help with a wood add on furnace

[mattinpa]

Back in June I bought a add on furnace to supplement my oil heat. i intend to rely on it alot for heat this winter. However, my plumbing and heat guy says this furnace will not work well for me. It is the Englander model, with 850 cfm blower. Here is a link to the model (broken link removed)

I planned on installing it in my uninsulated, unheated garage. I was going to run the ductwork through the wall into my existing duct work.

My question is, why will this not work for me? Is there anything I can do to make it work?

 

[begreen]

Normally this would be installed alongside of the primary furnace to tie into the supply/return directly with short runs.

FWIW, this is not permitted to be installed in a garage.

 

[JustWood]

It will work but you will need return air and an insulated enclosure(or insulated garage) around the furnace otherwise you will lose most heat in the uninsulated garage . I had the same model 10 years ago in an addition on a mobile home . Ductwork went outside and underneath mobile home where I tied it in. Ran the insulated duct through sluice pipe with more insulation tucked in around. Worked good.

 

[mattinpa]

What would be the best way of putting a return on this furnace?

 

[laynes69]

Wouldn't do it. Loss of heat is one, insurance is another. Hope nothing ever goes wrong. Hate to see a homeless man cause insurance won't pick up the tab.

 

[mattinpa]

OK. So the garage is out. How about the basement? Do I have any huge concerns there?

 

[laynes69]

Its alot better there. You will be fine in a basement. Most are installed there. You will get any radiant heat from the unit, plus whatever you duct into the home. Like said before, if at all possible, place it beside your furnace for the ducting.

 

[mattinpa]

Can I expect good heat from this unit? It advertises 3000 sq ft heating. also, if it is an add on furnace, do I need the blower running on my oil furnace all the time? I know I should have asked more questions before I bought it, but I got such a good deal. Anyone want to make sugestions and reccomendations, please feel free!

One more big question would be the matter of the flu. I have all the block to build a new chimney up the side of my house. What do I use to pipe it from the center of my basement to the chimney?

 

[Duetech]

Hi mattrookie,
I used to have an Englander in my 1700 sq. ft. home for 15 years, but a smaller model, hooked into my oil furnace duct-work. Worked fairly well with a 550 cfm blower but was lacking in blower output for my home and caused the oil furnace to kick in during harder cold spells and forced me to run the unit at a higher out put. Hard to regulate in the basement compared to oil but much cheaper to operate. I had a back draft damper installed so it wasn't causing my oil furnace blower to kick in every 3-5 minutes as the combined force of both blowers would literally shake the curtains. The two blowers kept the house warmer though. That was the trade off I chose with the damper because the oil furnace was to be my back up heat supply and I didn't want the operation of the wood unit to wear out my oil unit and leave me with no heat.
To prevent creosote build up only use a short run of black pipe and then go to an insulated chimney pipe. My chimney was triple walled 4' from the furnace all the way out side and up 1 1/2 stories plus clearance above the roof. In the basement the triple wall was safe to work around and the black would burn you in a second.
Fire safety is better with the triple wall as well in case of a chimney fire. The reason I used triple wall to start, rather than black pipe, is I had to go through a crawl space to get to the outer wall. Black pipe would have been a constant fire threat. Be prepared to throw some wood with that beast though...Cave2k