Coalpail.com Forum

My wife and I purchased a home 5 yrs. ago. The detatched work shop has a "Miller Furnace", possibly 20 yrs. old and in decent shape. I have not used the furnace but did fire it when we baught the home and has sat quiet since. For those that don't know what a miller furnace is, they are very common in mobile homes and small spaces, they are a little smaller than a phone booth and about 5 and a half ft. tall. The top front is where the ambient air is drawn and the heated air exits the bottom to accomidate hot air piping under the floor i.e. a mobile home orcamp type building. I am moving my hand fed coal stove to the basement. I put new windows in the 1100 sq. ft. ranch last yr. and our first fire last week when the temp was 22* had the house at 84* with the blower off. My plans are to remove the oil burner from the miller furnace and bring the rest of the furnace to my basement. I have a warm air oil fired furnace in the basement with plenumn and trunks running approx.36 ft. along the center beam in the basement. With the coal stove going in the basement close to center of the home, lets say at the 30 yard line, I would like to re-use the miller furnace as such, invert it and connect the "original bottom of the furnace where the hot air would come out", to the cold air supply of the existing rectangular duct work. I would of course be supporting the miller furnace from the floor as well as securing above. This would be approx. 2 ft. from the coal stove. This furnace is rated at 65,000 BTU output so the fan should have a nice push. How do I wire the fan from the miller to a thermostat upstairs and what kind of thermostat do I buy?

You need a "fan center relay", it will allow a standard low voltage thermostat to turn on the blower motor. Check the motor to see how many amps it draws and make sure the relay is rated for at least that much.