Well, because installing the Daka wood furnace involves such things as building a floating back-draft damper for the gas furnace, and a plenum extension to tie it into the existing ductwork, which means taking down both gas and wood heat at the same time… installation has been put on hold for warmer weather. So this has given me time to walk around it several times in the shop… beer in hand… thinking. It’ll likely be an all-weekend project… heck, just getting it down the basement steps will be a project.
I’m gonna’ do some cleanup and put a fresh layer of stove paint on it before moving it in the house… make it look pretty, at least to start with. Probably build some of the plenum and cold air return beforehand, run the electrical service, and whatnot.
So I’m looking at the twin blowers for it and get to thinking… I’ve got this three-speed furnace blower salvaged from an A/C unit; I was thinking about using it instead of the two Dayton 550 CFM blowers… figure I’d wire it to run low speed on furnace temperature rise, medium speed on heat demand from the thermostat (when draft blower starts), and high speed on duct temperature rise. The thing is… the blower has a 208/230 volt motor, which means running a 240 volt service rather than a 120 volt service, and would involve a bit of re-wiring on the Daka (fan/limit controller and such). And I’d need to modify the cold air filter box, or possibly build a new one. I can see positives to doing this… such as more air flow on demand, quieter operation, longer blower life, and lower power consumption.
The salvaged blower is rated 1.2 amps @ 230 volts (276 watts) but would be less on low and medium speeds; the Dayton’s are rated 2.05 amps @ 115 volts each (471.5 watts total). The salvaged blower turns a larger wheel @ 875 RPM’s (on high); the Dayton’s turn smaller wheels @ 1640 RPM’s. I figure power consumption would be less than half that of the twin Dayton bowers when all said and done… while moving more air at a lower noise level.
So before I go through the work of running electrical service, building a filter box, rewiring, etc… anybody used a larger furnace blower on their wood furnace? Any problems (like over-cooling the firebox)? Anything else I should know, or ain’t thinking about? Opinions, ideas, thoughts?
I’m gonna’ do some cleanup and put a fresh layer of stove paint on it before moving it in the house… make it look pretty, at least to start with. Probably build some of the plenum and cold air return beforehand, run the electrical service, and whatnot.
So I’m looking at the twin blowers for it and get to thinking… I’ve got this three-speed furnace blower salvaged from an A/C unit; I was thinking about using it instead of the two Dayton 550 CFM blowers… figure I’d wire it to run low speed on furnace temperature rise, medium speed on heat demand from the thermostat (when draft blower starts), and high speed on duct temperature rise. The thing is… the blower has a 208/230 volt motor, which means running a 240 volt service rather than a 120 volt service, and would involve a bit of re-wiring on the Daka (fan/limit controller and such). And I’d need to modify the cold air filter box, or possibly build a new one. I can see positives to doing this… such as more air flow on demand, quieter operation, longer blower life, and lower power consumption.
The salvaged blower is rated 1.2 amps @ 230 volts (276 watts) but would be less on low and medium speeds; the Dayton’s are rated 2.05 amps @ 115 volts each (471.5 watts total). The salvaged blower turns a larger wheel @ 875 RPM’s (on high); the Dayton’s turn smaller wheels @ 1640 RPM’s. I figure power consumption would be less than half that of the twin Dayton bowers when all said and done… while moving more air at a lower noise level.
So before I go through the work of running electrical service, building a filter box, rewiring, etc… anybody used a larger furnace blower on their wood furnace? Any problems (like over-cooling the firebox)? Anything else I should know, or ain’t thinking about? Opinions, ideas, thoughts?
