Wood/oil combination furnace question

How do you like the Woodchuck RParrotte? Have you tried burning coal in it? Does your model allow for that? I would imagine that on those very, very cold nights a little coal would help add to your burn times.

 

For the most part I like it. It heats my house very well. It just doesn't have very long burn times. It does use a bit more wood than I'd like, but I also keep my thermostat set high. I'm sure I could cut down on consumption a little, but I have an endless supply of wood on my property. My brother and I also sell wood, so there's always a minimum of 70 cord cut and split ready to go.

 

I've got a "vintage" 1984 Charmaster wood/oil forced air furnace. Definitely not very efficient by todays standards but it works. I ultimately ended up modifying the way it runs to separate out the two systems. Now, I either burn wood, or burn oil, and cannot automatically switch between the two. The key was the barometric draft damper in the flue pipe needed for the oil burner. My pipe is 8", and an operable draft damper would leak air into the flue pipe when burning wood cooling the gasses creating more creosote in my 12" square ceramic lined chimney (10.5" interior). I ultimately made two rear flue pipes, one to house the damper, and one regular pipe for wood burning. I can switch the two out in 2 minutes, and this way I maximized by wood burning performance with the least creosote. I ultimately added a 95% propane job next to it so now I have 3 ways to stay warm, rarely burning oil anymore. I laid out my ductwork with a pretty good gravity feed so I can keep a small-modest fire going in the basement furnace even during a power outage and totally heat the house. (have a portable generator as backup too) Money was a significant issue back then when I built, but if I could afford it now I would by two separate units. The other significant issue with mine was that a bunch of wood burning would soot up the face of the oil gun causing problems there.

 

I have a Yukon Husky wood/oil furnace and I too dislike the cooling effect of the baro when burning wood. I cover the baro with HD aluminum foil when burning wood, then use a manual damper to control the draft. If we are going away for a few days I can pull the foil off and flip the oil on

 

I did exactly that too for awhile, but I found the back side of the barometric damper just keep getting heavily coated in creosote throwing off its weight balance. I would adjust the counterweight to compensate for that too, but finally said screw it and just put in a solid pipe. I also disconnected my thermostat controlled draft assembly as it was opening/closing/opening/closing/etc with the corresponding effect on the fire. Instead, I tapped a bolt hole at my draft door assembly so I could just use a long threaded bolt (stays only "warm" to the touch) to set and maintain a "steady state" of desired burn. Spliced in a cut out switch to the oil burner too so I could keep the power to the furnace ON for the blower. Most importantly, labeled things so the kids would know what to do if I wasn't around.

 

Hmm, I haven't had that issue.

I did something similar. I can still use the tstat if I want to, but I usually don't, just run it like a big wood stove. I also modded Yukon secondary burn system so that it actually work now...MAJOR clean up of the chimney! Puts out some major heat on a little bit of wood now too. The only fly in the ointment is that it is kinda cantankerous to run now (to get the secondarys to fire and than get it set on "cruise" without a backpuff) Yukon is coming out with a new EPA cleanburn firebox that can be installed in the older units like mine, so I will check into that when they are released. Until then I have a Drolet Tundra furnace to play with. It sure works nice, but it doesn't have anywhere near the firepower of the Yukon Husky!