Epa Wood Furnace installation

[laynes69]

Well, Finally I purchased the 1950 Epa wood furnace. Very well built unit built by SBI, marketed by US Stove. The furnace is set up just like a furnace. Runs off a thermostat with natural draft, no forced draft. 71.4% efficiency rating by the testers. What I am trying to figure out is the caddy add-ons are made to use the current central furnaces blower. This one is setup with the blower in the back on the bottom then pushes air around the firebox through the heat exchanger and out to the ductwork. So this units got a 4 speed 1300 cfm blower with 2 furnace filters. I was thinking about putting a damper in each plenum of the central furnace and the wood furnace. This way when one or the other runs, they can't backfeed into eachother. But the issue I am seeing is tying both the returns together to share the main return. The woodfurnace will be set 4 or 5 degrees higher than the propane furnace. I'm afraid of heat from one or another feeding into the returns of either and causing problems. This will only happen if both decide to run at the same time. I'll make dampers for the plenums, but like said undecided about the return air. I've heard nothing but good about these furnaces, and got a good deal on this one. I was told that after 25 minutes they produced no smoke! I bought this as a step for the future, the environment, and less wood.

 

[smokinj]

I think you are one of a few that has this model can you post some pic's sure like to see your set up?

 

[laynes69]

Here are a few of the furnace. The heat exchanger, the firebox and the front of the unit. I will post some more.

 

[laynes69]

Here is a pic of the back of the unit with the access panel removed, and the top of the furnace at the heat exchanger. The preheated air enters the furnace, ignites at the baffle with the burn tubes. Goes around the baffle through the 2 end tubes, then out the exhaust in the large center tube. This is where air is directed to the heat exchanger to pick up all the heat. Hopefully I have all the parts. Won't have it installed for a while yet, and the furnace weighs 560 pounds. Which explains why it isn't in yet. The store I bought this from was so happy with the amount sold, and the happy customers that he is looking into buying the caddy to sell. Hopefully this happens. He said these will come back with the future of cleaner air.

 

[ikessky]

I don't know how your return air is set up, but here is mine: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/ikessky/100_7604.jpg
As you can see, if I wanted to, I could take the return air into the wood furnace a little higher up in the system. Then I would install a backdraft damper into the run going to the wood furnace and one below that going to the NG furnace.

 

[smokinj]

Nice laynes69 cant wait to see the install and here more about the lack of wood useage! sweeeeeet

 

[laynes69]

Well heres what I decided. Because the return and supply are side by side, the install should be pretty easy. I'm going to build a custom damper above the heat exchanger on the wood furnace. It will open and close with the blower like a butterfly damper. I will have a handle on each so if the power goes out, I can open them manually to allow for gravity heat so I don't overheat the furnace. I'm either going to use a 8x20, or 8x24 to connect the plenum of the central furnace to the plenum of the wood furnace. When the woodfurnace kicks on, the damper in the plenum will close off the opening of the central furnaces plenum to stop the airflow from back feeding into the central furnace. When the woodfurnace runs low, the gas will kick on and the air won't backfeed due to the damper in the plenum of the woodfurnace. I'll follow the recommended clearances on the woodfurnace. I've done alot of thought, and this way to install seems fool proof. My supply then goes out the woodfurnaces plenum. The ductwork is backwards from most systems, but thats because I ducted if for a series install. Now that I'm back to a normal install, I have to make work with what I have. Here is a pic I drew up.

 

[smokinj]

looks simple in design! I like it just needs to be going in my house! lol are you going to do hot water aswell?

 

[laynes69]

No, I do believe there may be an option according to the tag. Maybe someday since the water heater is beside the furnace.

 

[smokinj]

No, I do believe there may be an option according to the tag. Maybe someday since the water heater is beside the furnace.

that would make it alot cheeper to pull off if its 10 ft. or less!

 

[CaddyUser]

Good to see another SBI / Caddy / US Stove user!

Mine is an add-on Caddy, without the blower. I'm using the blower from the central furnace to handle the air. Any particular reason that you went with the blower in your unit?

As I recall from discussions with SBI when I was in the process of getting mine, they did not recommend installing the blower-type unit as an add-on. I was having problems locating an add-on, and thought that I could go with a blower type instead, as the dealer had one in stock. As it turned out, I found an add-on at a dealer about 60mi away.

I finalized the installation back in November, and have gone through a full heating season. It worked very well.

 

[laynes69]

I wanted the add-on, but the usstove 1950 hotblast was only made with the blower. It has the option to add on supplement heat in the form of an oil burner, or with electric elements. To make it a multi-fuel unit. But with me having a propane furnace, I will just use the wood and not buy the others. The add-on was in the plan, but the blower came by suprise. It will save my blower on the central furnace not running it all the time. How much wood did you use, and how was the chimney?

