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Post by boscovius on Feb 29, 2020 6:16:16 GMT -8
I have had a question knocking around in my head for some time and have had no luck getting a satisfactory answer researching on my own. Hopefully someone here may be able to offer some guidance.
In my basement space where I'm planning my batchbox masonry heater and bench, there is a fireplace that I intend to use for the flue. (There is also a fireplace just above it on the first floor as well but that is an aside.)
Now, on the fireplace wall in the basement, above and to the left of of the fireplace, there is an opening, approximately 6" x 6" that leads to a third flue going up the chimney. I currently have this stuffed with insulation to keep drafts out.
My question is, would it be advisable to construct my batchbox to take advantage of this fresh air access by running a 6 inch diameter flexible liner to some point in the base of the batchbox to provide fresh air.
I am aware of arguments for and against this but I feel more compelled to conserve the heated air in the house as opposed to any concerns over venting fart smells and such. Lol.
I am assuming the third flue was intended to vent a water heater or furnace. The house was built in 1954.
So, use the third flue for make up air?
Yea, or nay?
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Post by peterberg on Feb 29, 2020 9:05:21 GMT -8
IMHO, it should be nay. Using this third flue means that you won't know beforehand which of the flues will be pulling the strongest. The result could be that the initial smoke is pulled the wrong way, through the air inlet and out of the third flue. You don't want to run that risk, I'd say.
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Post by josephcrawley on Feb 29, 2020 15:26:11 GMT -8
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Post by boscovius on Mar 21, 2020 7:53:20 GMT -8
Thanks for the input guys. Thinking it through it does seem that using that extra flue as supply air runs a risk of reversing the flow. The only way I could imagine to prevent that is to be able to close it off until the exhaust flue is running hot. Maybe an excuse to play around with a thermostatic bimetal spring. But even then it would seem as if the stack effect would be subtracting from the desired flow direction. I've seen people pull this off with a powered supply air fan, but I'm trying to follow the KISS principle here and not overcomplicate things, (I already do enough of that). Maybe with a ground level air supply so there is no stack effect, but that falls outside the boundary of my query, if not outside the possibilites of my situation.
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