Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: Daped01 on January 23, 2012, 08:15:46 AM
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I own a doublewide moble home sitting on a full slab, aprox 1500 sq ft. I currently heat it with a forced air LP furnace. My question(s) is/are, how do I go about installing a heat exchanger in my furnace, from my knowledge there isn't much space, am i going to need a new furnace? or just get a professional to do it
Also, when I run the lines under the house through the skirting, is it ok for them to run on top of the slab? or do I need to cut out the slab where the lines are to run and run them up through the floor to the furnace?
I'm about a year away from buying an OWB, but I want to know as much about what I need to do so I can do as much of the work as I can.
Thanks in advance.
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Double wides are the easiest ones I think... Take out the screws that hold the a coil in place and slide a 16x16 coil right under it and then set the acoil back down on it... Tape it up and you have it..
Sometimes I have to install them on top of the cabinet that it sits in, but it's always a fairly easy one to do
The lines are fine to run on top of the slab, I just use enough package line to reach my first stop, usually the hot water tank
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My son had one installed on his single wide. One thing the dealer looked for was the vent on top of the furnace. It needed to be a retractable style because he raised the furnace to put the HX downstream of the furnace fan.
As far as burying the pex, it only had to be underground from the OWF to the trailer. (if it's thermo-pex). The reason it has to be underground when out in the open is because you need to protect it from the UV rays and the sheathing on the Thermo-pex is not fire retardant.
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You do not have to put the coil on the supply side of the fan... There is many issues that you can run into it by doing it that way and it doesnt work any better. This is actually one of the most common mistakes
I keep them on the return side in double wides and they always do great. all the air that goes through the fan has to come in the casing, so it makes no difference about efficiency of where it's at.
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if its down draft furnace you have to take the cover off and measure the space on top of the Acoil if you have one. you need about 4 inches. Mine is also ran on top of the slab but i went with the expensive thermo pex.
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Once again, it does not have to be above the acoil...
Yoderheating was the man who turned me onto placing them under the acoil, it makes for the most professional looking installation possible. Him and his dad have done this forever and have installed hundreds of furnaces if not thousands....
I'm only trying to help this questioner out as much as possible, I know a lot of people think a lot of things but when you do this for a living you learn every day.
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i sat mine on top of the downdraft furnace , and the air filter is on top of the heat exchanger. a-coil sets in the middle. easy to install.
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BTW- My sons is a downdraft furnace. The return is at the furnace, goes through the fan, then the oil fired furnace, then through the OWF HX.
Just thought I would add that........
He has an add on AC unit, but it's totally independent from his "heating system" and has it's own air handler.
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Here is mine so far. I still have more work to do and have the lines set up to run a zone valve that i have yet to install.
[attachment deleted by admin for space issues]
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I didn't have enough room in my furnace so I pulled out my a coil.i plan to instal a new furnace next year so it didn't matter to me.I do plan to make a box for the new furnace to sit on that will hold my heat exchanger.
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Max66, how you gonna close the cabinet with. Lines sticking out of it.
I always come up beside where the ac lines come up to keep it all neat/hidden
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Well i have holes drilled in it and since the cover very rarely will need to be removed ill just take the shark bites off and put the door on and reinstall the shark elbows. It was a lil more difficult because i got a bigger exchanger to fill the space and ofcorse nobody makes close to the size i needed. The exchanger is about 3 inches longer then i needed. I also wanted to run to the plate exchanger first so i could get more of a consistant temp for the hot water. I Plan on building some type of closet around the system.
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Well i have holes drilled in it and since the cover very rarely will need to be removed ill just take the shark bites off and put the door on and reinstall the shark elbows. It was a lil more difficult because i got a bigger exchanger to fill the space and ofcorse nobody makes close to the size i needed. The exchanger is about 3 inches longer then i needed. I also wanted to run to the plate exchanger first so i could get more of a consistant temp for the hot water. I Plan on building some type of closet around the system.
Just curious what size heat exchanger you have that you had to get 3" too long? Usually can get closer than that.
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wow....thanks for all the responses, I didn't expect anywhere near as many as I've received. I have a couple questions.
