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- Jan 7, 2017
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- 6,401
I have a heater box that is basically a fire stove inside of a metal box. I can't put the fireplace in the house as there's no place to put it, for one, and secondly I don't feel like ripping a hole in the ceiling/roof to put a chimney.
So I have this box on the outside of the house next to my central air box. The air box has had the compressor/condensercoils and all that stuff cut off the box and the only thing remaining is the air box side of things with the blower fan. Later on I will use the evapcoils as a radiator and pump either hot or cold water through them to help keep the temps in the house. That's a later project as it involved pumps and circuitry.
Right now as a quick thrown together piece of work, I have a piece of wood on the top with a hole cut in it to pull air from the top of the fire box into the inlet side of the air box. This is a bulky setup and was only temporary as I needed to get heat for the house within a few days and limited budget. I already had most of the parts so I fabricated something to work, which it does, just not as efficiently or as ethically as it could be.
So the hot air comes from the top of the fire box in to the top of the air box. The blower fan pushes this air into the house. To help warm the air up further, I put in a little bit of recirculation. Some of the air going out of the air box will be pushed back into the fire box at the bottom. This minimizes cold air from being sucked in, and also heats the air up a bit further. However, this is still not efficient.
One of two things needs to be done.
1) Return air from the house needs to pass through the fire box then into the air box
2) Feed air form the air box needs to pass through the fire box then into the house
I am sorta using "both" methods at the moment.
I'm thinking option 1 is best as it will create a vacuum in the firebox thereby not push hot air out of it to the outside. The 2nd option will pressurize the firebox to a degree unless I put another blower fan somewhere, which I'd rather not do at this point.
So, now comes the question I'd like to ask from the community. Here's a rough layout of the parts:
Air is returned from the house through the light grey duct and fed back via the dark grey. The big blue box is the air box, and the red one is the fire box. What I'd like is ideas on how to divert some air from the return through the fire box and then back to air box. I don't want 100% air flow going through as the duct for the return is 14" (355mm) diameter, and I only need to use something around 8" (203mm). This reasoning is because I already have most the of 8" ducting already, I don't have anymore of the 14", and I don't need another 30' (9m) for a short piece.
I've kinda been thinking of a diverterthat would be like cutting another box (between light grey and air box) in half, and would have 45* curves to help scoop the air and redirect to the connected ducting. This could be slid in/out to adjust flow. Something like this:
Positive ideas, comments, suggestions. Appreciated.
So I have this box on the outside of the house next to my central air box. The air box has had the compressor/condensercoils and all that stuff cut off the box and the only thing remaining is the air box side of things with the blower fan. Later on I will use the evapcoils as a radiator and pump either hot or cold water through them to help keep the temps in the house. That's a later project as it involved pumps and circuitry.
Right now as a quick thrown together piece of work, I have a piece of wood on the top with a hole cut in it to pull air from the top of the fire box into the inlet side of the air box. This is a bulky setup and was only temporary as I needed to get heat for the house within a few days and limited budget. I already had most of the parts so I fabricated something to work, which it does, just not as efficiently or as ethically as it could be.
So the hot air comes from the top of the fire box in to the top of the air box. The blower fan pushes this air into the house. To help warm the air up further, I put in a little bit of recirculation. Some of the air going out of the air box will be pushed back into the fire box at the bottom. This minimizes cold air from being sucked in, and also heats the air up a bit further. However, this is still not efficient.
One of two things needs to be done.
1) Return air from the house needs to pass through the fire box then into the air box
2) Feed air form the air box needs to pass through the fire box then into the house
I am sorta using "both" methods at the moment.
I'm thinking option 1 is best as it will create a vacuum in the firebox thereby not push hot air out of it to the outside. The 2nd option will pressurize the firebox to a degree unless I put another blower fan somewhere, which I'd rather not do at this point.
So, now comes the question I'd like to ask from the community. Here's a rough layout of the parts:
Air is returned from the house through the light grey duct and fed back via the dark grey. The big blue box is the air box, and the red one is the fire box. What I'd like is ideas on how to divert some air from the return through the fire box and then back to air box. I don't want 100% air flow going through as the duct for the return is 14" (355mm) diameter, and I only need to use something around 8" (203mm). This reasoning is because I already have most the of 8" ducting already, I don't have anymore of the 14", and I don't need another 30' (9m) for a short piece.
I've kinda been thinking of a diverterthat would be like cutting another box (between light grey and air box) in half, and would have 45* curves to help scoop the air and redirect to the connected ducting. This could be slid in/out to adjust flow. Something like this:
Positive ideas, comments, suggestions. Appreciated.