 

[CaddyUser]

Interesting idea re: saving the blower on the other unit.

We have a mid 60's 1600sq ft home, reasonably sealed (I'm installing new windows, and more insulation this summer). We used 3 cord of hardwood that wasn't the best, as I ended up buying it from a fellow that left it in an uncovered pile, and it was rained on a lot, plus about a pallet of BioBricks, and I ended up burning roughly 25-30 pallets too. We kept the house at a comforatable 22C all winter, and had absolutely no problem at all.

I have a 7" SS running up the centre of the house, and it worked just perfectly.

Hope this answers your questions,

Stephen.

 

[laynes69]

I was wondering about the chimney, How clean was it at the end of the season? Hopefully here soon I will have mine all installed. Its a tight install but it can be done. I can't wait to see how it performs.

 

[CaddyUser]

I havn't had a chance yet to clean the chimney, as I've been occasionally burning in the evenings. I did a full cleaning at roughly half way through the season, and found that there was a good amount of creosote in the heat exchanger, and a little bit in the double wall smoke pipe (about 2 gallons total), and then I inspected the chimney. It was still shiny as the day that I put it in.

Seems that the design of the furnace is very good, as it's pulling as much heat as possible, and thus most of the creosote is forming there. I know that under full load, I can still hold my hand on the double wall pipe for a little while.

I will definitely let you know once I take the system down for the summer, and report back on my findings.

 

[laynes69]

Here are some pictures of the ongoing install. These pictures are taken from the sides. I fabricated a 10x19 offset connector to connect the central furnaces plenum to the Wood furnaces plenum. I have the plenum built for the return and the heat. I need to lower the main ducting to get my clearances, and tie into the existing cold air return on the central furnace. I'll have a 10x15 opening for the return on the woodfurnace, if that doesn't work I will enlarge. I still need to build a custom damper for the plenum of the woodfurnace. That will butterfly when the blower kicks in and block the opening of the main furnace where they connect so it doesn't backfeed. The problem there being the 11" limit that goes into the plenum is going to be fun to work around. All and all i'm happy with the progress, and I just got the e-mail tonight that SBI is sending me the certificate that allows me the tax credit So that puts my furnace installed at 1500.00 Yipee!!

 

[laynes69]

Well its done. I put the custom butterfly damper above the heat exchanger of the wood furnace. Its installed in parallel. I just need to preweight the damper. When the woodfurnace comes on, it will open the damper, and block the opening of the central furnace automatically sending heat into the ductwork. If the woodfurnace isn't running, the damper in the woodfurnace stops the heat from the central furnace from backfeeding. I had to relocate the limit control from the right side, to out front below the damper. This way the heat from the central furnace doesn't trigger the wood furnace limit, and the limit control has a more accurate reading of the woodfurnace temperatures. I have 100 dollars in sheetmetal and my time to install it. The clearances called for 6" for the first 6' then 1" there after. I stepped the ductwork up twice from the plenum to allow for more than the clearances. Now im just waiting for the cool weather. The only thing now is to decide the blower speed, but that will wait till the burning begins. Here is a pic.

 

[smokinj]

very nice work, blower speed may just come down to the wood your burning at the time

 

[laynes69]

Thanks. Its on med/low now. Come down to heating season, I may step it up. Very quiet, actually I can barely hear it running when on. I did everything on my spare time. Just glad its in before heating season.

 

[sdrobertson]

Very nice and clean looking set-up. I really like the preloaded wood in the furnace...kinda like buying a car with a full tank of gas!!

 

[lexybird]

already a load of wood sitting inside ..a bit antsy arent we? lol cant wait to hear about the furnace review once your up and burning ,im especially eager to hear about how much wood it uses and the length of burn times,your review will greatly impact if i choose this model in the near future

 

[freeburn]

Looks like a nice install, you did good work on it. I agree on the wood already in, looks like your going with the top down to start the fire, and the paper in there too! Nice, ha ha. No seriously, we'll be waiting to what kind of burn times you get and pics of it in action once you get it tweaked.

One question, does the plenum off the gas furnace go into the wood and then through that straight out? Did you move that ductwork? It looks like the bend in the ductwork is new, but the rest is older stuff, or is that just the way the flash made it look?

 

[laynes69]

I put a complete duct system in the whole house a few years ago. The newer shiny sheetmetal is what I had just purchased. I built the plenum, and the offset that is shiny and also the damper and return plenum. The plenum of the gas furnace goes straight into the plenum of the woodfurnace. The damper seperates that air from backfeeding whether the gas furnace is running, or the woodfurnace. The return and supply ducts are opposite of most systems, thats due to me customizing it for a wood furnace. Originally the old furnace was in series, this one is in parallel due to the large blower on it.