Drolet Furnaces - How loud?

[Pertzbro]

How loud would the Heat Pro be? I understand there are 4 different blower settings. Can you manually select the fan speed or is it 100% controlled by the probe in the plenum?

Thinking about one of these in a large shop but want the ambiance of the fire through the glass but didn't know if the intake and blowers would make it too loud to put closely to the furniture/bar like you would a wood stove and would need to put it in a utility room where you can't see the flames.

If they are considerably loud like a regular forced air furnace then I might look at different heat sources and a regular stove for supplemental heat and ambiance.

Still in the planning stages and want to figure out if I should go the radiant floor, radiant tubes in the ceiling, forced air furnace, etc. I want wood heat at some level for the additional warmth, comfort, ambiance. Wood is more supplemental than primary.

Shop is for storage, hanging out, large gatherings in the winter, place for the kids to play, projector screen for movies and games, etc.

Not much wood working or "shop" hobbies, but I imagine at some point that will be done there as well.

Have not decided on size of shop, but she will be large - 3,500sqft+

I could not find DB ratings on these units.

Thanks

 

[begreen]

I would think it would be a little quieter than a regular furnace. There's no oil pump whine or condensing fan sound.

 

[brenndatomu]

The only noise is from the blower...which adjusts speeds automatically based on firebox temp. I would say the design of the duct system will have as much or more effect on noise as anything. With most fossil fuel burners the burner makes a good bit of the noise...you don't have that with a natural draft wood furnace like the Drolets. Definitely not as quiet as a free standing wood stove with no blower though...

 

[sloeffle]

If you want ultimate comfort then I would go with radiant tubing in the floor especially if the floor will be concrete. A buddy of mine has it his shop and it is really nice.

I have a Caddy which is similar to the Drolet and I consider it pretty noisy compared to my geothermal furnace. One of these days I plan on putting sound proof matting on the return side of the furnace to help with the noise. If you go the wood furnace route I would put it as far away from your "hanging out area" as possible and run ductwork to that area. If you want ambiance then I would go the wood stove route.

 

[crzybowhntr]

I recently added a run of ducting to the cold air return box on the back of my Energy King 480ek and it quieted that thng WAY down. I have to walk down the basement stairs to hear it run now as opposed to before when I could hear it on the second floor. Also, the run times improved as it is pulling warm air from the house to blow around the fire and not the freezing cold basement air!!