Chimney worries

[Plumlee]

We have a wood burning fireplace insert that has a stain steel flue that housed by a mason chimney. My husband is trying to find out if it's possible to link a flue from a wood burning furnace in our basement. He's tying to save the expense of building a secondary chimney.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Eric Johnson]

It's against Code to attach more than one solid-fuel appliance to the same chimney flue or liner, so if he did connect it to the furnace, you wouldn't be able to use the fireplace. If you blocked off the fireplace, and wanted to use the chimney for a furnace, you would have to be sure that the chimney is up to Code for that application. A woodburning appliance like a furnace needs to be connected to a Class A chimney of the same diameter as the furnace outlet.

My sense is that while you might be able to do it, it probably would be cheaper and easier to put in a separate chimney for the furnace.