Hiding Supply Plumbing for Propane Wall Furnace

Redrum

Hi,
Thanks to all in the past with my hot water baseboard system. I have a new dilemma.

I have a seasonal camp (cabin) that I currently heat with a wood stove that is built on a concrete slab. Up to this point the only utilities are electric.The camp is located in Northern New York.

I decided to add a propane wall furnace to extend the season, so I purchased an Empire DV-35, contacted a propane supplier, and am doing the prep work (dug the trench, starting to install the furnace/LP supply piping, etc).

I am in the process of gutting and redoing sections of the camp, so the wall that the furnace will be installed on is down to studs and outdoor siding (pine board and batten), so I have a blank canvas,

My dilemma is how to run the supply piping, shut off, sediment trap, etc the cleanest (i.e. hidden) as the wall furnace is in a living space and no basement to feed up from.

The furnace has the 1/2" NPT inlet facing down in the lower left corner. The furnace will be located as little as 4" above the final finished floor, but it's 6" right now (bare slab). There is probably enough room between the back of the wall furnace and the wall for a flex connector, but not for black pipe.

It seems to me that a common installation would have the stub come through the wall, into a shutoff, into the tee/trap, to a flex line (or pipe and union), and elbow into the bottom, but that has all of the ugly black piping om a wall next to the unit.

I had a couple thoughts:
1) Use something like an oxbox (or build a recess) behind the unit to house the shutoff and black pipe, then flex behind the unit into an elbow into the inlet. Of course the shut off is only accessible if the furnace is removed from the wall.
2) If I can locate the sediment trap outside the wall, with the shut off right at the inlet to the unit (accessible).
3) I think that the propane supplier said he would be installing a drip leg near the secondary regulator where his supply comes in the wall, so maybe I don't need the sediment trap?

Maybe I am missing something or overthinking it. Unfortunately, the guys at the supplier I bought it from aren't the installers, but on Monday I can see if I can contact them.

Any thoughts from someone who has done this?
Thank you
Jim

HVACNUT

Can you post some pics?
A positive shut off is required outside of the appliance.
Maybe you can box it out in the wall and leave an access panel.

Larry Weingarten

Hello, As you're down to studs, it seems you could put a box or hatch cover into the adjoining stud bay and build your shut-off/ drip leg, and then take a flex connector through the stud over to the heater.

Yours, Larry

Redrum

Thanks for your replied guys. Attached are some pictures. One of the bottom LH corner of the unit with the supply inlet facing down, the second of the unit and the wall location.



After considering your thoughts and doing some thinking, I have come up with a plan that I think might satisfy everything, except the shut off is downstream (appliance side) of the drip leg and flex hose

See the third picture and forgive the awful drawing, best I could do with a limited image editing tools.


My thought is the have the stub out to the supply in the wall behind the unit, say mid height. Then to put the drip leg in the wall cavity, with the supply outlet facing up. Box all of this in but leave it open, much like an ox box. On the furnace side, take a brass 90 and attach the shut off horizontally under the unit in the 4" space from bottom to finish floor, and run it behind the unit up to the supply. I am not sure if I mentioned that there is about a 1 1/4"" space (recess) in the back of the unit which will allow for the flex.

With this plan, the shutoff is visible and accessible, and the sediment trap is accessible when you take the unit off the hanging bracket (remove from wall), to clean if needed.

The only problem that I see with this is if you wanted to disconnect before the flex. you would have to shut off outside. To fix this I could add a second shutoff in the recessed area. Overkill?

Some questions that could steer this:
1) Can the drip leg be located outside of the house, right at the entry (note that the furnace will probably ne the only appliance on the propane)?
2) Is shut off visible required, or best practice?

One other thought I had would be to frame out the unit, say 3/4", which with the 1 1/4" already there, it would be enough room for everything outside of wall, behind the unit.

All of the pretty pictures of these things show them on a wall in a room, with no hookups visible. It seems to me that someone must have encountered this before, but I have searched the web, images, videos, etc and not found much...

Jim

Redrum

btw what is shown is the front of the unit with the cover removed.

Redrum

Hi, No comment after I posted pics, but I worked out a solution that works for me. I am really suprised that this hasn't come up before (not having supply piping/sediment trap in a living space).

I thought I would post my solution in case anyone else is looking to do something similar. See the pic below. Please note that the cabin is down to studs due to a gut remodel, so no wall covering insulation is in place at this time.


I brought the supply in a stud bay (may build a box), to a shutoff, to a T for the sediment trap and to a flex supply pipe. The shut off will allow a master shutoff prior to the trap leg, but will be behind a door in the wall.

The flex routes through an open portion of the same stud bay to behind the furnace, and into the 1 1/4" recess space behind the furnace, then down to where it comes out at the bottom. I then put a second shutoff (visible), and into the furnace.

The result is pretty clean, I think. Thanks H-Nut and Larry for your inspiration.

Jim