Clayton Warm air furnace

blue83camaro · By: **blue83camaro** On: Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:58 pm

Any one else using a Clayton warm air furnace by US stove? So far mine has worked flawlessly. I bought a draft inducer blower, but haven't installed it yet because no need. I know about how far the air feed needs to be open for a given temp outside. I use any where from 30 to 80 lbs of coal per day depending on temp. My house is 1500 sq feet with single pane windows and marginal insulation.

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:29 pm

blue83camaro,

Hello, I'm new to this board. I have been using a US Stove/Clayton model #1600G for several months now. I am very happy with it and so far its kept my 2500+ sq.ft. around 72 degrees without much effort. Mine has the forced draft set-up which works really well. I set the thermostat at 72 and load it up and walk away!

Hopefully the moderators don't mind, but I was given this site address by some friends over at http://www.tractorbynet.com Check out thier discussion board and search by my user name (same as here) and you can see pics of my install.

bjs1779 · By: **bjs1779** On: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:33 pm

Hi Mega, that is a nice looking setup there. What type of coal are you using there in ohio?

Dick

blue83camaro · By: **blue83camaro** On: Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:16 pm

Mega, Nice install. How many lbs do you use on average? I use any where between 30 and 90lbs in 24 hrs. I bet you had as much fun as I did getting that thing in your basement. :wink:

I'll have to check your link out.

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:21 pm

Sorry for the delay in the reply, I worked yesterday and everytime at sat down at the computer at the station we had a run.

Yeah, for whatever reason I did not put in a walk-in basement so with a case of beer and 3-4 guys from work and a good appliance dollie we got her down in the basement without tearing up Momma's oak floor in the foyer and kitchen upstairs. Good ole Bud was a big help! This spring I'm going to cut the basement wall and put a service door in. Carrying wood/coal down the steps is a good workout but I'm tired of it already.

As far as coal usage, I just started using it only at night. The rest of the time I like using wood. It been pretty mild here lately so I've been burning very sporadic. It's hard to tell what I've used so far?? Maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cord of oak and a couple of 5 gallon buckets of soft coal??? At any rate I got a credit on the Dec. gas bill!!!!!

blue83camaro · By: **blue83camaro** On: Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:51 am

Mega_Me wrote:Sorry for the delay in the reply, I worked yesterday and everytime at sat down at the computer at the station we had a run.

Yeah, for whatever reason I did not put in a walk-in basement so with a case of beer and 3-4 guys from work and a good appliance dollie we got her down in the basement without tearing up Momma's oak floor in the foyer and kitchen upstairs. Good ole Bud was a big help! This spring I'm going to cut the basement wall and put a service door in. Carrying wood/coal down the steps is a good workout but I'm tired of it already.

As far as coal usage, I just started using it only at night. The rest of the time I like using wood. It been pretty mild here lately so I've been burning very sporadic. It's hard to tell what I've used so far?? Maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cord of oak and a couple of 5 gallon buckets of soft coal??? At any rate I got a credit on the Dec. gas bill!!!!!

Mine was fun to get in the basement. My stairs have a landing half way down and then turn 180 degrees. I had two helpers so we were just slowing the fall, not carrying it down. I vowed it will never come out of the basement by my hand. I have burned anthracite and wood. I like the anthracite better because it burns longer and is easier to control than wood. I still burn wood some because it is free. I can't burn soft coal because my neighbors are only 20 feet from my house and I don't want to irritate them. How much does the soft coal cost? How bad does it smoke? My gas bill was $35 last month just for heating water. I used $120
of coal last month.

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:21 pm

blue,

I bought a little bit (coal) for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I did'nt get too much because I had never used it before. The place I go to charges $100/ton. I told the guy I just wanted a small load so I went up to the bin and loaded some in the truck by hand and weighed out with close to 200lbs. and they charged me $19.50. It smokes pretty good at first but then once its hot there is no smoke at all. I agree with you though, I feel like I can better control the heat when using coal.

