block off baro damper to oil furnace?

Out of curiosity I checked the baro damper my oil furnace to see what its pulling. Now this isn't running but is sharing ducts with my koker 160. Ive blocked off the cold air return from house to oil burner so the koker will pull all the air in for itself. The oils burner damper is aprox. 7 feet from the koker and its draft reading is around .3 or .03, I can't remember, but its the same as the koker, which is dv. Is there an advantage to blocking the baro damper on the oil burner as im not using it?

Advantage? I would say no since they are set to regulate at the same pressure. I'm curious though, isn't it possible for the chimney to pull draft thru the oil burner's combustion air inlet that would ultimately compromise the chimney's pull? Or do you have such an inlet closed off?

Shouldn't matter, the baro will keep the appropriate draft.

Kevin

I assumed and was told by an hvac guy that the oil furnaces combustion chamber is seperate form the rest of the furnace. Therefore, when i "designed" my system i simply closed off the cold air returns to the oil furnace so the flow will only go to the koker. Now, when the koker is pushing heat through its own plenum, it ties into the plenum of the oil furnace and is dispersed through the house. Since the combustion chamber and top chamber of the oil burner are seperate i didnt think this to be an issue, and it may not be, but is the two chambers are not seperate...well ive been losing heat all winter out the oil furnaces chimney. Today i stuffed a towel in the baro damper of the oil furnace to block air flow out of the oil furnace incase they werent sperate and did not notice any warm air, but could feel the draft going up the flue pipe. I also had the idea to tie the old flue to the combustion fan of the koker, as they are so close together, to provide fresh air to the koker, but thats another topic. I guess the question is are oil furnaces combustion seperated by something so i dont lose any heat up the flue pipe? Thanks.

fuccillo111 wrote:I assumed and was told by an hvac guy that the oil furnaces combustion chamber is seperate form the rest of the furnace.

fuccillo111 wrote:Since the combustion chamber and top chamber of the oil burner are seperate i didnt think this to be an issue, and it may not be, but is the two chambers are not seperate...well ive been losing heat all winter out the oil furnaces chimney.

I'm sensing confusion here ... I think you meant to say "but IF the two chambers are not separate".... When you refer to these two chambers being separate, I gather you are referring to the combustion chamber and the heat exchange chamber? I'm puzzled because if these two chambers weren't separate your house would be polluted with burning oil fumes whenever the oil burner ran.

fuccillo111 wrote:well ive been losing heat all winter out the oil furnaces chimney.

The only heat that you would loose thru the oil furnace's chimney is the warm air drawn in thru the oil burner's baro and the small amount that may be going in thru the oil burner's combustion air inlet that I referred to earlier. Warm air from the oil burner's plentum wouldn't have a way to the oil burner's chimney...

Am I out in left feild somewhere? my brain hurts... ...

I set my oil boiler's baro to .04" so that's what the stove runs at. They both share a flu also. In the summer, for DHW I turn it down to .02" which is what the boiler manufacturer recommends.

Only time I block it off with a plastic bag is during reloading - kicks the draft up a few notches & speeds up the whole process.

Lightning you are correct. These two chambers have to be separated, I don't know what I was thinking. Reguardless, I blocked off the oil furnace baro damper. Sorry for the confusion.

fuccillo111 wrote:Lightning you are correct. These two chambers have to be separated, I don't know what I was thinking. Reguardless, I blocked off the oil furnace baro damper. Sorry for the confusion.

Thats ok partner Yeah.. I would also block off the oil furnace flue and baro if its not being used... BUT make absolutely sure it doesn't and CANNOT be turned on or big problems, I'm guessing....

Good point. The circuit has been cut at the panel and the power switch on the oil furnace has been turned to the off postition. Also, i installed a switch in the thermo wire to switch between coal( ) and oil( ). If its switched to coal the thermo wire is "cut" to the oils board and the oil burner wont call for heat. Besides, the day before i installed the koker, i couldnt get the oil burner to fire. I think i ran it to low on oil and couldnt fire the burner, so i gave up on it. Big loss there . There are two CO2 detectors in the basement as well for good measure...cant be too safe.