Questions on installing a wood furnace (hotblast 1950) in basement!!!

[AmosMoses1123]

Just purchased a Hotblast 1950 from USSC, after reading and researching all summer we are now starting to second guess our purchase. The manuel that came with this unit does not seem very helpful and leaves us with several questions. We are installing the unit in our finished basement we will be an existing triple walled chimney that was installed for our previous fireplace. The unit is exactly 20 feet to our existing oil furnace. Our main concern after reading a few post on here is what do we do if our power goes out, what is the safest method to avoid a fire. We have read that because this is in our basement heat will naturaly rise and keep the fire within safe limits, is this true? As far as ducting this unit is there clearances for the duct work and plenum? We were planning on running our duct work between our rafters in our basement ceiling, is that ok? Including this unit in our existing oil furnace and ducting is not that important to us and we are wondering if there are any downfalls to just running its own ducting system. After reading all the info about including this with our oil system, there seems to be several considerations when doing that (drafts, pressure, exc....) Hooking up our cold air return will be fairly easy, as we have a cold air return from the existing furnace 10 feet from this wood furnace. If we connect a separate ducting system for the wood furnace it will run roughly 50-60 feet of duct work total, will that be too much heat coming from that short amount of duct work? We have a 1 story ranch style home with finished basement and want to keep the basement toasty and hope to keep the upstairs warm as well. For the upstairs we considered putting large registers in off the duct work in the basement. Basically cut new holes in the floor/ceiling a few to keep the basement warm and a few to keep the main floor warm. We need as much help as we can get, we have called a local contractor and he basically told us he doesnt know anything about installing a wood furnace or what is needed to include this in our existing system. Please give us all the help you can. The biggest factor for us is we have six children, four of which have rooms downstairs, plenty of fire alarms and a large fire extinguisher but we want this as safe as it can be. We understand that there is always risks with burning wood in your home but we intend to make this as safe as possible. We are busy and in and out a lot and that draws concern of the power outage issue. Thank you for reading and we look forward to any suggestions.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Call a fireplace or wood stove retailer, they will know of or work with installers. Where did you get your stove from? Unless it's a box store, they should have a number for a pro installer.

Ian

 

[Rookie1]

Im not familiar with your wood burner and am not sure of your concerns about burning house down when power goes out. But I know what ive done and my family has done too. We all basically ducted woodburner into existing furnace. I run my blower on furnace all day then at night shut off blower and let heat rise. Havent hurt anything yet. Heres a pic of mine I have 8" pipe connected to coldair return.

 

[jdew1920]

The Hotblast 1950 is the same as the PSG Caddy. Check here for more info.

http://www.psg-distribution.com/product.aspx?CategoId=15&Id=325

I looked into those but they were a little out of my price range, looked like a great furnace though.

 

[JeffHK454]

The 1950 is a nice unit, I have a 1600G and love it.

Have it installed by a capable and licensed tech .. most of your concerns are addressed in your state/county building codes book... if you think your up to installing it yourself then get the needed permits and do a good job.

What makes you think there will be some sort of out of control fire if the power goes out? Are you worried about your firebox temps getting too high with no blower motor circulating air ?

 

[laynes69]

There are a few options. One is does it have its own blower, if so you could install it as a central furnace. Two, if it doesn't, these are made to be tied in series with you oil, or propane furnace. Keep in mind, if the power does go out, you would have to damper the unit down quite a bit to keep it from overfiring. I would NOT install the woodfurnace with ducts running inbetween floor joists. Make sure your clearances are followed in the manual. You can achieve high temps quickly in the ductwork if there is an outage, or other problem. If it was me, I would tie it in series with the oil furnace. Those 2 plates on the right, or left are where the ducts will go in from the supply on the oil furnace. Then of course the top of the woodfurnace will have your plenum, and from there you should have your takeoff from the plenum. 6" for the first 10 feet, 1" thereafter on the clearances. If you run it in series, make sure that you have the same size trunk going into it as you currently have. You don't want backpressure on the system. Here is a picture of a series install. I will glady help with any questions. I don't have that furnace, but I have seen them in person, Hopefully I will get one soon. I have the same installation that those require. If I were you, I would tie it in the system and share the ductwork. It will be your best, most cost effective solution.

 

[AmosMoses1123]

We decided to sell it...

We thank everyone for their response, but we decided to sell the brand new unit, so if anyone needs one I now have one sitting in my garage. We have six children and we asked so many questions before purchasing this, but no one explained the power outage perspective of this unit. In our area a power outage is common, last year we were without power nearly four days. For as busy as we are, we cannot leave our home, sometimes with our oldest children here alone and worry that if the power goes out we are putting our home and the safety of our children at risk by not being there. This just seems too risky for us. We are bummed out completely, but when it comes to keeping the family safe we take no chances. Thank you, Ami

 

[aandabooks]

Not sure on the Hotblast but on the Daka, if the power goes out you take off the side panels and what you basically have is a free standing woodstove. The blower keeps the temp inside of the jacket cooler by pushing out the heat. If you remove the jacket, you have radiant heat.

I have turned off the power in the furnace room to work on the furnace while the woodburner was going. It does get hot quickly. But as soon as I pulled the panels, things evened out nicely.

 

[wdchuck]

Not sure on the Hotblast but on the Daka, if the power goes out you take off the side panels and what you basically have is a free standing woodstove. The blower keeps the temp inside of the jacket cooler by pushing out the heat. If you remove the jacket, you have radiant heat.

I have turned off the power in the furnace room to work on the furnace while the woodburner was going. It does get hot quickly. But as soon as I pulled the panels, things evened out nicely.

What he said.

Its quite the redeeming quality.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Can't remove the panels if he's not at home. Power outages aren't quite planned events. In this situation, he needs a stove where the damper is held open by power so it closes down if power goes out, but can be reopened manually once he's there.

We have outages also, it's great to be a part of an energy co-op. They buy power from the big guys, add their own inconsistency and unreliability before they bump the price up and resell it to us. It's pretty much the same all over the state where "co-operatives" rule the roost. In reality it's not that bad but seems I get more brown outs and power losses than I've ever seen anywhere else.

We've talked about getting one of those generators that turn on automatically when the power goes out but the cost is a bit daunting.

Ian

 

[weloveburning]

There's a simple answer for short term outages, using a batter back up, like the computers use, but for long term outages, it wouldn't work.

We have short term outages all the time here and will be adding a battery back up to the blower unit, to handle this.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Inductive loads (electric furnace motors) and battery backups ( electronic inverters ) dont mix well. Be certain that your backup will handle the startup load of the motor and you will probably be set with this plan.