Wood/propane add on

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Lynnd

New Member
Oct 1, 2019
2
Attica NY
I just added an Energy King wood furnace to my propane furnace. My Hvac contractor built a lovely plenum and ductwork into my propane ductwork. He plumbed the wood furnaces cold air return into the propane cold air ductwork. He separated both furnaces cold air ductwork w/slides so they are separate, manually. He did not install a hot air damper to separate the plenums of each furnace from each other. I put a fire in the wood furnace and it worked great. the propane plenum heated up as there is nothing to keep the hot air from going there but it wasn't hot just very warm. I ran the propane furnace and didn't notice any difference in the flow of hot air out of the ducts. Should I be worried about the lack of hot air dampers separating the furnaces? The contractor said I shouldn't need them as long as the cold air returns are separate.
 
IMO, you need a damper to keep the wood furnace from back-feeding the LP furnace. I just have a gravity close damper sitting on top of my LP furnace. It opens by airflow and is only open when the LP's blower is running (heat and AC).
 
IMO, you need a damper to keep the wood furnace from back-feeding the LP furnace. I just have a gravity close damper sitting on top of my LP furnace. It opens by airflow and is only open when the LP's blower is running (heat and AC).
is it something that has to be fabricated?
 
So to run the EK you open the return air duct on it, and close the return air duct on the propain furnace? And the vice versa to run the propain? That'll work...