I am thinking of adding a wood furnace for backup head to my house. I want to tie it in to the existing Geothermal Forced Air System. I was thinking of placing the unit in the basement in the room with the existing furnace. However, that places it on the opposite side of the house than the chimney. That would mean about 40ft between the wood furnace and the chimney. Is there any way to make that work?

Thanks,
Dennis M. Heim
[email protected]

Posted By heimdm on 19 Oct 2012 08:26 PM
I am thinking of adding a wood furnace for backup head to my house. I want to tie it in to the existing Geothermal Forced Air System. I was thinking of placing the unit in the basement in the room with the existing furnace. However, that places it on the opposite side of the house than the chimney. That would mean about 40ft between the wood furnace and the chimney. Is there any way to make that work?

Thanks,
Dennis M. Heim
[email protected]

In short, probably not. Most jurisdictions require a separate chimney for gas burning and solid fuel burning appliances. Usually the gas is a B vent and the wood would require a A vent. Wood fired appliances require much higher insulation in the chimney mostly due to the possibility of chimney fires. Also in some areas the extra cost of insurance wipes out any saving.