I put a used outside woodburning furnace in my shop when it was built back in the early 90's and when we installed it we put the return air down low and the exhaust air up about head high. They are stacked. Conventional thinking and normal gas or electric furnace install is opposite. Its been so long since we did it I cant remember why we chose to do it this way. Should I change it to return high and heat low or is it okay like it is? It heats well but it does seem to take a while to heat the shop, however I dont keep it going all the time, the shop is 30x40and insulated with 1/2 inch foil back.
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Wood furnace ducting questions
- Thread starter 69supercj
- Start date
danski0224
Well-known member
You need to put some ducting on the supply to distribute the heat and move it away from the return.
Heating only, in order to pull the cold air off the floor, the return needs to be low.
Because it is a shop, you need to be concerned about flammable vapors and dust.
Heating only, in order to pull the cold air off the floor, the return needs to be low.
Because it is a shop, you need to be concerned about flammable vapors and dust.
rburke65
Well-known member
I'm NOT a heating guy, but I thought the filters went on the 'cold air return' side of the system???...
trbomax
Well-known member
Filters go on the return side. I had a multifuel furnace in the ohio shop and it was done with return on the bottom,but I ducted the heat runs around the shop to keep it from "looping".I'm putting a larger version of that unit in the new shop,hooking it up the same,it worked great for 25yrs.
Do you have any means of pulling/pushing the warmer air down from the ceiling? A simple box fan on low will a decent amount of air.
Thanks for the comments. Let me explain the filter on the output. I put a filter on it because it was blowing out small specks of dirt, soot ect. and I didn't want it blowing this sfuff on my work area. I took a regular filter and started removing some of the element material to make it less dense so it can still blow the warm air through it. Before it was way to dense and I didn't get very good warm air flow. I can go ahead and add a filter to the return side if that would help. And I have contemplated put in a ceiling fan up in the rafters to keep the war air down were it does the most good. Half of the shop is floored with attic storage and I'm considering walling that area off so as to keep the warm air in the work area where its needed.
trbomax
Well-known member
two 52" cieling fans in the new one,none in the old.I'm going to add a 3rd one in the center this summer. If the cieling is only 8' I dont think you need them.