wood boiler induction fan

[razzorm]

I have a Crane 4 section cast iron boiler (made in the 40's to burn oil or coal) that I have been burning wood in it about 30 years. It's tied in to my oil fired boiler, so long as water in wood boiler is above low set point a circulator moves water between 2 boilers.

Fire is controlled by a very old actuator that opens a draft door on bottom of boiler when water temp. drops. Actuator is not a spring return model that would close draft in case of power outage. Big trouble if fire box is loaded, draft is open and power goes out!! Draft control is always left on closed when not home and at night.

When burning large chunks of wood recovery time is slow. I think installation of an induction fan to replace the draft door would greatly improve my recovery time and perhaps my wood usage. My concern about power outages would also be gone.

I have to date only found 1 product that might be what i'm looking for but its quite expensive (Vogelzang Draft Kit $260).

Does anyone know if this or a product similar to this closes off air supply to fire when the fan is not running.

Wood used to be free and I used to be younger.

Thanks
Ray M.

 

[deerefanatic]

Well, the way many OWB's do it is they have a small fan on the intake, then they have a metal plate with a rubber gasket that flops shut over the inlet of the fan. This flapper is attached to a solenoid that receives power whenever the fan is on. In this way, when the fan gets power, the flapper opens and lets air flow, and when the power to the fan is shut off, the flapper flaps shut by gravity and chokes off air to the stove.

In this case, any small fan with adequate CFM would work.. I like the Dayton squirrel cage blowers that Grainger sells. Not cheap, but grainger is great in that they keep cross-references for stuff they sell forever.... So if you buy a fan from them and it burns up 4 years from now, they will almost guaranteedly either still carry it, or have a direct cross reference, that they can get you next day. Same with those solenoids.

 

[razzorm]

I had given your suggestion some thought but hoped to find fan & draft control in 1 unit.

If I do go with a seperate fan and actuator what cfm fan would you suggest. My thoughts are maybe 70 to 100 cmf.

Thanks for your post.

Ray M.