Can My Furnace Blow Out Woodstove Hot Air?
I have an electric furnace that shoots hot air through my ducts all around the house. I installed a wood stove
close to it and I’d like to use my ducts to heat my house but not necessarily use the heater in the electric device.Can I have it modified so it only blows air without reheating it (since it’ll already be hot air from the wood stove nearby)?
Tags: Air Ducts, Blow, Electric Furnace, Hot Air, Wood Stove
You need a blower fan in the main duct running from your stove to the ducts in your home. Many wood stoves come with this blower, and with some, its an option. The typical arrangement has a thermo-switch which will turn the blower on, when it senses hot air coming from the stove — all you need to do is run a circuit, to feed power to the blower motor. (The blower fan actually sits inside the duct)
The problem with using your central system blower, is that it will blow the hot stove air, right back out into the stove. That could be dangerous, as well as inefficient.
If its worth doing, its worth doing right.
Good Luck
I often turn just the fan on for my forced air furnace when I’m using my wood stove. The gentle circulation of air in the house sucks the warm air out of my upstairs, where it tends to gather, and spreads it throughout the house, even places far from the wood stove. I think this is a great idea.
My thermostat has a “fan only” switch, I guess I assumed that all forced air systems had this. If yours doesn’t, I don’t know if adding this feature is easy or not. But I say it’s a good idea.
See if you have a return air grille somewhere in the room where you wood stove is. They are usually in the ceiling. If not look in your furnace room and find the return air plenum. See if there is an easy way of running a new return air flex duct to the ceiling area right above your wood stove. This would be ideal. If this is out of the question then do this.
Turn your thermostat to from the auto fan setting to just - on. This lets your fan blower circulate all the air in the house, including the hot air your wood stove is putting out. Wood stoves tend to over heat the room they are in by 10-15 degrees. Keep this air moving by using your fan on the on position. Your furnace will still work if the temp drops down to the thermostat setting it’s just that the blower runs all the time.
You can put a fan behind your wood stove so it blows the hot air around in the room, but it just makes that one room hotter- so use your furnace blower. I often put a car type hanging fragrance card on top of my furnace filter to mask some of the smokey smell the wood stove puts off. You can use a manly scent - does not have to be lilac or jasmine.