Ducting my Drolet Heatmax ll as a stand alone furnace.

[Kukypuss]

Hello ,I'm new to this site and like what I'm reading, some very knowledgeable posts. I've been heating my home in upstate N,Y with an old clayton wood furnace which heated my 2000 sq. f.t log home fine except I could have built 3 houses with the amount of wood I burned in the last 15 years So I'm setting up my Drolet Heatmax ll as a stand alone and just had the solid hot air pipes and registers delivered but figured it would be a good idea if I got some of you to chime in before I do all that work. So everyone feel free to jump in with their best ideas Thanks in advance

 

[Gearhead660]

Why are you unable to use the existing ducts from the Clayton? You are removing it, correct?

 

[Kukypuss]

I had my old furnace crudely hooked up to the main air handler of my heating system by just cutting a 8in. hole on the side panel and attachin an 8 in. hot air pipe from my wood furnace but I'd like the new wood furnace to be a stand alone.With the layout of my basement I think it makes more sense.

 

[brenndatomu]

You had a single 8" duct? I don't think I've ever seen a Clayton small enough to run properly on a single 8" supply duct.
Anyways, what is your question with installing the HM II?

 

[Kukypuss]

I was wondering instead of using the 10 start off collars to attach a plenum to a 20 ft. trunk and then running my 6 in. pipes from the trunk to my registers

 

[brenndatomu]

I was wondering instead of using the 10 start off collars to attach a plenum to a 20 ft. trunk and then running my 6 in. pipes from the trunk to my registers

That should be fine...just respect the the minimum size of 170 sq inches (total) for the supply side (per the manual) and then add 10-20% to that for the return duct(s) size (if you are going to use them...which is recommended, it will help the performance as modern wood furnaces run lower duct temps than those old school wood gobblers...but also have a harder time overcoming things like needlessly cold return air)

 

[Kukypuss]

I have a wide open basement. Would a return air duck run from my intake air housing to up near the ceiling be sufficient

 

[brenndatomu]

It would be better than sucking off the floor...what about tying into the return ducts of your main furnace?

 

[Kukypuss]

I was trying to avoid that because of where my main unit is located .I have a fireplace in the center of the house my main unit is on the opposite side of where my chimney is so I don't want to run ducks around to the other side

 

[brenndatomu]

Gotcha...without knowing your floorplan, can you run a few new strategically placed RA ducts?
Even if you just pull off the basement ceiling, there still needs to be a path to get air from the main floor(s) to the basement...what's the plan there?

 

[Kukypuss]

There's an unobstructed staircase from the main floor to the basement I thought that would do

 

[brenndatomu]

It will as long as there is no door to get closed accidently...putting a negative pressure on the basement (RA cut off) can causing smoke/CO to be pulled in...

 

[Kukypuss]

There is no door to the basement , so that should work out ok

 

[Kukypuss]

It will as long as there is no door to get closed accidently...putting a negative pressure on the basement (RA cut off) can causing smoke/CO to be pulled in...

thanks for your input ,it's my first time setting up a wood furnace as a permanent supplemental heat source and after ordering all the ha pipes I started second guessing myself as to which is a better system a stand alone or coupling with my main unit . you seem to have a lot of experience what do you think about the best set up for ducting

 

[brenndatomu]

Well, usually I would try to tie the wood furnace to existing ducting, but in your case I understand why it doesn't make sense to do it that way.