Over the last few weeks I have been reading all the various posts regarding outside air intakes. The pros & cons and different experiences, and various set-ups.
I was in a local Harman dealer a little over a week ago and asked them their take on outside air. The employee I was speaking with was very convinced that a stove would burn more fuel to achieve the same temperature using cold outside air. His logic was that by sucking cold air in for combustion, you would lower the temp of your stove, and as a result need to burn more fuel. He admitted that by using inside air for combustion it would ultimately get replaced by outside air pulled in somewhere in your house. However he felt that it was minimal, and since it was already warm it would use less fuel. He even threw the "I've been doing this for over twenty years" line at me as part of the conversation as if that was going to convince me that he was absolutely right.
Since I already had my mind made up to try OAK on my insert (installed without OAK) before talking to him, I thanked him for his time and moved on. Have any of the OAK users here, or perhaps the OAK converts seen any evidence to support his claim that using outside air cools the stove and as a result burns more pellets?
I was in a local Harman dealer a little over a week ago and asked them their take on outside air. The employee I was speaking with was very convinced that a stove would burn more fuel to achieve the same temperature using cold outside air. His logic was that by sucking cold air in for combustion, you would lower the temp of your stove, and as a result need to burn more fuel. He admitted that by using inside air for combustion it would ultimately get replaced by outside air pulled in somewhere in your house. However he felt that it was minimal, and since it was already warm it would use less fuel. He even threw the "I've been doing this for over twenty years" line at me as part of the conversation as if that was going to convince me that he was absolutely right.
Since I already had my mind made up to try OAK on my insert (installed without OAK) before talking to him, I thanked him for his time and moved on. Have any of the OAK users here, or perhaps the OAK converts seen any evidence to support his claim that using outside air cools the stove and as a result burns more pellets?