Outside Air Kit: To Do, or Not To Do

Would anything be affected by an OAK when it is -30 air temp here in MN ? (we will be getting a Pacific Energy this summer, and we were told that it is required in MN)

 

Your stove, and it's fire, don't care what temperature the intake air is. In really cold climates I would only worry that the actual oak tube might get frost or condensation which won't be a problem until it melts and drips onto your wood floor.

 

Because the current stoves are not a true sealed combustion chamber the question of an OAK is very difficult to answer plus or minus. IMOP they due help to minimize drafts caused by the intakes- other components of drafts are caused by the thermals set up by the heat of the stove. Difficult to discern which has more effect. I can put my hand by the cold air return across the room from the stove and feel an air flow into said room from it with or with out the oak. I can also feel the warm air making its way to replace the cold in other rooms- natural convection. Ditto on the windows when no wind out- frame seals leaking ( that will be addressed later this spring- it was a lot worse before I replaced all the glass thermal panes- originals had collapsed so they were no better than single panes at that point).

 

Just say "no" to house holes. There is no, no, firm science on the need for outside air EXCEPT for super insulated, extremely tight construction.
And, they need a constant running air exchange. So, where's the benefit ?
Besides, if and only if you have a super insulated home, there's no need for a wood stove anyhow.
No "house holes".
JMNSHO

 

DBH Single and no girl friend ? Perhaps not old enough to enjoy the benifits of dry heat on old bones ?

 

No, no, and No Chrisie.
Some shoulder chip or what ?
This is a nice forum for experiential info. Flaming uneeded.

 

Higher humidity.

 

Excellent...who woulda known. Never thot about that.

 

We would definitely benefit from that at our house.

 

Not drawing outside air in through random and uncontrolled paths helps both humidity and temperature control. I believe our "outlying" rooms are a little warmer because of the OAK. I also make no effort to control (increase) humidity, and I think that is in part due to the OAK.

I cannot prove either of these results are due to the OAK, but I consider them logical assumptions.

 

We just built a new house, it's not super tight ultra efficient "green" construction, just standard quality stick built modular, we did upgrade the walls and attic to dense pack cellulose insulation and the interior of the basement was insulated by constructing a 2x4 wall spaced an inch off the concrete walls and then spray foamed behind the studs and in the cavities and sill plate then finished with sheetrock.

The wood stove in the basement is our only heat source, we have no problems heating the house, this diagram posted by billb3 speaks volumes

I had the contractor add an extra dryer vent in the sill plate before the basement was insulated with the idea of maybe wanting to use it as an OAK. I kept the extra dryer vent plugged and burned without connecting the OAK for about six weeks and the stove burned "OK". When the real cold of winter showed up I got around to connecting the OAK and the difference is noticeable. I am able to restrict the combustion air and close the chimney damper more and still get nice hot, long burns. Before connecting the OAK, the flue probe temp and STT would basically be the same, after connecting the OAK, the STT is about +150f over the flue temp during active secondary burning.

I can't really comment on the humidity, we are having to dehumidify right now to keep the levels in the low 40s, I think just because it is new construction and there is a lot of water in new building materials.

We have high radon. I did radon tests before using the OAK and after we started using it. The radon test after using the OAK was significantly lower, although not low enough so we had a sub-slab depressurization system installed to mitigate the radon. I realize that the radon tests before and after the OAK are completely anecdotal.

 

The radon tested lower seems odd.
Radon is being deflected around your basement floor to the perimeter walls and was getting sucked in to feed air into the chimney ?

 

Dunno, I thought it was odd also.

 

I installed an outside air intake to help equalize the pressure to the stove. It would almost always dump some smoke into the basement (and get through to the rest of the house) upon a cold start. The reverse draft is caused by an outdoor chimney that goes 33' up the outside of the two story house. The intake to the new fresh air feed is on the west corner of the house where there is almost always a breeze or wind coming up the hill so it should almost always be positive pressure compared to the top of the chimney. It seems to have worked as intended. When I started the fire, ZERO smoke dumped out of the stove without having to pre-heat it like usual. This is a first on a cold start.

I'm very happy that this worked out and seems worth the $$$ and time it took to put it in. Borrowing a good hammerdrill from work made the installation go pretty easy. Getting the 5" intake duct through the 12" block wall was the most difficult part. The house plans showed all the positions of the re-bar and solid concrete cores so I could avoid those.

 

Don't know about an oak having an effect on Radon but running the stove in the basement sure would- not that much different than one of those pricy fan systems ( yea I know it isn't pulling from below the slab) but it is drawing air from the basement for combustion so the other infiltrated air replacing same ( which is coming from out side ) is mitigating the radon density.

 

I installed one for my stove as we had the same exact experience as you. Basement install, with an exterior class A 22 feet straight up the side of the house. Stove would spill smoke every time I opened the door.

I rented a hammer drill from Home Depot, and used a "S" shaped 4" of aluminum auto exhaust from Summit Racing, drilled the hole, ran pipe through the wall, and connected it to the stove.

I believe the pressure change from the negative basement to the outside air has really helped the smoke spillage as I don't see near as much if any now with the OAK....

 

This thread is an interesting read. Over here, the requirement for dedicated ventilation (not necessarily connected directly to the stove) is based on the rated output of the stove and the air permeability of the house.

A stove with a rated output of 17060btu/hr (5kW) or less does not require any additional ventilation unless in a particularly air tight house - this is classed as air permeability of 5m3/h/m2 or less, in which case you would need an air vent of 0.85 sq. inch per 3412btu/hr (1kW). If the air permeability is higher than 5, you only require ventilation of 0.85 sg.inches for every 3412btu over 17060.

Read more if you're interested: Log Burner Ventilation: Why Do I Need an Air Vent? | Direct Stoves Resources

Is there something similar in the US for the combustion air requirement regardless of if being connected directly to the stove or not?

 

Washington state has fairly strict laws regarding wood stoves, including the installation of an outside air source. To my knowledge, it is always required here.

 

National code requires and outside air source in MFG. homes. As to stick built that is all over the map.