I need some advice from the experts...sorry for the length...
Background:
I bought my current house in August of 2007.
It's a cape built in 1978, approx 1800SF between the 1st and second floors. We have a full basement (even under the garage) that's about 1100SF. Of that 1100 approx 2/3s of it are finished into office space and a living area (all open to the rest of the home). There is a laundry room with the oil furnace (door stays closed), a storage room with shelving (unheated) and a shop area under the garage that's also unheated (both also with closed doors). The windows and doors in the house were original and not very tightly sealed.
During the winter of 2007/2008 we had a fire in the fireplace on the first floor living room almost every night. Twice last year while we were burning the fireplace we smelled smoke in the house and found that the laundry room had a smoky odor (no actual smoke). The fireplace and the furnace share a chimney (split). We figured the wind was coming from just the right direction to blow smoke from the fireplace side down the flue for the furnace when it wasn't running. Since it only happened twice it was not a big issue. We keep a Nighthawk CO2 detector in the furnace room and it was reading 0 during these 2 events. As a side note..last year we kept the thermostat at or above 72 degrees during the day and evening hours (when the fireplace would be burning) and about 66 degrees at night (no fire in the fireplace).
As a side note....We had our furnace serviced in September 2007 and got a clean bill of health with the exception of a great deal of soot build-up in the furnace. The service guy said to not worry about it since we were new owners we had no idea of past service history and it may have been a while between cleanings. We agreed that if it exhibited the same symptoms during the 2008 cleaning we would address the issue.
Fast forward to the Sumer of 2008. With oil prices rising we looked around for a new source of supplemental heat for the basement living area. We purchased a pellet stove and it was installed in September. Also in August we purchased and installed all new triple pane windows and doors for the house to try and save a bit on our energy bills.
We also had our yearly furnace service in August. Again the same service guy said there was a ton of soot in the furnace and he recommended installing a fresh air vent for the furnace to increase the air to the burn chamber. We had the fresh air vent installed.
About 2 weeks later we had our first fire in the fireplace on the 1st floor. About an hour into the burn we started to smell smoke again. When we went down to the basement to the furnace room and opened the door it looked like a scene from Backdraft. Smoke filled the room and the CO detector was reading 75. I honestly thought the house was on fire. We opened the window to vent the smoke and killed the fire in the fireplace. Once the fire in the fireplace was out the smoke in the basement stopped.
The next day we did a little experiment and made a very smokey paper fire in the fireplace and went down to the furnace room to monitor and see where the smoke was coming from. Sure enough it was coming out of the flue right into the furnace room. Smoke was pouring in.
It appears that the addition of the doors and windows, coupled with the addition of the fresh air vent for the furnace, has created a problem for me. We have also reduced the temp on the thermostat to 64 in the daytime and 66 in the evening so the furnace...even on very cold days is running only about 2 hours a day. We are using the pellet stove and spending all our time in the basement where it's a comfy 76 degrees.
Now that the house is sealed very tightly it appears that the flue has turned into a fresh air source for the house? Cold air is rushing down the flue and exhausting through the fresh air vent for the furnace since the furnace is running so sparingly and not keeping the flue warm enough to prevent it? I say this because the furnace room was the warmest room in the house last year and since the install of the fresh air vent it’s now pretty chilly.
We called our chimney sweep for help and he suggested the same thing that we had thought…the house was too tightly sealed. He said that there may also be a break or crack between the fireplace side of the chimney and the furnace side of the chimney allowing smoke through. He said he’s be glad to come out and run both sides with a camera to check it out but that it would be pretty expensive to do that. He said if it’s not a crack we’re most likely screwed and won’t be able to use the fireplace.
Before I go down that road I thought I’d post here and see if anyone had any ideas on how I could solve this. The perfect solution would be some sort of exhaust fan built into the flue pipe that would keep positive pressure so smoke would not enter the flue pipe but I don’t know if such a thing exists or is even possible.
