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Old 09-28-11, 08:08 PM   #1
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Default How to provide fresh air to my boiler?

This might not be the proper location for this thread, but, here it is any way.

I have an 80% efficient boiler. 80% so it's not direct vented. Since I have tightened up my basement I'm going to need to provide it with fresh air or it will be less efficient and it will start dumping CO into the house. I could pay the HVAC guy to do this but 1. I don't have money and 2. it can't be too complicated. Does anyone know how to go about this? DO I just run an open PVC pipe or something like that through the wall up to the burner? That would be one big hole for air to leak into the house.

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Old 09-28-11, 09:57 PM   #2
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For the moment it eludes me, but I think there is some issues there with condensation and the heat exchanger not being able to handle the water... I just can't remember exactly what the problem is right now.
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Old 09-28-11, 10:43 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox View Post
For the moment it eludes me, but I think there is some issues there with condensation and the heat exchanger not being able to handle the water... I just can't remember exactly what the problem is right now.
Huh? Heat exchanger? Maybe you know more about this than I do but as far as I know all this entails is running a tube of outside air right up close to the burner of the boiler. Although I could see condensation being some type of issue in the warmer months when the air is capable of holding more water. Especially in this swamp where I live.
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Old 09-29-11, 12:57 AM   #4
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I'm in the same situation, though my basement is as leaky as a sieve, and I haven't anything about it to keep air going to the boiler.

So, I can see a few possibilities:
  1. Make a vent in the wall. This will pretty much undo all of your sealing efforts.
  2. Deliver outside air through a PVC pipe to the burner, as you proposed. You still have a hole-in-the-wall situation, but at least the burner is sucking in colder air. This is usually good, but in this case it may turn out that your boiler is tuned to intake air @ room (basement) temperature. When the burner is off thn you are still getting a rush of cold air.
  3. PVC pipe with some kind of damper, which allows fresh air in only when the burner is fired up. This would be ideal, but the valve actuator would have to be failsafe. Or maybe not - if the valve doesn't open, then a CO sensor should let you know.
  4. Upgrade to a boiler with a closed combustion chamber. These are more efficient (90-95%, 107% for condensing models), but are very expensive.
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Old 09-29-11, 05:56 AM   #5
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I have a pellet stove wood burner, it has an external air tube to the fire box. This allows the air to be sourced external to the building; if the building is a mobile home or otherwise tightly sealed. The instructions say if it is used, then run an external metal pipe through the wall 1 5/8 dia and join to the fresh air tube leading to the fire.

Not sure how your boiler fire works, but if the fire box has a forced air fan like the pellet fire, then the hole in the wall isnt very big compared to the size of the room, so any ingress of cool air into the room would be minimal.

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Old 09-29-11, 09:16 AM   #6
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Haha, I remember now what I was thinking about. It was if you have condensation in a non-condensing furnace on the heated air side, not the burner side. That becomes a problem and can corrode the heat exchanger and cause problems. A dedicated intake shouldn't cause that problem. I knew something wasn't right there.
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Old 09-29-11, 11:39 AM   #7
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The woodstove at my old house had an external air intake. I believe they are required by code on new installs these days. It was a 6" metal duct if I remember correctly. The tube got very very cold near the wall and was quite hot near the stove when the fire was lit. Also I could go outside and was shocked just how much air that thing was drawing in.

In that install the tube was maybe 16" long. My new house I would love to add something similar but I have no way to get the air over to the insert.
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Old 09-29-11, 12:25 PM   #8
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Well these stoves are built for this kind of thing. My boiler just has some lovers on the front down near the bottom. There must be a way to make a fairly air tight baffle that opens when the burner fires up. I wonder how professionals do this.
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Old 09-29-11, 12:30 PM   #9
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I'd guess that professionals don't do this unless the furnace/boiler is made to do it off the shelf. In that case I'm sure the furnace/boiler has some duct piece attached to it and they just run plumbing (probably PVC) to it.

To do it yourself you're going to need to seal up the boiler's intake area completely. Then you need to punch a hole in it and run some ducting to it (PVC is probably fine). I'd add a damper or two in there to prevent air movement when you don't want it. Alternatively you could hook up an electronic damper that opens when the furnace turns on. I'd try to keep the ducting short and throw some insulation around it when you're done.
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Last edited by Daox; 09-29-11 at 12:33 PM..
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Old 09-29-11, 12:48 PM   #10
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The HVAC guy I deal with told me that he'd run a duct of some kind right up to it. So this isn't abnormal. There's no real way to seal any of it up. The louvered cover is really nothing more than a metal plate that pops on the front of the thing. It's open all over the place. I have an energy audit scheduled for 10-10 so I probably need to get this all squared away before then. This might be a stop work condition for any contractors who might be doing work here.

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