Flue damper on wood furnace

[crzybowhntr]

Looking to find out if a manual damper in my stovepipe will help with wood consumption. I have an Energy King 480ek and was burning strictly bituminous coal, but my wife burns wood when I'm out of town (no jokes needed) and that furnace will burn what seems like a face cord every 3 days when its on the teens or less. I have a barometric damper (currently taken out) that I use when burning coal. Would a manual damper help with slowing draft down? My draft can be managed to .04ish when I have the baro in.

I've got my furnace air intake set to open the automatic intake flapper when the thermostat calls for heat.

 

[maple1]

Maybe?

What is your flue draft with the baro out & when burning wood?

0.04 doesn't sound too far off from what sounds like would work for wood - I'd be tempted to just leave the baro in place. Was the 0.04 measured with a manometer?

Also don't know anything about your chimney type or what kind of pull it's capable of - or pipe temps you see when burning wood.

Some don't like using a baro when burning wood for fear of making creosote, but I like having one. I am on a hilltop susceptible to wind gusts though. The baro opening can also serve as a handy inspection & cleanout point. A key damper might work also, but it might require some fiddling with at different points in the burn. I had one of those too, and I could get it set right at one point but then if the wind dropped or conditions changed I sometimes had smoke puffing back into the basement. Also had the odd occasion where a wind gust closed it on me.

 

[crzybowhntr]

Yes, that .04 was with a manometer. I have almost 22' of 8" class A outside of the house. I could probably put a small child in the baro opening and watch it fly out the top of the chimney. When I get back in town I'll place the baro back in and see what happens. Maybe I'll have to allow more incoming air to keep the stovepipe burning a little higher to reduce creosote build u .

 

[warno]

My dad has ran a manual damper in the flue pipe for about 30 years now. He wouldn't have it any other way. Crank it wide open to load wood let the fire get rolling pretty good then choke it down some. His furnace would run through the night like that.