old hunter combo wood/oil furnace

[currently confused]

I have recently purchased a house that has an old (about 1980ish) Hunter wood/oil combo furnace. The person I bought the house from has not used the wood side of things since she owned it (about 15 years) and had no idea how to use it to burn wood. Last winter the oil bill was painful (about $600) a month. I have lots of wood ready to use this winter but am not sure about a number of things. This may seem basic to you all but I am truly a 'newbie'. 1) Is such an old system safe to use--my chimney was cleaned and has a liner it in. 2) Do I just put wood into the 'firebox' and the furnace will use oil to start the wood burning or do I have to build a fire in the traditional manner. 3) anything else you all can think of that I should know would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
currently clueless but hoping to be provided with a clue

 

[begreen]

For starters I would definitely seek out the manual for this furnace. It would also be a good idea to have professional eyes give the system a review to make sure it was installed safely and that it is ready to burn. Could be that it's ready to go, but that is hard to say from the internet.

 

[currently confused]

I have searched on the internet for a manual with no luck. There does not even seem to be a hunter furnace in existance at the moment. Any ideas who would look at the furnace? Most of the hvac people in my area do not seem to have much knowledge of combination furnaces.

 

[begreen]

Moving over to the boiler room. Maybe someone here will know of a good service person in your area for combo units.

 

[vvvv]

a description of the furnace would help

 

[vvvv]

throw no more than 1/3 firebox volume of wood in it, fire it up via thermostat?, & watch it burn....ithinx

 

[currently confused]

Thanks all--I found the manual which is somewhat helpful and led me to find that the company is no longer around. I also found somebody who is going to come take a look at it to make sure it is good to go. Fingers crossed and wood at the ready