Had a couple of changes that I thought warranted a further update.
Ash pan knobs might look ok but are poor in function, almost having sharp edges on their sides where you grab, which is not great being that you aren't using these knobs to pull as they were probably designed for, but rather as big thread on nuts to hold ash pan in. Not as pretty, but I found some large knobs at hardware store that are made for a more industrial purpose and are actually designed to be used in a thread-on thread-off fashion. Small detail especially since I'm not sure at this point that the ash pan set up is any easier than just removing ash directly out of fire box with ash shovel....
More importantly, I ran into a bigger issue. The incoming air damper is very crude, using coarse chimney screws as hinges. Using in conjunction with my new bi-metallic thermostat, the door stuck in the open position allowing the furnace to really get hotter than I wanted at the time. My upstairs temp reached 73 degrees, whereas my thermostat shut of my blowers. Not the end of the world, but since the furnace was putting out substantial heat and no blowers were running the air in the two eight inch plentum duct runs was basically collecting stagnant and temps got to over 200 degrees. This cause the duct tape on the two eight inch pipes to start to wrinkle/melt and of course filled the house with more fumes. The installer had used the high heat tin tape I had provided on the first few pipe connections in preparation of possible heat.
So here is my fix thus far. I removed all duct tape on the new duct connectors and replaced it with the high heat tin type. I then removed the stove pipe screws used as hinges and damper door and ever so slightly enlarged the hinge holes in the door. I then replaced the coarse screws with fine thread machine screws so my intermittent sticking problem, I believe, is solved. Then I rewired my blower motors so that both come on with 110 degree snap switch but only one cycles off when I reach my cut off temp at the upstairs thermostat. This keeps a lesser volumn air flow always flowing through the system to keep duct temps happy when the furnace snap switch is reading 110 plus. Once the temp upstairs drops enough the second fan kicks back on to create higher flow. Keep in mind that I'm still am not hooked up to the return trunk of the duct system so I'm just pulling air directly out of the downstairs room and that with only two 500 cfm blowers, that are not really big enough for the sq.ft. I'm using them in, higher flow is not really that high.
This set up is working well so far in low to mid 20 degree outside temps. Since the 2750 sqft. rated furnace is in a 3400 sqft home I'm sure I have less issue then some may have dealing with excessive heat. I am happy to say that I'm able to keep the house a comfortable 69-73 degrees without running the furnace to it's full potential so far.
I believe my next project will be to install a barometric chimney damper since my chimney draft differences are so extreme. Considering keeping the manual chimney damper in the set up as an emergency back up.
Ash pan knobs might look ok but are poor in function, almost having sharp edges on their sides where you grab, which is not great being that you aren't using these knobs to pull as they were probably designed for, but rather as big thread on nuts to hold ash pan in. Not as pretty, but I found some large knobs at hardware store that are made for a more industrial purpose and are actually designed to be used in a thread-on thread-off fashion. Small detail especially since I'm not sure at this point that the ash pan set up is any easier than just removing ash directly out of fire box with ash shovel....
More importantly, I ran into a bigger issue. The incoming air damper is very crude, using coarse chimney screws as hinges. Using in conjunction with my new bi-metallic thermostat, the door stuck in the open position allowing the furnace to really get hotter than I wanted at the time. My upstairs temp reached 73 degrees, whereas my thermostat shut of my blowers. Not the end of the world, but since the furnace was putting out substantial heat and no blowers were running the air in the two eight inch plentum duct runs was basically collecting stagnant and temps got to over 200 degrees. This cause the duct tape on the two eight inch pipes to start to wrinkle/melt and of course filled the house with more fumes. The installer had used the high heat tin tape I had provided on the first few pipe connections in preparation of possible heat.
So here is my fix thus far. I removed all duct tape on the new duct connectors and replaced it with the high heat tin type. I then removed the stove pipe screws used as hinges and damper door and ever so slightly enlarged the hinge holes in the door. I then replaced the coarse screws with fine thread machine screws so my intermittent sticking problem, I believe, is solved. Then I rewired my blower motors so that both come on with 110 degree snap switch but only one cycles off when I reach my cut off temp at the upstairs thermostat. This keeps a lesser volumn air flow always flowing through the system to keep duct temps happy when the furnace snap switch is reading 110 plus. Once the temp upstairs drops enough the second fan kicks back on to create higher flow. Keep in mind that I'm still am not hooked up to the return trunk of the duct system so I'm just pulling air directly out of the downstairs room and that with only two 500 cfm blowers, that are not really big enough for the sq.ft. I'm using them in, higher flow is not really that high.
This set up is working well so far in low to mid 20 degree outside temps. Since the 2750 sqft. rated furnace is in a 3400 sqft home I'm sure I have less issue then some may have dealing with excessive heat. I am happy to say that I'm able to keep the house a comfortable 69-73 degrees without running the furnace to it's full potential so far.
I believe my next project will be to install a barometric chimney damper since my chimney draft differences are so extreme. Considering keeping the manual chimney damper in the set up as an emergency back up.
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