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Blizzard1
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Post by Blizzard1 » Fri. Sep. 28, 2018 9:48 am

I just purchased an old building with a voluminous room with dimensions of 40’ X 60’ with a 16’ ceiling. There are two chimneys on either side of the north facing wall. Hanging from the ceiling next to each chimney are older oil fired forced hot air furnaces. I have no idea how well they operate or how costly it would be to operate them. I can only guess that it would be expensive to heat this room.

I have experience burning coal using a manually fed stove in an old drafty farm house I use to own. I enjoyed burning coal. I’m thinking about purchasing a coal fired furnace with auger feed to heat the large room in question instead of using the oil fired hot air furnaces. I’m not sure though this would be a smart move. And that maybe I should use my money to maintain the oil fired hot air furnaces and to purchase oil.

I would like your opinion / comments on this.

Thanks!

 
franco b
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Post by franco b » Fri. Sep. 28, 2018 10:28 am

First get an evaluation of the existing oil furnaces. Call an oil company with a large service department and request their best man. You want the guy other service men rely on.

For such a large area I would lean toward each fuel supplementing each other if possible.

 
Blizzard1
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Post by Blizzard1 » Fri. Sep. 28, 2018 10:41 am

Thank you for your input. I think an evaluation makes a lot of sense. Though an issue I can think of is burning coal and oil on the same chimney. I understand that’s a no-no. That would require me to install an insulated piped chimney separate from the existing chimneys.


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Sep. 28, 2018 10:56 am

Depending on the size of the existing chimneys and oil burners, you may be able to pipe both oil heaters into the same flue, and free up the other for coal use.

It is also possible that a single oil burner would be adequate as a backup/supplement to the coal unit.

 
Blizzard1
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Post by Blizzard1 » Fri. Sep. 28, 2018 11:41 am

Thanks for your input.

The chimneys are about 60’ apart and the piping is quite high. So I’m not sure about a shared chimney. I do like the idea of running one of the oil fired furnaces as a supplement or backup. I’m also wondering if the blower on the oil fired unit could be operated while not calling for heat. That way it could be used as fan to move the heat around.

Going to work soon so I won’t be able to respond to posts until tomorrow.

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