Thanks for taking an hour to read all this
Background:
I bought my current house in August of 2007.
It's a cape built in 1978, approx 1800SF between the 1st and second floors. We have a full basement (even under the garage) that's about 1100SF. Of that 1100 approx 2/3s of it are finished into office space and a living area (all open to the rest of the home). There is a laundry room with the oil furnace (door stays closed), a storage room with shelving (unheated) and a shop area under the garage that's also unheated (both also with closed doors). The windows and doors in the house were original and not very tightly sealed.
During the winter of 2007/2008 we had a fire in the fireplace on the first floor living room almost every night. Twice last year while we were burning the fireplace we smelled smoke in the house and found that the laundry room had a smoky odor (no actual smoke). The fireplace and the furnace share a chimney (split). We figured the wind was coming from just the right direction to blow smoke from the fireplace side down the flue for the furnace when it wasn't running. Since it only happened twice it was not a big issue. We keep a Nighthawk CO2 detector in the furnace room and it was reading 0 during these 2 events. As a side note..last year we kept the thermostat at or above 72 degrees during the day and evening hours (when the fireplace would be burning) and about 66 degrees at night (no fire in the fireplace).
As a side note....We had our furnace serviced in September 2007 and got a clean bill of health with the exception of a great deal of soot build-up in the furnace. The service guy said to not worry about it since we were new owners we had no idea of past service history and it may have been a while between cleanings. We agreed that if it exhibited the same symptoms during the 2008 cleaning we would address the issue.
Fast forward to the Sumer of 2008. With oil prices rising we looked around for a new source of supplemental heat for the basement living area. We purchased a pellet stove and it was installed in September. Also in August we purchased and installed all new triple pane windows and doors for the house to try and save a bit on our energy bills.
We also had our yearly furnace service in August. Again the same service guy said there was a ton of soot in the furnace and he recommended installing a fresh air vent for the furnace to increase the air to the burn chamber. We had the fresh air vent installed.
About 2 weeks later we had our first fire in the fireplace on the 1st floor. About an hour into the burn we started to smell smoke again. When we went down to the basement to the furnace room and opened the door it looked like a scene from Backdraft. Smoke filled the room and the CO detector was reading 75. I honestly thought the house was on fire. We opened the window to vent the smoke and killed the fire in the fireplace. Once the fire in the fireplace was out the smoke in the basement stopped.
The next day we did a little experiment and made a very smokey paper fire in the fireplace and went down to the furnace room to monitor and see where the smoke was coming from. Sure enough it was coming out of the flue right into the furnace room. Smoke was pouring in.
It appears that the addition of the doors and windows, coupled with the addition of the fresh air vent for the furnace, has created a problem for me. We have also reduced the temp on the thermostat to 64 in the daytime and 66 in the evening so the furnace...even on very cold days is running only about 2 hours a day. We are using the pellet stove and spending all our time in the basement where it's a comfy 76 degrees.
Now that the house is sealed very tightly it appears that the flue has turned into a fresh air source for the house? Cold air is rushing down the flue and exhausting through the fresh air vent for the furnace since the furnace is running so sparingly and not keeping the flue warm enough to prevent it? I say this because the furnace room was the warmest room in the house last year and since the install of the fresh air vent it’s now pretty chilly.
We called our chimney sweep for help and he suggested the same thing that we had thought…the house was too tightly sealed. He said that there may also be a break or crack between the fireplace side of the chimney and the furnace side of the chimney allowing smoke through. He said he’s be glad to come out and run both sides with a camera to check it out but that it would be pretty expensive to do that. He said if it’s not a crack we’re most likely screwed and won’t be able to use the fireplace.
Before I go down that road I thought I’d post here and see if anyone had any ideas on how I could solve this. The perfect solution would be some sort of exhaust fan built into the flue pipe that would keep positive pressure so smoke would not enter the flue pipe but I don’t know if such a thing exists or is even possible.
Thanks for taking an hour to read all this
