I currently have a forced hot air hookup and i'm looking for a combo unit (wood/oil). My wife is a little concerned about the amout of smoke output from the wood burning part. Any suggestions. Thanks
Jay
Jay
What is the best combo furnace?
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Not a lot of choices on that end.....
The largest maker appears to be Yukon, a brand I am quite familiar with. Although this is a unit which was designed in the 1970's, the combustion turns out to be relatively good. Maybe they knew what they were doing or maybe they got lucky, but the entire firebox is lined all the way up with heavy firebrick and they have a stainless baffle and air injection through secondary tubes. I installed a number of these and they worked well - with the caveat being that you do not want to use these (or any furnace) in the temperate weather - let it get cold first.
Another Yukon advantage is that they do not oversize their firebox - that helps.
If your budget allows it, another option is to buy a multi-fuel hot water unit (Tarm Excel, etc.) and use a hot air coil.....you could put storage in also. But you will spend 3x as much......
The largest maker appears to be Yukon, a brand I am quite familiar with. Although this is a unit which was designed in the 1970's, the combustion turns out to be relatively good. Maybe they knew what they were doing or maybe they got lucky, but the entire firebox is lined all the way up with heavy firebrick and they have a stainless baffle and air injection through secondary tubes. I installed a number of these and they worked well - with the caveat being that you do not want to use these (or any furnace) in the temperate weather - let it get cold first.
Another Yukon advantage is that they do not oversize their firebox - that helps.
If your budget allows it, another option is to buy a multi-fuel hot water unit (Tarm Excel, etc.) and use a hot air coil.....you could put storage in also. But you will spend 3x as much......
Downdraft boilers like the EKO, Tarm, etc. are meant to be used relatively heavily - turning them way down can result in less efficiency and, in the worst cases, premature burnout of the boiler due to the buildup of certain corrosive chemicals in the firebox. When you think about the dynamics of wood burning, storage makes a lot of sense. Unlike oil, gas and even pellets - wood must burn at a decent rate all the time to burn even slightly efficiently.
The storage helps you even this out over the burn.
If such a boiler was used heavily and only during the coldest weather, the storage may not be as important - but that is rarely the case...
The storage helps you even this out over the burn.
If such a boiler was used heavily and only during the coldest weather, the storage may not be as important - but that is rarely the case...
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