Hi there sorry for my rambling...I have a valley comfort MP80 wood furnace and have a few questions. We moved to a new house approximately 3 years ago and it had this wood/electric furnace set up, I have never delt with a wood furnace before so I have been trying to learn from trial and error.
Just wondering how a wood furnace should properly be operated.. currently use it more like a free stander with a blower on it.. throw a few small splits (2” or so) and burn that until everything is warmed up good and have a decent bed of coals then load it up with 4 or 5 good splits and burn for 15-20 mins until it’s all well charred then turn the tstat down to close the intake damper. I have the little adjuster flap opened up almost all the way so that it’s hot enough still to be flamming (secondary flames sometimes when I crack the door to peek in) then I just leave it like that. It usually gets way to hot in here because the blower never shuts off but if I try run it lower it puffs on me.. The tstat never needs to call for heat because the way I have it, it is always making heat. The blower stays on for hours.
It does only last like 6 hours to be able to load again and keep going or wait until later in the day and light another fire..
Flue temps (surface single wall) when I’ve got it shut down drop down to around 240-260 and slowly climb up to 320-360.
And the furnace blower doesn’t shut off for hours at that temp. I have it set to be on at 165 off at 120 and it never gets that low until the wood is almost gone.
Is that normal? If so what is the point of the tstat haha?? All I use it for is to open the damper on a fresh load of wood and then turn it back down to shut it.
If I close the adjuster flap some the temps usually hover around 180-220 and the blower cycles on and off. (Still never calls for heat) but it back puffs occasionally a few hours into the burn and it’s just a smouldering pile of logs.
So just wondering from the experts here if I’m doing it somewhat right or wrong?
thanks for the help!!
Just wondering how a wood furnace should properly be operated.. currently use it more like a free stander with a blower on it.. throw a few small splits (2” or so) and burn that until everything is warmed up good and have a decent bed of coals then load it up with 4 or 5 good splits and burn for 15-20 mins until it’s all well charred then turn the tstat down to close the intake damper. I have the little adjuster flap opened up almost all the way so that it’s hot enough still to be flamming (secondary flames sometimes when I crack the door to peek in) then I just leave it like that. It usually gets way to hot in here because the blower never shuts off but if I try run it lower it puffs on me.. The tstat never needs to call for heat because the way I have it, it is always making heat. The blower stays on for hours.
It does only last like 6 hours to be able to load again and keep going or wait until later in the day and light another fire..
Flue temps (surface single wall) when I’ve got it shut down drop down to around 240-260 and slowly climb up to 320-360.
And the furnace blower doesn’t shut off for hours at that temp. I have it set to be on at 165 off at 120 and it never gets that low until the wood is almost gone.
Is that normal? If so what is the point of the tstat haha?? All I use it for is to open the damper on a fresh load of wood and then turn it back down to shut it.
If I close the adjuster flap some the temps usually hover around 180-220 and the blower cycles on and off. (Still never calls for heat) but it back puffs occasionally a few hours into the burn and it’s just a smouldering pile of logs.
So just wondering from the experts here if I’m doing it somewhat right or wrong?
thanks for the help!!
