Hi guys, I'm new here and new to pellet stoves. This fall I purchased a 70's era ranch style farm house with a big triple flue brick chimney in the middle of the house. One fire place in the living room, one stove hearth in the basement, and one fire place in the dining room. The dining room fireplace has Whitfield pellet stove insert. Through trial and error I discovered that I had no fresh air intake and that I was sending massive amounts of heat out through the fire place and open brick chimney in the living room. I wasn't burning a fire in there, but the chimney wasn't plugged. Also i was sucking in cold air through all the leaks in the house.
I got those two problems fixed. I installed a fresh air intake in the second chimney flue so that fresh air is being drawn into the combustion chamber through one chimney flue, and exhausted out a 3" stainless exhaust pipe in a second flue, and the third flue is seal off and not used.
During this process I discovered that the exhaust pipe was 300-350 degrees where leaves the stove and I hated the thought of all that heat going up the chimney. I was toying with the idea of a second heat exchanger for the exhaust pipe when it occurred to me that the 3" stainless steel exhaust pipe going up the old brick chimney flue was probably creating a very warm chimney flue; essentially creating a big heat exchanger with the brick flue and the stainless exhaust pipe running up it. Why not suck in fresh air down through the chimney flue around the exhaust pipe, which would then be ran through the heat exchangers and into the living space. Obviously I would need to make sure the intake mouth is far enough away from the exhaust mouth to eliminate the possibility of sucking in the exhaust gasses into the living space. Aside from that, the fresh air intake would be relatively easy to accomplish, since the stove insert is in the fire place already, all i would need to do is create an intake mouth at the top of the chimney (its currently sealed around the exhaust pipe) and seal the edges of the insert around the brick fireplace. The stove would then be drawing fresh air down through the chimney around the hot exhaust pipe, then blowing the pre-heated air through the stove heat exchangers and into the living space.
My biggest question is, apart front the obvious precautions about contaminated air being pumped into the living space, is whether I am actually gaining anything? I will be heating the air an additional 30-40 degrees and I don't know if my chimney / heat exchanger will offset that or if I am better off just circulating my living space air. I do like the idea of creating a positive pressure in the house so the cold air isn't seeping in through the leaks, as well as creating a constant supply of pre-heated fresh air.
Any thoughts?
My other question is: is there an good way to install an auxiliary exhaust fan on this installation? When I installed the fresh air intake for the combustion chamber, it restricted my air flow enough that I have to leave my damper open all the way pretty much all the time, and I now barely have enough air to run my pellet feed on high. (which I rarely need to do anyways.)
Thanks!
-Mahlon Zehr
I got those two problems fixed. I installed a fresh air intake in the second chimney flue so that fresh air is being drawn into the combustion chamber through one chimney flue, and exhausted out a 3" stainless exhaust pipe in a second flue, and the third flue is seal off and not used.
During this process I discovered that the exhaust pipe was 300-350 degrees where leaves the stove and I hated the thought of all that heat going up the chimney. I was toying with the idea of a second heat exchanger for the exhaust pipe when it occurred to me that the 3" stainless steel exhaust pipe going up the old brick chimney flue was probably creating a very warm chimney flue; essentially creating a big heat exchanger with the brick flue and the stainless exhaust pipe running up it. Why not suck in fresh air down through the chimney flue around the exhaust pipe, which would then be ran through the heat exchangers and into the living space. Obviously I would need to make sure the intake mouth is far enough away from the exhaust mouth to eliminate the possibility of sucking in the exhaust gasses into the living space. Aside from that, the fresh air intake would be relatively easy to accomplish, since the stove insert is in the fire place already, all i would need to do is create an intake mouth at the top of the chimney (its currently sealed around the exhaust pipe) and seal the edges of the insert around the brick fireplace. The stove would then be drawing fresh air down through the chimney around the hot exhaust pipe, then blowing the pre-heated air through the stove heat exchangers and into the living space.
My biggest question is, apart front the obvious precautions about contaminated air being pumped into the living space, is whether I am actually gaining anything? I will be heating the air an additional 30-40 degrees and I don't know if my chimney / heat exchanger will offset that or if I am better off just circulating my living space air. I do like the idea of creating a positive pressure in the house so the cold air isn't seeping in through the leaks, as well as creating a constant supply of pre-heated fresh air.
Any thoughts?
My other question is: is there an good way to install an auxiliary exhaust fan on this installation? When I installed the fresh air intake for the combustion chamber, it restricted my air flow enough that I have to leave my damper open all the way pretty much all the time, and I now barely have enough air to run my pellet feed on high. (which I rarely need to do anyways.)
Thanks!
-Mahlon Zehr
