Why does the air intake have to come from outside?

[SwampLife]

Just curious. Could an air intake take air from a room instead of outside?
Why does it have to come from outside?

 

[johneh]

I hate to use air that I have paid to heat to go up the chimney
Also if your home is tight you need enough air to have good
and complete combustion. It also stops the make-up air being pulled
through every leakage point in your home (drafts)

 

[AsylumResident]

I don't have a very tight house; it was built in '59 and is drafty in some areas. I like the idea of not having an outside air intake for the stove because then I have a small flow of fresh air being pulled from the outside. I have a hydronic heating system so I don't have any air ducts or forced movement of air throughout my house. This gives a nice natural flow of air. My wood stove is in the basement. At this point the only reason I would put on an outside air intake is if my draft goes to crap on me.

 

[SwampLife]

I don't have a very tight house; it was built in '59 and is drafty in some areas. I like the idea of not having an outside air intake for the stove because then I have a small flow of fresh air being pulled from the outside. I have a hydronic heating system so I don't have any air ducts or forced movement of air throughout my house. This gives a nice natural flow of air. My wood stove is in the basement. At this point the only reason I would put on an outside air intake is if my draft goes to crap on me.

Thanks.
I'm in a cabin and it's not well sealed.

 

[SwampLife]

I hate to use air that I have paid to heat to go up the chimney
Also if your home is tight you need enough air to have good
and complete combustion. It also stops the make-up air being pulled
through every leakage point in your home (drafts)

Thanks. So even if it's not well sealed it would create more drafts as it's pulling air?

 

[Washed-Up]

Absolutely…you would be using the air inside of your cabin to burn the fire in the burnpot…the exhaust from the fire is then blown up and out the piping…that is air that you heated inside your cabin that is being sucked into the stove so that air will come in through any cracks, open doors, windows, bathroom fan ducting etc

 

[bogieb]

Just curious. Could an air intake take air from a room instead of outside?
Why does it have to come from outside?

Technically, unless you are in a trailer or the manufacturer's install directions say that you have to have an outside air kit, you don't have to take from outside. In that case, you don't need the OAK pipe as the stove will naturally take the air it needs from the room it is in.

Nothing says you can't start without an outside air kit (assuming you don't run afoul of the first sentence above). If you determine later that you need outside air, you can install it then. The only downside to that method is you will need to cut a separate hole for the outside air kit. If you install it all to begin with, you would be able to use the same thimble for both outside air and the exhaust so cut down on the holes in the walls of your cabin.

 

[doneill127]

I live in an old(1800} house not well sealed. I have a Harman accentra and ran some numbers that showed the stove uses about 3cfm for combustion. Not a concern for me especially considering bathvent uses 70cfm and stove hood pulls +300 cfm. In a newer well sealed home definitely a good idea. My last house had outside air for furnace hwh and fireplace.

 

[Ashful]

I don't have a very tight house; it was built in '59 and is drafty in some areas. I like the idea of not having an outside air intake for the stove because then I have a small flow of fresh air being pulled from the outside. I have a hydronic heating system so I don't have any air ducts or forced movement of air throughout my house. This gives a nice natural flow of air. My wood stove is in the basement. At this point the only reason I would put on an outside air intake is if my draft goes to crap on me.

Old house fanatic here, I'm currently sitting in the 1775 kitchen addition of a 1734'ish house.

So, there's something to be said for changing the air in the house, which will happen naturally through chimney effect even without a stove, but is obviously increased substantially with each appliance drawing air out of the house (wood stove, boiler, clothes dryer, range hood, bathroom exhaust fan(s), etc. The trouble is, in the case of the stove, the direction of air movement is all wrong. You're drawing air out of the warmest room in the house, and throwing it up the chimney, while replacing it with dead-cold air being drawn in from outside through distant rooms. The result is that rooms distant from the stove will always be colder without an outside air kit, than they would be with one on the stove.

 

[doneill127]

Was just trying to put things in perspective. Taking a 10 min shower sucks in the same air as 4 hours of running the stove . To heat 3 cfm from 30f to 70f takes about 130 btu/hr. Thats less than 1/2 lb of pellets per day if my math is right

 

[johneh]

So at .5 lb per day, I burn about 180 days a year which makes
90 lbs a year times the last 22 years = 2161.1 lbs or just over a ton
of wasted pellets And the air replacing what is removed by combustion
is not at 30but where I live would be more like -10 so it would take
much more fuel to replace that heat. Also, we do not run the bathroom
fan in the winter because we want the humid air in our home in the winter
Only used in the summer to remove humidity.

 

[sandpipe]

At my (outrageous) cost of $375 per ton, 1/2 lb. of pellets per day comes out to just under 12 cents. If the amount of heat lost per day by using inside air for combustion equals the btu's in 8 oz. of pellets, then that heat loss seems to be pretty minimal. (Not that I have a choice since my old Harman stove has no option for an OAK).

 

[Ashful]

Also, we do not run the bathroom
fan in the winter because we want the humid air in our home in the winter
Only used in the summer to remove humidity.

Same. Each of our bathroom vent fans also has a ~1500W heater integrated into it, and we choose to run the heater in cold weather. The added heat lowers the RH% and causes the shower steam to dissipate into the air, where it is easily and safely distributed through the house. Showering with the bathroom door open helps with dispersing the warmed humidity-laden air, if you happen to have an en suite, but of course a little more lascivious if using the hall bath.

 

[Tonyray]

our 100 yr old house is not well insulated..
before I installed an OAK, there was this cold draft running along the floor back to the stove.
if u lit a match in that stream it would blow out..
after OAK install draft was gone as the air going back to the stove for good combustion was coming from outside..

 

[bogieb]

Also, we do not run the bathroom
fan in the winter because we want the humid air in our home in the winter
Only used in the summer to remove humidity.

I do the same. I run a tower fan to help push the moist air out of the bathroom and thus draw in some of the drier air from the rest of the house. I place the fan right at the doorway after starting the water and run it for 10-15 minutes after I'm done. Note that I only have one bathroom, which connects to the hallway. But, I live alone so do not have to worry about the reaction to seeing a wrinkly, droopy old body without clothes on.

Once I am dressed I raise the shade that covers the bathroom window (it's a "garden" window), so that moisture doesn't stay in there. Then lower the shade a while later.

 

[DonTee]

My house is newer construction, and decently tight. I ran my Princess last winter without an oak, and this winter I have an oak. I don’t notice a big difference with it. From what I’ve read it should be beneficial though.

With my old VC stove, it would puff if someone closed the door (to the house) too hard. Also its performance would be affected by running the clothes dryer.