Leisure Hyfire II connected to cold air return

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Jstallman
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Post by Jstallman » Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 12:15 pm

I just bought a Hyfire ii stoker stove with the heat jacket and I want to connect the hot air from the stove into my propane furnace cold air return and just leave the furnace fan on all the time. The Hyfire would run off the coaltrol thermostat. I've done quite a bit of research and from what I gather this has been done before. My concern is the air temperature from the stove going through the furnace cold air return causing damage to the furnace. Is this a valid concern and is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening?

Thank you everybody! This forum is great!

 
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McGiever
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Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 12:31 pm

Jstallman wrote:
Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 12:15 pm
I just bought a Hyfire ii stoker stove with the heat jacket and I want to connect the hot air from the stove into my propane furnace cold air return and just leave the furnace fan on all the time. The Hyfire would run off the coaltrol thermostat. I've done quite a bit of research and from what I gather this has been done before. My concern is the air temperature from the stove going through the furnace cold air return causing damage to the furnace. Is this a valid concern and is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening?

Thank you everybody! This forum is great!
Build plenum size to allow reasonable temps to flow over across that blower motor and should be fine...too high of temp can be bad there...the lower from 140*F the better for motor.

Ideally, you'd want return air only to come straight from the same space that the heat was delivered into.

Remember, more BTU's get extracted at lower temp than at the higher temp, anyways...

 
Jstallman
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Post by Jstallman » Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 12:56 pm

There are 3 cold air returns coming from the first floor back to the furnace. I'm thinking if I just use 1 of those returns for the stove it will mix with the other 2 returns and drop the air temperature down. I can post pics if needed. Am I on the right track?

 
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McGiever
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Posts: 10130
Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 1:14 pm

Need big plenum/ducts...any one bottle-neck restriction knocks CFMs down a notch...burnt motors cost $$$money$$$ to replace.

Home D and Lowes sell 36" or 48" long rectangular duct sections and necessary parts to connect and join...

Some local hvac shops can build custom sizes if you are able to make 3 view dimensional working drawings or make isometric drawing...hand drawn is fine.


 
Jstallman
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Post by Jstallman » Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 1:46 pm

These are pics of the return plenums. Do they look sufficient?

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McGiever
Member
Posts: 10130
Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Sun. Feb. 03, 2019 5:17 pm

This is very simple to do, but introduces a lot of basement air which means your whole heat load includes all that basement space along with a wee bit of the upstairs air being returned.
Stove Jacket.jpg
.JPG | 30.5KB | Stove Jacket.jpg
Better would be if little to none basement air were returned and the upstairs air was nearer to 100% returned...without damaging the blower motor.

Many other duct option ways to go:
see pg.24-28 for duct options

 
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dutch
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Location: UPstate NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Alaska Channing III

Post by dutch » Fri. Feb. 15, 2019 3:57 pm

I have a similar setup to what you are considering. my alaska channing 3 has a 6" duct coming off the top
of the stove that i have feeding directly into a cold air trunk in the basement cieling. the duct runs about
10' to the drop down into the furnace. this doesn't produce a large amount of heat itself going into the
ductwork, so i have cut openings in the ductwork right above the stove to allow the furnace fan to pull heat
out of my basement and circulate it upstairs. i close them for summer a/c usage.
i doubt temps are getting much over 100 or 110 so i never worried about fan damage.
we use coaltrol, with the thermostat upstairs. i have removed our basement door and put in an old
fashioned wood screen door (too keep pets upstairs) so i get airflow up and down the stairwell. because of
the extra holes in my basement cold air return, i have mostly closed the upstairs cold air returns, and letting
the cold air return down the basement stairs. (center of the house.) this isn't a very large house, 24x48 cape cod,
and we have upstairs blocked off with just 2 of us living in the main floor. thermostat set at 69, and the house stays
at 69 99% of the time, coaltrol is awesome!

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