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Topics - ribs1963

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Home Made / My homemade/modified forced air wood furnace
« on: November 19, 2009, 08:22:10 AM »
Hello,I'm new to this forum and I thought I'd share what We did at our home.I had researched outdoor wood furnaces for about a year and I wanted to go with a forced air unit.I had some idea on making my own but never got around to it.This past summer a co-worker offered me an indoor add-on wood furnace that was in the basement of the house he had bought a couple years ago.This was my chance get things going.I thought I could modify it in order to put it outside so there wouldnt be any mess inside and my insurance company told me that as long as it was outside they didnt care if we had one.We hauled it home and tore into it only to find that the fire box was warped and rotted through in many places from the previous owner leaving the ash in it and rainwater entering from the chimney.This was obviously a major problem.My brother in law is pretty handy with a welder so I took it over to him and he had no doubts that he could beef it up and get it going for us.I also purchased a junk livestock trailer around the same time for $50 and I took it to ny brother in law so he could use as much metal as he needed to get the stove back in shape.Two weeks later I went over and we test fired it to check for leaks and found absolutely no leaks.I hauled it back home and started installing it.I placed it about 40 inches from the house,put it up on concrete blocks.bought some 8 inch duct work to pipe the hot air into the house and also 8 inch ducting to run a cold air return back to the furnace.The next step was a blower fan.I knew it need to be fairly small so it would'nt overcool so I went down to the scrap heap at the back of our farm and pulled out a clothes dryer that I had taken back there a couple years ago and took it to my barn to dismantle the blower motor/fan assembly.I used the sheet metal from the dryer to make a plenum in which to put the fan and attach it to the lower back of the furnace.tested the motor,wired it through a fan limit switch that came with the original add-on furnace.I also ordered some high heat insulation to place inside the outer casing of the furnace.With buying the chimney,raincap,duct work and the stock trailer i probably have less that $150 in the whole unit.I fired it up in late september of this year on a night when the temp dipped to 26 degrees.and man was i surprised.This little baby kept our whole 2400 square ft house warm as toast.we have been using it off and on for about six weeks and I have never been more pleased with one of my projects.I ran the heat duct in through my living room window and made a plywood frame with foamboard insulation so that no cold air can get in and no hot air escapes.I also wrapped the duct with the high heat insulation so I dont have to worry about the framework in the window getting hot.I placed an oven thermometer in the duct work and we average from around 100 degrees to around 200 degree air coming into the house and the return duct is hooked into our central heating return air duct so the air circulates through the whole house. 
 
   
 
 

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