It was a rough night last night, going to be worse tonight

[CowboyAndy]

Okay guys, I need some support/encouragement/help. For the first time since we started burning wood I am having my doubts about the furnace and my own ability.

I just don't know what to do at this point. I struggled to keep the house at 66 yesterday, and last night was a nightmare. I open the furnace door and it will damn near melt your face off, but the blowers just arent coming on! I lowered the hi/low/limit settings to the lowest they would go, I think 80 low and 100 high. the back of the plenum is just not getting the heat from the front where the firebox is. I cant go more than 2 hours without reloading, but at that point there is an 8" coal bed! I had to empty 3 20qt buckets of screamin hot coals just to be able to fit 4 splits in there. I cant let the coals burn down because then the house gets too cold and the oil will come on (this is a combo unit, so that would not be good). This morning I got up and the house was 62, but only because the oil had been running. I had just put 4 splits in at 2am. There was almost no coals left, and in the 20 min I was down in the basement the house dropped from 62 to 57 (it was -25 out).

Im seriously contemplating not even lighting a fire tonight and letting the oil run, just so I can get some sleep (didn't get much last night because I kept getting out of bed to check the temp of the house.

I'm so lost...

 

[Rockey]

If your feeling stressed out over this, which it sounds like you are, then it isn't worth it. Let your oil furnace do what it was designed to do and just supplement what you can with wood burning. Get a good nights sleep and remember all the money you saved when the temps outside were more moderate. Sometimes you need to take a break.

 

[pen]

Okay guys, I need some support/encouragement/help. For the first time since we started burning wood I am having my doubts about the furnace and my own ability.

I just don't know what to do at this point. I struggled to keep the house at 66 yesterday, and last night was a nightmare. I open the furnace door and it will damn near melt your face off, but the blowers just arent coming on! I lowered the hi/low/limit settings to the lowest they would go, I think 80 low and 100 high. the back of the plenum is just not getting the heat from the front where the firebox is. I cant go more than 2 hours without reloading, but at that point there is an 8" coal bed! I had to empty 3 20qt buckets of screamin hot coals just to be able to fit 4 splits in there. I cant let the coals burn down because then the house gets too cold and the oil will come on (this is a combo unit, so that would not be good). This morning I got up and the house was 62, but only because the oil had been running. I had just put 4 splits in at 2am. There was almost no coals left, and in the 20 min I was down in the basement the house dropped from 62 to 57 (it was -25 out).

Im seriously contemplating not even lighting a fire tonight and letting the oil run, just so I can get some sleep (didn't get much last night because I kept getting out of bed to check the temp of the house.

I'm so lost...

It sounds to me like the blower isn't kicking on as it should. Faulty switches/thermosensors? At that setting, the fans should be running pretty much constantly!

 

[Todd]

Check manual for trouble shooting tips?

 

[Corey]

I would agree with the above - if this is causing loss of sleep, freezing temps in the house and overall mental anguish, it may be best to go ahead and click on the oil heat and get a good nights sleep, then troubleshoot when the weather moderates a bit. IMHO, wood burning should be enjoyable and calming - or at least not make additional stress in life. Don't be too hard on yourself!

As for troubleshooting, I'm curious when the blowers do kick on, what temp is the air coming out? Are you sure the low/high limit are correct, not mis-wired or mis-labeled or mis-understood? - and are they seeing the actual plenum temps? No insulation in the way or other drafts which would cause the switches to see a lower temp? Is there any way to switch the blowers on manually, or you feel confident jumpering the switches - I'd try running them manually and see what the heat output is. Generally with a furnace or any type of enclosed firebox (fireplace insert), no air means no heat.

A large build-up of coals usually means more air is needed - preferable through the coal bed or through an air channel that introduces air at or near the coals. I don't know exactly how this furnace is set up but if it has any type of independent air that enters low in the firebox, that would be the one to open. Although in this case, this could simply be a result of not getting enough heat out of the wood you are burning. To put that in simple terms: if you can burn 100,000 btu worth of wood per hour and you should be able to extract 75,000 btu of heat. If for some reason, you can only get 25,000 btu out, the firebox just gets stuffed with coals and wood because now you're trying to stuff 300,000 btu worth of wood in to get the 75,000 btu heat out.

The bottom line, it sounds like you're generating a lot of heat, but not getting it out into the house

 

[ccwhite]

Cowboy Andy,
Sounds like your fan/limit switch is bad. You said the blower will not come on right?? If it is the fan/limit switch, the blower will come on with the oil burner but not with just a fire burning. If so this is what you're looking for http://americanhvacparts.com/Mercha...D&Product_Code=FLT4064B2&Category_Code=fl-8fl I like this one as it has a manual bypass so you can just pull the button out and turn the blower on manually if you choose. Check with local suppliers or at least shop online more as you can probably find is cheaper. If the unit is hot when you go to check it then that blower should be cycling on and off every few minutes. More or less depending on temps. and settings. As pen said at those settings you mentioned the blower should be running a lot. Hope this helps.

 

[CowboyAndy]

The blower does come on... just takes a while for it to come on. Normally we havent had a problem, until the temps go below zero. I can touch the front of the plenum and its hot, but the rear of the plenum is cold.

 

[snowtime]

I would turn the manual fan switch on. Leave it on for 2 loads of wood at least. If you can not find the switch just turn on the summer fan switch. If you do not see a significant rise in temp then its not the fan.
Have you checked to be sure there are no blockages in the system. Check the supply lines for equal air presure. Does the oil side heat things up just as fast as always? If not there is probably a delivery problem. Well thats all I can think of. Good luck

 

[CowboyAndy]

Well, heres what I came up with:

I found a spot in the foundation where there is a hole the size of a quarter. The air is traveling parallel to the north wall which is the wall the furnace is on, so it was substantially cooling the rear of the plenum which would ecplain why the fan switch was being affected.

I also put foil over the barometric damper, and that seemed to help alot. Yesterday afternoon it was about -5* and for the first time in below zero weather i was able to get the house to 74! As the temp dropped off last night I was able to keep the house around 71-72. I let the fire start to dit out around 9pm, feeding it some pallet wood to keep it hot and keep the last chunk of maple burning steady, and at 10pm was down to just coals. Raked them all forward and set the oil tstat to 64 and went to bed and got a nice solid 6 1/2 hours of sleep.

Thanks for your all your help.

 

[LLigetfa]

Not enough air is the #1 reason for excess coaling and the barometric damper could be stealing draft. A colder chimney will reduce draft also. The #2 reason is that the wood might not be dry enough.