- Nov 27, 2012
- 0
Question:
I have a 20 year old wood burning stove that using room air for combustion. I would like to minimize heat loss in the house by modifying the stove to accept outside air into the combustion chamber. Does anyone know of any plans or suggestions to help a do-it-yourselfer accomplish this task? Am I oversimplifying this job by thinking all I need to do is cut a hole and weld a 2" pipe in the stove wall?
Answer:
To put it quite bluntly, yes, you are oversimplifying this task. There are a lot of unknown variables that prevent me from giving you adequate instruction on how to accomplish this task. Even if you were able to do it correctly, you still are stuck with an inefficient, smoke belching, twenty year old stove made with twenty year old technology.
My first inclination is to recommend that you consider a newer woodstove that has the outside air connection incorporated into the design already. Not only does the outside air help with efficiency, but the combustion efficiencies of the newer stoves are far superior to the stoves of a decade ago. You are looking at 30-40%, twenty year old efficiencies compared to 65-75% efficiencies with a new high tech design. Just think back 20 years ago and compare the automobiles available then to the ones available today. Twenty years use on a woodstove is a pretty good life span. There's not very many consumer products being sold today that have a twenty year old life expectancy.
I have a 20 year old wood burning stove that using room air for combustion. I would like to minimize heat loss in the house by modifying the stove to accept outside air into the combustion chamber. Does anyone know of any plans or suggestions to help a do-it-yourselfer accomplish this task? Am I oversimplifying this job by thinking all I need to do is cut a hole and weld a 2" pipe in the stove wall?
Answer:
To put it quite bluntly, yes, you are oversimplifying this task. There are a lot of unknown variables that prevent me from giving you adequate instruction on how to accomplish this task. Even if you were able to do it correctly, you still are stuck with an inefficient, smoke belching, twenty year old stove made with twenty year old technology.
My first inclination is to recommend that you consider a newer woodstove that has the outside air connection incorporated into the design already. Not only does the outside air help with efficiency, but the combustion efficiencies of the newer stoves are far superior to the stoves of a decade ago. You are looking at 30-40%, twenty year old efficiencies compared to 65-75% efficiencies with a new high tech design. Just think back 20 years ago and compare the automobiles available then to the ones available today. Twenty years use on a woodstove is a pretty good life span. There's not very many consumer products being sold today that have a twenty year old life expectancy.