When you guys say A coil, are you referring to the Air Conditioning Coil?
and secondly, I don't have anywhere near that amount of room next to my furnace as you do hddmax66. My furnace is built into a space no wider than the furnace is. My only option is to go down straight through the floor? to the left of the furnace is a pantry, and the right is my washer in dryer. Followed by my well pump and hot water heater built into an enclosure to the right of the washer and dryer. its tight. This is why I'm thinking about having a professional install the indoors portion of the system.
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Yeah thats what they mean when they say a coil.The a/c condensor.My furnace is the same as yours real tight and beside the hallway.I had to run my lines up right in front of the furnace.I can't put my lower cover back on either.I hope to make a different arrangement when I put in a new furnace.
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i didnt have the space either but i took out a lil wall and some useless cabnets on the left is my washer and dryer and on the right was a pantry like you prolly have. Needless to say its gone now. I really wish i had a basement!
@ RSI i think i needed like 19.5 x 19.25 somewhere close to that. I searched everywhere and couldnt find one. i found great deals at www.freeheat4u.com (http://www.freeheat4u.com) and is in driving distance for me to pick up! so i had to get the 19x20 which is actually 19.25x22. the next one smaller was 18x18 which is actually 18.5x20. Go big or go home is my motto!
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i didnt have the space either but i took out a lil wall and some useless cabnets on the left is my washer and dryer and on the right was a pantry like you prolly have. Needless to say its gone now. I really wish i had a basement!
@ RSI i think i needed like 19.5 x 19.25 somewhere close to that. I searched everywhere and couldnt find one. i found great deals at www.freeheat4u.com (http://www.freeheat4u.com) and is in driving distance for me to pick up! so i had to get the 19x20 which is actually 19.25x22. the next one smaller was 18x18 which is actually 18.5x20. Go big or go home is my motto!
Yeah that is a hard size to find. There are some that measure 18x19 or 19x20 but would have cost more. You probably went with the best size.
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Ok, thank you very much. I received alot of information from alot of people I consider "credible" from reading this site over the year. I've been lurking here for a year or so and am so thankful for all the information i've learned from just reading.
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Generally speaking doublewides are down draft furnaces with an A coil on top. If you can raise the A coil and slide the flat coil in between it works well. One thing I would point out is to look at both the size of the base of the A coil and the opening on top of the furnace where the air goes from the A coil into the fan. Often this opening is around a 16x18 or 16x16 opening. If you install a coil larger than the opening you really don't gain anything because the overhanging part will not be used. I almost always use a 16x16 coil ( with flanges 16.25x18).
One problem to watch out for when installing this way. If the A/C unit is low on freon or if the cover of the furnace is left off the coil can freeze up. I had one case where the coil froze and busted twice. The way I fixed the problem was by installing a sensor on the wire from the y terminal to the outside unit so that whenever the coil dropped below 38F the compressor would stop. This seemed to solve the problem.
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great information yoderheating. Thank you very much
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Generally speaking doublewides are down draft furnaces with an A coil on top. If you can raise the A coil and slide the flat coil in between it works well. One thing I would point out is to look at both the size of the base of the A coil and the opening on top of the furnace where the air goes from the A coil into the fan. Often this opening is around a 16x18 or 16x16 opening. If you install a coil larger than the opening you really don't gain anything because the overhanging part will not be used. I almost always use a 16x16 coil ( with flanges 16.25x18).
One problem to watch out for when installing this way. If the A/C unit is low on freon or if the cover of the furnace is left off the coil can freeze up. I had one case where the coil froze and busted twice. The way I fixed the problem was by installing a sensor on the wire from the y terminal to the outside unit so that whenever the coil dropped below 38F the compressor would stop. This seemed to solve the problem.
What did you use for the sensor to shut off the AC? That probably wouldn't be a bad idea to put in every system if it is cheap enough.
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I can't even remember the brand I used. I just went into my HVAC supplier and told them what I wanted. It was very simple little device that clipped onto the line and had two wires out of it. Simply had to splice the yellow wire through it and was done. I want to say it cost less than $20. I am thinking about using them on all coils that are located directly beside the A coil where it has any chance at freezing.