hot In order to keep the air coming out of the vents warm enough to be beneficial.

I have been experimenting some with unplugging the blowers, and leaving my door to the basement open, as well as the vent at the far end of the house, trying to create a hot/cold air circulation to heat it, however haven’t really done it long enough yet to see how beneficial it is. I do however notice the basement around the furnace especially is much warmer and the furnace itself can have the dampers down and still be giving off lots of heat. In theory, I think this will save me wood, and possibly heat my home better. I would like to hear everyone’s opinions. Is it safe? Will this cheap stove overheat and become damaged? I know lots of Amish In my area do it this way and I guess I’m just really intrigued.

Currently, in the 20-30 degree (or colder) temps, I am burning about a truck load of good seasoned wood a week with the blowers on. Which I find to be very insufficient. I think with the blowers off I would be able to almost cut that in half. However I could be wrong.

Right now the house is 72, with blowers unplugged, and I haven’t heard the gas furnace come on since I’ve been home (3 hours). I’m thinking of getting a small fan to assist the warm air going up the basement steps and see what that does. Please give opinions on why I should/shouldn’t be doing this. Thanks!
Garrett Blake

 

[maple1]

Blowers - can you verify exactly which blowers? You have more than one?

(Not sure if you furnace has a draft blower?)

 

[Hunter130]

It doesn’t have a draft blower. I am talking about the blowers to force air through the duct work

 

[maple1]

You have more than one?

I don't think I would shut those down. Depending on your ducting layout, it might get some convection flow without them, but I wouldn't risk it. Some guys add controls so they can slow them down, and have better luck that way. It would up your outlet temps. But would also up your furnace & plenum temps. So would need to be very very careful.

You are likely losing heat up the pipe - don't know what you have exactly but Hotblasts are really bad for that. If your chimney is overdrafting that will make it a lot worse. Chimney setup would come into play.

 

[gorbull]

It seems a bit odd to me that you have more than one blower for a house that size, can you provide more detail on the blowers you're using? Are they squirrel cages?

 

[3fordasho]

I recall some of the hotblast models having dual blowers.

 

[laynes69]

If you have a limit control, lower the fan off to about 90-100 and have the fan on around 130. Makes a world of difference. The furnace cannot exchange the heat without a blower.

 

[Hunter130]

Yes mine has dual blowers. I believe 400 or 450 cfm blowers. What I’m wondering is if it’s safe to run it with these unplugged. The furnace is in my basement on concrete so I’m not worried about it contacting anything and burning it. It just seems that with the blowers going, I have to have dampeners wide open to produce much heat. I can open the duct work right above the stove, and it’s barely warm even right there. I know by the time it passes through all the duct work it cools lots more. I’m thinking if I run without them, maybe the radiant heat from the stove will create a hot air/ cold air exchange through the house and possibly be warmer than with the blowers forcing air through the house. Hope this makes sense. Thanks

 

[maple1]

I would not.

 

[laynes69]

No it doesn't make much sense. You will get more heat through the house with blowers. You are going off of physical touch at the furnace. Of course it will be warmer without the blowers running. I had a 1500 hotblast that was ducted in series. I could take the house to 80 in a matter of minutes. Without the blower, nothing. Not to mention, I had a couple power outages that burnt the paint on the air jacket and the duct work was hot enough to boil water droplets.

 

[Hunter130]

Okay, I’ll trust you guys lol just a thought I had. It honestly does seem to heat the house better while not plugged in, but I worry about over heating issue.

 

[Hunter130]

Would it help my furnace hold the heat if I slightly close my in chimney dampener, and open the dampener more on my stove? Maybe that would help contain the heat?

 

[laynes69]

Do you have the new style furnace or the basic style furnace (glass door or no)?

 

[Hunter130]

I do not have a glass door so I’m assuming old style. I’m not even 100% sure if it is a hot blast. There are no nameplates or badges anywhere on the furnace. However it is identical to the hotblast furnaces I have seen. The door is beat up slightly so I’m assuming the hotblast badge was removed at some time. I’ve only had the house for two years. It has a dampener on the main load door as well that is like a vent that should be able to be opened with a knob system attached to a small chain, however since my door has been messed with, I no longer have the knob and that remains closed at all times.

 

[maple1]

Would it help my furnace hold the heat if I slightly close my in chimney dampener, and open the dampener more on my stove? Maybe that would help contain the heat?

Closing the pipe damper some might help if you are over drafting but we dont know anything about your chimney or how much draft it's making.

 

[Hunter130]

One other thing I should add, which seems strange to me.... I have a candle sitting in a small cast iron skillet on top of the furnace for to add a nice smell to the house. Very seldomly can I get this candle to melt with the blowers running. Is that normal or no? I feel like it should be warm enough to melt the candle

 

[laynes69]

With your blowers running, the furnace may be cool to the touch. Your ductwork or plenum leading from there will be warm. Could you post a couple pics of your setup? Chimney type, size, height, etc? Also are you burning seasoned wood? With our old woodfurnace, around 350-400 on the surface of the furnace would produce alot of heat in the ducts.

 

[garmford]

Some pictures of your set up would help us help you.

You definitely need to run at least one of the blowers otherwise you will surely overheat your furnace. Your firebox is surrounded by what most of us call a jacket. On most units these are even insulated. When you have a fire going and the blowers are active, this jacket should be warm but cool enough to touch. You shouldn’t be able to melt a candle on top of your furnace. The blower should be blowing air thru the space between the firebox and the jacket and taking that warm air to the rest of your house.

Is the cold side of your furnace ducted to the rest of the hvac system or is it pulling cold air off the basement floor?

 

[Hunter130]

 

[Hunter130]

I have a 6” chimney that is approximately 20’ tall

 

[Hunter130]

You will notice the duct is open in the picture, the air is hardly even warm coming out of there honestly. The furnace heats well up until about 30 degrees, any colder, and it struggles badly. Another thing, the furnace is on one end of my house in the basement. I live in a 75’ double wide(roughly). The duct work coming out of the furnace runs the length of the house and just has vents for each room. I can understand why the far end of the house is cooler. But I don’t feel like it should be chilly. Every house I’ve ever been in with a wood stove, they are very warm and generally the dampners are turned down. My house is decent warm(except for on cold days) and I have to run my furnace so wide open that there isn’t even any smoke coming out of the chimney. I know that is a clean burn but it’s also a very fast burn lol and yes I am burning dry seasoned wood

 

[maple1]

Can you run just one fan?

 

[maple1]

Any idea what your stack temp is?

 

[maple1]

What about the info in post 7?

 

[Hunter130]

I can’t run just one that I know of, and also stack temp is unknown as well. As far as post 7 Info, if I have a limit control, I do not know what or where it is. I will take another picture of a box that is what I believe is the thermostat to kick it on/off