Old Burner, New Ideas

[pr0f]

Not sure if I'm talking about the furnace or me!!

I've been keeping houses warm for years and I've been all over this site but just signed up for an account today.

I got into a new house - my FIRST Ducted furnace (shield / husk) over a Riteway model 37 that uses the fan on manual to draw the air from around the shield.

I'm trying to decide if I should scrap for a new fancy stove that can easily heat 4500SqF or keep this and make it better. It keeps the house warm even when it's cold - the Gas still kicks on sometimes when the temp drops enough, but that's more so the wife doesn't get persnickity. NEVER go below 67 in this house unless you're sleeping!!

Anyway - The concept of the model 37 is pretty simple, the louvers (which are installed Upside down and the old owner didn't even burn coal) Although I've heard mixed feelings about the louver direction even when burning coal.
So the air is forced down to the bottom flue vent - presumably through the coals for secondary burnoff. I rake them per the manual that I found online, so they block the bottom flu so they get the best bang for their buck.

however I'm a pretty big nerd / arduino programmer / home automationist / IO guy so I was thinking about doing some pretty neat things - if it's even worth is. Also - Welding and fabricating is no biggy.

I was thinking about secondary burnoff tubes or a catalytic converter right below the manual bypass flu. I feel like catylists are just going to make me replace something every several years, where the secondary tubes might just be the trick long term. thoughts?

Oh - one question (sorry this post is all over the place) - Could this furnace benefit from a manual flu in the pipe? Does that RiteTemp dial just control intake? or is there something magnetically controlling exhaust allowance as well? DIdn't specify in the manual and I didn't disect the drawings that much. I feel like it's strictly controlling draft VIA intake.

I feel like 3-5 K isn't astronomical for a really good wood stove, but I don't want to leave my roots and "waste" money on the "new-age-whooy" when I can get it out of my stove.

I'm planning on replacing 2 cracked bricks, but otherwise the inside hasn't been fired TOO hard.

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[begreen]

4500 sq ft is a very large furnace or boiler territory. A single new fancy stove won't cut it. Stop over to the boiler room to discuss modern wood furnaces.
Or are you burning coal? If coal, you should also try over at the www.nepacrossroads.com forums.
http://nepacrossroads.com/about32168.html

 

[Ashful]

What type of construction? Do you know your BTU requirement, or have some metric (eg. how many gallons oil per year?) to gauge your heating requirement?

 

[pr0f]

Thanks guys

I just moved into the place in June so I don't have any specific hard numbers. It's a 2 story with basement. It's all pretty open, although the returns in this place aren't the best (I'm working on that too).

The house is actually closer to 4200 I guess. He current Riteway holds it's own until anything under 15F outside then you gotta keep it running super hot and heavy and it certainly doesn't get us through the night. My propane automatically kicks on at 66 as a backup but I'd love to get through a cold night just using the wood.

I do have a 320G propane tank for the house + detached garage so I don't think that calculation would be beneficial (filled it in june to 90% and it's at 25%) - although again, the garage stays just above freezing and my wife loves to use the gas fireplaces so there is more at play than just heating the house.

I AM burning just wood. And would prefer it that way.

I'll check out the boiler room and get acquainted.

 

[Ashful]

Well, 4200 sq.ft. is very do-able with two stoves, or even with one very large (eg. Ruby) stove. I'm heating more than double that space, with no insulation in most of it, and carrying roughy half the total load on two wood stoves. So, if you want a stove in your living room, as I did, you can make this work. No way was I going to do all of this work processing and handling firewood, just to hide the fire away in the basement boiler!

If you don't want to do two stoves, you can run my style. I just set the automatic thermostats to have the house at our desired temperatures, and keep the stoves chugging along. No, I'm not heating 100% with wood, but my oil bill is only a fraction of what it would be without the stoves, and I get to enjoy having a fire in my family room and in my den. Also, running this way, the boiler keeps the house equalized, so I don't have to deal with as much room-to-room variation as folks heating solely via stove.

 

[pr0f]

That's actually exactly the technique I use. My Riteway 37 is downstairs, with a "shell" around it that ducts into the return and through the house - so it does the trick, but I wasn't sure if I should move to something like a Ruby or if I can mod this. I'm big king boss with Arduino programming so I could react to things like starting secondary ignition things (air or catalyst engagement) if I want. I can weld and fabricate so no problem there. However, I sort of like the idea of some of the big ones having their own blowers (instead of pulling with my return ducting, albeit right next to the blower fan so not far away).

I just hate to throw 2-3k at something if I don't need to - plus fabrication is sooooo much more fun.

 

[Ashful]

True, but also harder to re-sell. No comment on the move, as I'm not really qualified to answer, but I'm sure others will chime in.