I'm doing this thread with the hopes of encouraging others that it is not all that difficult. I've worked my life as a logger and other than operating a log loader, I have no special skills. Break any project down into segments and use common sense and the results are usually good. Granny's 35 year old wood/oil combination furnace was letting fumes into the house. Took some panels off. The heat exchanger on the oil side had failed plus there were several places on the wood side where the metal was almost burnt through. The new furnace sitting where the old one sat. I did not like the long smoke pipe run so some duct work had to be moved. New furnace moved and a much more desirable length of smoke pipe! Furnace moved and the overhead duct work moved being sure to maintain clearances as specified in the new furnaces manual. Taking measurements for the connecting duct work. The sheet metal shop that was going to make the connecting duct work told me how to take the measurements. Using a straight edge (pictured) and the wall as reference points to get the correct measurements. Again using a straight edge and the wall for the cold air return measurement. Knowing the correct way to take these measurements really made a big difference! If the sheet metal shop does not want to tell you how to take these measurements, find another shop! Part of the new duct work in place. The flexibility of the plenum adapters makes for a easy hook up. Cold air return installed on the fan housing.
I'm going to do that. Keep looking at the Clayton in TSC for $1900. I would install it in the oil burner room which is a hydronic system and duct the wood furnace into the air handler in the attic. With some additional registers cut in the house, would that work out?
Sorry that I have been slow in replying to your question, but spent the month of March in hospital - not feeling much like replying to anything! Really do not know much about Air Handlers. Would suggest seeing that there has been no answers over this long period of time to your question, you should look elsewhere and would suggest the "Boiler Room" on Hearth.com. Good luck!
Year one of operation has been a success! The old furnace consumed around 10 full cords per year ! The new unit between 4 or 5 cords !
This is my own opinion - mixing forced air and hydronic heat is not a good mix. It will be a lot more money but have you looked at a gasification boiler with storage. The Cadillac system would be a "Garn Jr" which incorporates simple and efficient gasification combustion system and heat storage all in one package. This is a video on the operation of a larger Garn but both the larger and the Garn Jr operate on the same principal.
the problem i see with garns is if your heat delivery requires "hottish" water for forced air heat exchangers or even baseboard. those seem to spec a min supply temp of 140*F and performance falls as you approach that threshold. i know in the coldest/windy part of winter this year my system could not keep up well when the supply temp fell below ~155*. with the garn you would need to a) not let the whole tank fall below that mark OR b) wait for the whole thing to heat up before it could adequately satisfy the house load. if the boiler is seperate from storage you can pump hot water directly from the boiler to the load and then charge the storage after demand has been met. stratification also helps which i imagine is limited with the garn. that being said i know there is guys with garns that use air exchangers. low temp emitters like radiant floor i believe is where the garn really shines. some boilers may be just as simple and easy to run, but most do not have the firebox capicity that garn does. i wish my vedolux firebox was bigger. dont mean to hijack but we need more participation in the boiler section!
