When to add a damper to my chimney pipe?

[lugoismad]

I have a United States Stove Company 1400 Wood furnace in my garage, plumbed into the rest of my duct work.

When I use the electric heat on my regular furnace, the air coming out of the registers is hot. When I use the wood furnace, its barely luke warm.

Someone mentioned to me I may be losing all of my heat out of the chimney, rather than it getting transferred to the air.

Should I add a dampener to my chimney pipe coming out the back? Would this help?

 

[begreen]

Is there any possibility that this is duct loss? How long are the duct runs? Is the ductwork insulated?

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

A baromtric damper changed mine from a marginal at best system to one that actually threw heat. Without it I simply could not get the heat I needed.

 

[lugoismad]

Is there any possibility that this is duct loss? How long are the duct runs? Is the ductwork insulated?

Yes, there is a bit of duct loss, I will admit.

The top of the furnace has 2 8" outputs. These go both go into a junction and join into a 12" pipe, which shoots across the ceiling and ties into my other duct system, and there is a 12" valve where it joins the other system so I can turn on and off flow from the wood furnace.

To run more effeciently, I need to get 2 12" Runs coming from the wood furnace. I'm going to cut a new top for the airbox around the furnace out of some tin sheeting I have, and instead of 2 8"s it will be 2 12"s coming out of it. One will run to the duct work that goes upstairs, and one will go to the run that goes under the house that feeds the down stairs. Right now though its too cold for me to turn off forced air for long enough to do the install.

But still, I would imagine what air that does come out should be a bit hotter than it is right now.

 

[lugoismad]

A baromtric damper changed mine from a marginal at best system to one that actually threw heat. Without it I simply could not get the heat I needed.

I went and purchased one yesterday and installed it.

Wow, what a difference. Overnight I burnt less wood, and the house is hotter.

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

Amazing isn't it? They ought to just include one with the stove.

 

[Techstuf]

A baromtric damper changed mine from a marginal at best system to one that actually threw heat. Without it I simply could not get the heat I needed.

Stephen's right, at least in my experience. Ever since I installed mine 4 seasons ago, I've had great results. My stove really throws the heat and the chimney's not quite so hot. My stove is in the basement and I feed it combustion O2 direct from outside via a 4" feed duct hooked up to the clothes dryer vent in winter, which also considerably increases efficiency.


TS

 

[larryhollenb]

This damper question seems to have too schools of thought. One is the Never use a damper, you don't need it and it interferes with your stoves efficient burn, and the others including my self who think a damper used properly makes a lot of sense. I have this season a late 40's wood circulator type stove. It took me a while to get the hang of the operation of the thing. But I have a damper in the line and the instant I turn the damper to about a 2 o'clock position the heat just comes up off the top of the stove. Plus it slows the fire slightly to prevent overheating. That in combination with the damper works well. But for a while I was getting smoke in the house and the lower pipe seemed to be overheating. That was because at first in order to control the fire I was closing the damper too much, that resulted in smoky fires that dirtied the little mica windows in the end door. After quite a bit of trouble with the smoke I came to find out that the damper was actually not hooked into the pivot rod in the pipe correctly and when I thought I was turning it a bit, it might have been nearly closed as it was loose and flopping around on the stem.. Made in Taiwan for you.. I got an old quality damper the name of which escapes me at the moment, but it has a very positive control and stays put on the locking device. I wouldn't have a stove without one. Too much heat loss up the flue without it for my taste. But don't over do the closing of it. Just do it enough to get back up of heat without interfering with a good burn.