M
mhrischuk
Guest
Polling all existing wood stove users.
Feel free to comment and tell us which answer you selected and why.
Feel free to comment and tell us which answer you selected and why.
Swedishchef said:With a basement setup, an OAK would look really bad. A pipe coming out of the wall, it can't come through the basement floor.
Andrew
Highbeam said:Well, it is required by law in my state so I didn't have a choice. That said, I would have put it in anyways as there are many plusses and no minuses. The only reasons people don't put them in is cost, complexity, and laziness. It's easy to make excuses.
Despite the fact that it is enshrined in some building codes and its adherents are often vocally forceful, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that outdoor air supplies, either direct to the combustion chamber or indirect supplies to the living space, are reliable and effective remedial measures for combustion spillage from the appliance for which the supply is intended.
mhrischuk said:There can be minuses.
Cold air intrusion.
Chimney downdraft can cause hot flue gases to exit the OAK causing dangerous conditions.
Just opening an exterior door could cause flue gases to push out through the OAK.
There can be minuses.
Cold air intrusion.
Chimney downdraft can cause hot flue gases to exit the OAK causing dangerous conditions.
Just opening an exterior door could cause flue gases to push out through the OAK.
thechimneysweep said:There can be minuses.
Cold air intrusion.
Chimney downdraft can cause hot flue gases to exit the OAK causing dangerous conditions.
Just opening an exterior door could cause flue gases to push out through the OAK.
Actually, cold air intrusion is most often an issue where outside air is not being burned. We have used direct connection to outside combustion air as a solution many, many times when the combination of the chimney updraft and other air evacuators causes negative pressurization in the house, which in turn causes cold air to be drawn into the living space through openings in the shell.
As to hot flue gases exiting through the OAK, even the author of the woodheat.org website can't come up with a single documented case where this has ever happened.
Before you make your ultimate decision, I invite you to read both sides of the issue on our website at (broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/hooa.htm)
mhrischuk said:Polling all existing wood stove users.
Feel free to comment and tell us which answer you selected and why.
fossil said:mhrischuk said:Polling all existing wood stove users.
Feel free to comment and tell us which answer you selected and why.
Well, you didn't include an option of saying I don't use an OAK. Oh, and why did you exclude all the non-existing wood stove users? %-P
Tom,
When you say “direct connectionâ€, does that mean that the OAK is sealed to the air inlet on the wood stove?
And a followup question, if a direct sealed connection of the OAK to the stove is not made, then I would think that air intrusion could be an issue?
Highbeam said:Well, it is required by law in my state so I didn't have a choice. That said, I would have put it in anyways as there are many plusses and no minuses. The only reasons people don't put them in is cost, complexity, and laziness. It's easy to make excuses.
Highbeam said:I am in pierce county. I actually pulled a permit for my installation and the OAK was required. Maybe tom has the RCW handy. The inspector would have rejected my installation had the outside air connection not been made. All mobile homes in the country need one too.
The idea that a leaky house will make an OAK ineffective is odd. The whole point of an OAK is to burn outside air directly and prevent the stove from consuming the heated inside air. Every bit of the inside air that is consumed leads to the sucking in of cold, dry, outside air through those cracks. A leaky house is why you want an OAK, an ubertight house will benefit from the OAK as well since the burning fire will create a vacuum in the home and snuff the fire or suck air in through other flues.
Really, there is no reason to choose not to install an OAK except for cost, complexity, or laziness.
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