I personally would just permanently install a manometer or magnehelic gauge. It's a super useful tool and something that you can glance at every time you are near the furnace for a little piece of mind knowing that everything is working as it should. It's kind of like checking you MPG on your vehicle, a sudden drop can tell you something is wrong.
Yeah yeah yeah...but you well know that's not a fair fight with a stock furnace
I read the entire thread a lot of good stuff in there, I remember you guys talking about the draft but can't seem to find it now, where did you guys settle on the best draft for the flue/chimney was it .04 or .06 thanks
Might depend on the quality/dryness of your wood and how full the firebox is. My draft is usually way high due to the height of my flue. After the firebox is heated up I adjust down to .06.
So in NB it was -11 and I filled up With about 6 splits in log cabin at 8:30 to get a really good fire and coals going I then put 6 more on top of that at about 1pm and that was on a real nice bed of coals about 1/3 full firebox and that will get me to supper time or after. When I do it once more and get to midnight when I got to bed I’ll check to see how cold overnight and load accordingly but I always have coals in the morning. House is never freezing when I wake up lowest is maybe 19 degrees.
This is bang on what happens. Builds up heat from the coals and cycles the blower in short bursts.
Yeah basically it burns low and slow when the thermostat is satisfied. I have it set to 21 once it reaches that it will dampen down and burn slow as it needs until there’s no coals left. Eventually the light goes out cause there’s no heat to salvage just a few coals,it won’t hurt anything it knows what to do haha. If I got out anywhere I just load it like I’m leaving for the day.
Glad to hear that this fixed your draft up for you...but, after reading about your install fiasco I have a question or two...this area that you had to bust the flue out, about 8' down...looks like that puts you about at the roofline, maybe a bit lower?
Thanks! Yeah, that sounds about right. I think it is right a out where the stone transitions to block. The larger section I busted was probably 12 - 15 feet down. Only that small section passes through the roof and then down along the side of the house.
True! We are doing a lot of remodeling right now and don't have the extra $2-$3k to get it replaced completely. Hopefully I'll get 5 years out of it before it needs to be torn down. Not ideal.
Yeah...I was afraid of that...if you were willing to break out the clay you should have went ahead and done it all...then put the insulation wrap on the liner...and had even better draft, and a cleaner flue...the real problem now is there's no way to know what your CTC measurements are in there...if any. If you are sure that bare liner will do the job during a chimney fire, don't be...a 2000* chimney fire will turn that sheet metal red hot in about 1 second...and ASSUMING that there is a layer of block between 2000* and your wood structure...block is only about R1...and if the chimney has already had issues over the years, the wood next to it may be properly pyrolyzed already...so now it can spontaneously combust as low as 200*F (even a bit lower actually) How long will that "R1" block keep the 2000* on the other side at bay? Hopefully long enough...but that sure wouldn't make me sleep well on a cold winters night though.
Dang. Well, this is really helpful information. I appreciate you taking the time to educate me on this. I went out and checked and there is a 1 - 2" gap between the block and the siding. It looks like the gap is there going up through the roof, but I know some of the sides are touching the soffit.
Well, that's good that you could actually verify that its there...I'm not sure what the proper way to handle the soffit would be...other than pull the liner, knock out rest of clay liner, do the insulation kit on the liner, reinstall...but I also know that has a pretty high suck factor too.
You need a liner. Because you have the required clearances you don't really need insulation but I would still do it. Atleast with pour in.
Awesome. Thanks for checking. I'll get some perlite and pour it in (unless there is a better option). I'll probably have to get something a little finer to get it to fill the small space and flow into the areas I busted out.
You want to use a chimney insulation mix that has a little cement in it. If you don't it will settle and pack in the bottom
