Powervent boiler connect to chimney?

[SIERRADMAX]

My current setup will soon change. My oil boiler is a power vent. The contractor obviously saved some money by not installing a chimney. The house has an insert fireplace with a 12" insulated flue through 2 stories. I plan on removing the entire fireplace & flue then installing a 3 flue CMU block or brick chimney in its place (large cavity in walls). Following the install, can I reuse my powervent boiler and tie it into one of the flues?

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

I cant answer your boiler question but is there a footing under the slab to support the weight of the new chimney? If not the slab will need to be cut out and a footing dug out and poured.

 

[seige101]

If your installing a real chimney couldn't you just get rid of the powervent all together?

 

[SIERRADMAX]

Floor was cut out and I installed the footing recently. I'm just asking if anyone has done so and if the blower portion can be removed.

 

[Dune]

You shouldn't need a power vent if you have a proper chimney.

 

[mayhem]

The powervent is installed to take the place of a good drafting chimney...if you can connect your boiler to an actual chimeny you can ditch the powervent. I have a powervent on mine and while I hate the thing and (noise, power consumption, etc) it saved me about $5000 worth of chimney when I built the house.

 

[SIERRADMAX]

I agree that it saves money during construction. We bought the house allready installed with a powervent. However, in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs, we could smell the exhaust fumes when the window is open during the summer and the previous owners never serviced the boiler. The side of the house was black halfway up. Luckily, vinyl was easy to powerwash.

The powervent will work perfectly as the boiler cans till be in use while constructing the chimney. It's tough finding plumbers/HVAC techs who want to work on these.

 

[mayhem]

^^ The smell is why building code has window and door offset requirements for things like powervents. Of course those offsets don't take into account things like prevailing winds...whenever we have to make hot water in the warmer seasons I have to make sure to close the kitchen windows...even though they're a good 10 horizontal feet from the powervent, we frequently have a steady breeze that moves the exhaust about that far in the time it takes to rise to about the height of the kitchen window. Smells like someone left a deisel idling next to the house.