On 2 Jan 2006 10:42:05 -0800, "Carlr54555"
wrote:

I'm currently looking for plans for an add on wood furnace i can add to
my forced air lp furnace my heat bill is nearly twice as much as last
year's while using less lp, I can see no other way to cut my bill but
add on wood. wood is cheap up here in the northwoods. the most
expensive thing I foresee is the chimney. I still need to run b-vent
through the roof (Approx 30') for the lp and the whatever is necessary
for the wood furnace. I'm on a very tight budget so any safe money
saving ides you may have would be greatly appreciated.

You can't run B-vent for the wood part. You need a triplewall steel
flue of some sort, and make sure all the components come from the same
company - this eliminates the finger-pointing if something goes wrong.

Have you considered an installed pre-fab fireplace with a heat
exchanger (or two) rather than a wood fired furnace? Will be a whole
lot easier to install and probably less money to buy (sales volume),
and it has decorative functions also. We installed two as fireplaces,
but didn't buy the heating fan kits for them. If we ever really need
them for heat, we can get them.

Or if you already have masonry fireplaces, they make heat exchanger
inserts that produce more useful heat than they suck up the flue.
(Having a proper outside combustion air source helps with that.)

And use room ceiling fans to stir the heat you have, put them in CCW
"Up" mode to get the heat off the ceiling and down where you can use
it - especially valuable in rooms with cathedral ceilings. Also helps
to distribute the fireplace heat between the rooms.

Set the gas furnace thermostat low, and if you don't get up and
stoke the fire at 3 AM, it will kick in as a backup.

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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