I know it's not recommended, but does anyone have any experience with installing wood/coal stove above an oil burner on the same flue?
installing wood/coal stove above an oil burner on the same flue
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Do you have a family? Are you willing to put them at risk?
If you are then go ahead.
Otherwise its a big no-no.
If you are then go ahead.
Otherwise its a big no-no.
CowboyAndy said:
Why? What is the problem with doing it? What about if only one is used at a time?
I cant give you a specific reason, because I dont know. I do know that I have NEVER met anyone who thought it was okay to do. I pitched the idea of doing it in my house to our building inspector, and he told me that if i did he would put us out of the house until it was corrected.
similar fuel appliances can share a flue in some circumstances, but never different fuels, especially solid fuels... unless it is a multi fuel unit such as a combo wood/oil that is specificly designed to do so.
similar fuel appliances can share a flue in some circumstances, but never different fuels, especially solid fuels... unless it is a multi fuel unit such as a combo wood/oil that is specificly designed to do so.
Setting aside for the moment that what you are proposing is almost guaranteed to be in contravention of the building code in your locality...
If you're ever planning on selling the house, and the hypothetical potential buyer is smart enough to pay for a professional home inspection, then you're going to have some issues.
I know I wouldn't buy a house if it was pointed out to me that the oil boiler and the wood stove shared a common flue. Sure, it might be fine, but why would anyone in their right mind who is looking to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house take that kind of chance?
...plus, if the mortgage lender requires a copy of the home inspection report, or if the potential insurer for the buyer gets a copy of it...I strongly imagine you're going to be bang out of luck selling your home.
If you're ever planning on selling the house, and the hypothetical potential buyer is smart enough to pay for a professional home inspection, then you're going to have some issues.
I know I wouldn't buy a house if it was pointed out to me that the oil boiler and the wood stove shared a common flue. Sure, it might be fine, but why would anyone in their right mind who is looking to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house take that kind of chance?
...plus, if the mortgage lender requires a copy of the home inspection report, or if the potential insurer for the buyer gets a copy of it...I strongly imagine you're going to be bang out of luck selling your home.
I can tell you unequivocally that despite it being a horrifically BAD IDEA, I do have a neighbor who has this setup. Single masonry center chimney, with the oil burner in the basement and the woodstove flue ported straight in high on the 1st floor level. They burn the oil really only for hot water, tho I imagine if they're out of town in the winter, it probably kicks on for heat. They are 24/7 woodburners w/ an ancient dinosaur of a stove (make/model UNK). We have discussed just how non-code-legal this setup is, and they do recognize it, but it's the way the house was when they got it, their pre-purchase inspections never made any note of the "problem", they have CO detectors in place, and the system seems to work fine for them. If they have no fire going, they ensure the flue damper is shut completely. He also regularly checks and cleans his chimney. I envy the amount of heat they make with their old stove, but they readily acknowledge how inefficient it is...
Recommended? Very much not so.
Even remotely possible you'd pass a building inspection with it? Equally notsomuch.
Exists anywhere without catastrophic results (yet)? Yes.
Please don't try this at home.
(ps: my recommendation to them has been to swap out the oil burner for a high-efficiency gas boiler, which direct-vents using 2" PVC, thereby freeing up the chimney flue to be dedicated to the stove. Then buy a new stove...)
Recommended? Very much not so.
Even remotely possible you'd pass a building inspection with it? Equally notsomuch.
Exists anywhere without catastrophic results (yet)? Yes.
Please don't try this at home.
(ps: my recommendation to them has been to swap out the oil burner for a high-efficiency gas boiler, which direct-vents using 2" PVC, thereby freeing up the chimney flue to be dedicated to the stove. Then buy a new stove...)
Barometric damper on your oil burner will kill your woodstove's draft.
But more importantly, there's nothing to keep monoxide from your oil burner from seeping back out the woodstove into your living areas. And maybe not every time, either... maybe just one time, during some funny temperature inversion/unusual wind condition... a few years down the road, when you've stopped thinking about your flue and haven't checked your detector's batteries for a few months.
I wouldn't do it and I would consider it endangerment if I spent any time in a house someone had done this to. I don't live by every dotted 'i' and crossed 't' in the Code myself, but there's a good reason why there is no-nonsense language in there, strictly prohibiting this practice.
Eddy
But more importantly, there's nothing to keep monoxide from your oil burner from seeping back out the woodstove into your living areas. And maybe not every time, either... maybe just one time, during some funny temperature inversion/unusual wind condition... a few years down the road, when you've stopped thinking about your flue and haven't checked your detector's batteries for a few months.
I wouldn't do it and I would consider it endangerment if I spent any time in a house someone had done this to. I don't live by every dotted 'i' and crossed 't' in the Code myself, but there's a good reason why there is no-nonsense language in there, strictly prohibiting this practice.
Eddy
rkg19 said:
Not only is this not recommended . . . it is against code (here in Bangor and throughout the rest of Maine incidentally) for all of the reasons mentioned earlier (venting, potential CO issues, potential fire danger, etc.)
That said, as mentioned there are some folks who still have a solid and liquid fuel appliance dumping into a single flue . . . but more and more oil supply companies are strongly encouraging home owners to fix these issues as they find them during routine service calls.
It should also be mentioned that here in Maine there was some talk late this past Summer about temporarily suspending the rule . . . but fortunately cooler, more experienced heads prevailed over the politicians who were considering this move.
Suggested (and safer) options to add a wood/coal stove may include going with an outdoor Class A chimney (most folks here in Maine tend to refer to them by the brandname Metalbestos) and hooking up your woodstove to this . . . or seeing if your oil boiler/furnace can be retrofitted with a powervent or directvent system and then using the existing chimney for the woodstove.
This is probably a really stupid thought, but I'm running on 3 hrs sleep and two huge cups of coffee.
What if the single masonry flue was big enough to accomodate a pair of 6" dia. stainless liners side by side? I can't imagine any flue actually being that big, but who knows. I just recalled my neighbor said the upstairs closet that backs up to his chimney gets HOT when they're burning their dragon. I cannot believe how hot they get that stove - easily 2X the surface temps I'm capable of. (much drier wood they have...)
What if the single masonry flue was big enough to accomodate a pair of 6" dia. stainless liners side by side? I can't imagine any flue actually being that big, but who knows. I just recalled my neighbor said the upstairs closet that backs up to his chimney gets HOT when they're burning their dragon. I cannot believe how hot they get that stove - easily 2X the surface temps I'm capable of. (much drier wood they have...)
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