Central blower for RSF Opel 3 Catalytic?

[Optimistic]

Hi,

(Note, ultra newbie here!)
This and similar topics have come up here in the past, but I'm curious to see people's current thinking.

We're looking at getting an RSF Opel 3 Catalytic, and were thinking of setting it up with a central duct blower, either to warm the basement, or possibly some more remote parts of the first floor.

It's a fairly large house, around 3700sf, and I'm not expecting the stove to heat the whole thing, just to hopefully make a dent in the heating requirements and so reduce oil use. The house has oil heated forced hot water, as well as 2 "split unit" air-sourced heat pumps, one centrally located on the first floor and one very peripherally located in the master bedroom. I think the split units were mainly intended for AC (we just bought the house), but right now we're trying to use the heat pumps as much as we can and minimize use of the oil burner.

So overall the idea was to combine wood and heat pumps, and pretty much not burn oil.

What are people's experiences with the central ducting systems? Some prior posts seem to be pretty happy with their central blowers, some seem to feel like they don't do much.

 

[So-indiana]

Following....

 

[Optimistic]

No blower gurus out there?

 

[Jags]

It can be a mixed bag of success or failure, as you point to in your search. Much depends on the ducting. Is it insulated? Running along outside basement walls? Etc. I have been known to use the furnace fan on extremely cold days as an “equalizer” - basically stirring up the air in the home, but I don’t find that it actually moves heat from one section to another very well.

No harm in trying it out, but failure is an option. So my final answer is....it depends.

 

[Optimistic]

I've been in contact with RSF and they definitely agree on the ducting. The RSF guy said with their blower that 50 total feet of duct was an upper limit with their blower, and they recommend 35 or less for best results. Also suggested stepping down the duct diameter for branches off the main. He looks at the blower more from the standpoint of reducing the amount of heat at the insert (for comfort) as opposed to increasing the amount of heat somewhere else, which he views as a bonus.

 

[begreen]

If the expectations are realistic then the remote blower can work well. If the expectation is for it to heat a very large uninsulated space then that may not work out as hoped.

 

[jetsam]

If you already have the ductwork, a wood furnace is designed to do that job. A flush wood fireplace is not even going to come close (and it's not designed to).

 

[begreen]

Kind of a different objective.

"Honey, let's go down and snuggle up by the furnace. I'll bring the wine."

 

[jetsam]

We're looking at getting an RSF Opel 3 Catalytic, and were thinking of setting it up with a central duct blower, either to warm the basement, or possibly some more remote parts of the first floor.

It's a fairly large house, around 3700sf, and I'm not expecting the stove to heat the whole thing, just to hopefully make a dent in the heating requirements and so reduce oil use.

Kind of a different objective.

"Honey, let's go down and snuggle up by the furnace. I'll bring the wine."

His stated objective was to reduce oil use. The snuggling is all you.

I don't think that giving him tips on a flush fireplace with a ducting system is really the best route to that objective...

 

[Optimistic]

If you already have the ductwork, a wood furnace is designed to do that job. A flush wood fireplace is not even going to come close (and it's not designed to).

We don't have a central duct system. I'm picturing the blower as a way to get the most out of the insert, by moving some of the heat from where there's too much (right in front of the insert) to somewhere where there's not enough and will have trouble getting heated by convection