Do you have the hot-water coil installed by any chance? If so how does it tie into the domestic water system. I thought about buying and using it for suppling hot water for a water to air exchanger in the attached garage.

BTW, can't beat those gas bills!

beaverman · By: **beaverman** On: Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:04 pm

Mega Me,

I am in the planning stages of new home construction. I am gathering info on different heating systems. That system you have looks like something I would be interested in. Does that heat your entire home, and how many square feet do you heat, ranch or two story?

blue83camaro · By: **blue83camaro** On: Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:50 pm

Mega, I don't have the hot water coil. From what I gather you would not get enough heat transfer to heat another area with water. I have also heard that it creates more smoke and creasote when burning wood because it lowers the temp in the firebox to much. I have no experience with one I am only repeating what people have told me.

To heat water you attach the bottom of the coil to the drain with a tee so you can still drain it. Then plumb the top of the coil into the hotwater line right where it comes out of the water heater. I am also told the water heater must be higher than the coil for proper thermo siphon. You can also use a circulating pump with a temp switch to turn it off and on. Lastly for saftey you need a tempuring valve so the water doesn't burn people if it gets to hot. If the water gets to hot in the water heater it will blow out of the saftey valve. Hope this helps a little, Scott

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:06 pm

beaverman,

This home was custom built going on 4 years ago. At the time my wife and I just went with gas because it was cheap and available at our property. We never planned on burning wood/coal so we did not have a chimney built. Last year we paid over $200/month for nat. gas. After the hurricanes and the "big scare" of increased energy costs we decided to install a suppliment source of heat.

This does heat the entire house through the existing duct work. My house is a little over 2500-2600 sq. ft. and is a two-story. We are located down in a "valley" and only get to take advantage of the morning sun. This furnace has it's own circualtion blower and draft blower. Technically I have two furnaces in my basement. Fortunaltely we were able to construct a chimney and install everything without any modifications to the house. The brick chimney and (wood) furnace look as though they have always been here.

I have two thermostats on the wall. One I set at 65 degrees and it is for the gas furnace. The other is for the wood furnace and "the boss" is happy anywhere from 72-74. There are automated low voltage dampers on the plenums of each furnace so that one is not trying to push air through the other. If the fire goes out the gas furnace takes over.

One of the guys at work just built a house and he put in a Yukon Eagle dual fuel furnace. He uses wood and propane all in one unit. You might check it out. I wish I had went with the gas/wood model this went we built!

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:32 pm

Blue,

Thanks for the info., plumbing is on the top of my "things I don't do well list" and so I'll probably just forget it.

blue83camaro · By: **blue83camaro** On: Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:12 pm

Mega, do you have any pics of the dampers in your duct work. Where did you get them? I made mine, the air pushes them open. I want the one on the coal furnace to open automatically in case of a power failure. right now I have it held open manually. If they are not to expensive I will buy the kind like you have. I was looking at a few of them when I installed my furnace but they were $300-$400 a piece.

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:27 pm

I'm not sure where they came from because I had a HVAC guy do the duct work and wiring. I know he had to order these and the materials for the whole job came to $600. I'm sure these were something you might have looked at.

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:38 pm

Here's the relays that control everything.

How it works...when the limit switch on the Clayton tells the circ. blower to kick on, the damper in the plenum of the the gas furnace closes (it's normally open) and opens the one in the plenum in the wood furnace (normally closed). The wood furnace takes priority over everything, so if someone were to turn up the gas thermostat and that furnace were to run and the circ. blower of the Clayton turn on also, then the gas furnace will shut off.

Make sense?

The dampers really make a difference in the amount of airflow through the registers, especially on the second story. We configured the dampers that way (one powered open, spring closed and one powered closed, spring opened) so that they don't have to always open and close when the A/C runs (through gas furnace) year round.

Mega_Me · By: **Mega_Me** On: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:45 pm

Damper on gas furnace.

Clayton Warm air furnace

Clayton Warm air furnace

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