Help operating a wood furnace

shopastry

I purchased a house this summer with a wood furnace beside an oil furnace in the basement. Everything looks to be present and attached as you'd expect but I have no idea how to operate the unit. Looking for some help with it before I fill the basement with smoke and get no heat from the fire.

I can't find a model number but the chamber door says Energymate ERCD. Found a few threads about this company (and maybe unit) here but didn't find operating help. Everything about it is very clean and chamber + ash tray is empty. Ducting is present for both in and out air flow. My chimney sweep company checked out the ducting and exhaust from the chamber goes up the chimney just like the exhaust from the oil furnace.

I found a switch on the side of the oil furnace (it is currently heating the house) that runs to the wood burner but switching that on did not activate the wood blower fan like I expected it to. Should I expect the switch to activate the fan of the wood unit or is a thermostat going to tell the fan when to run? I did see a thermostat slider on the side of the unit with options for manual and auto. I had it on auto when I tested the power.

Attaching a few photos of what I'm dealing with in case that is helpful to explain how to operate this beast. I have an unlimited supply of wood on my land so getting this thing fired up is a priority for me. Thanks for your help!

Jamie Hall

Well, your first step is going to be to find out what turns on and controls that forced draught fan. Without it running, you will get very little heat (which is actually a good thing -- wood burning furnaces can get dramatically out of control without control of the draught). There also appears to be an air circulation fan; that must also run, and may be the fan to which you refer with the manual/auto switch.

hot_rod

Maybe have a licensed chimney sweep check the chimney and venting. A CO detector would be a good investment also. Cracks in the HX can be a concern, if it was overheated
Check the door gasket, that is where they can leak into the room.
Looks like HVAC duct on the flue pipe?

JUGHNE

I heated with a similar unit for some years.

Mine had a wall tstat up stairs which would cycle the inducer fan on the front.
The 24 volt tstat needed a transformer and relay to run that front fan.

The control on the side with the slider auto-on brings on the rear blower(s) to put the air into the house duct work.
It is a fan/limit control.....it will cycle the back fans when it warms up and if the furnace gets to a certain temp it will shut down the front blower and only slow the fire down somewhat.

I had my inducer fan choked down almost all the way. There was an adjustable cover on the fan inlet.

As Jamie said it is easy to get this thing too hot.

Mine was a double pass heat exchanger.

Before you light a fire:
Operate (pull out) the lever above fire box door and look inside as you do it, it may open a port directly into the flue pipe and bypass the second heat exchanger.

To start a fire, I would open the ash pan a few inches and pull the bypass lever out.
This would give a good draft up the chimney to warm it up for better draw.

Then build a small fire, close the pan and door before you turn on the inducer fan.

You can peek inside if you want.

Once a good fire was burning and you want to open the front door, open the bypass for maybe 1 minute. This allows the fire to vent directly into the flue pipe.
If you skip this step you may get smoke coming out the door.

Just practice is needed to run this thing.

Remember you can not shut off this fire like an oil burner.

How large is the supply and return piping from the wood furnace and where is it connected to?

Solid_Fuel_Man

It looks as thought the oil and wood share a common flue in the chimney. It is always best practice to have the wood smoke pipe above the oil smoke pipe, as creosote can build up at the oil furnace entry into the chimney. 

Ideally each have their own flue in the chimney. Inspect oil smoke pipe where it enters the chimney at least monthly while burning wood. 

As others have said, have someone qualified inspect the wood furnace for firebox damage, and inspect the chimney and smoke pipe. It's worth the fee they will charge. 

I've heated with wood for decades, I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't l. 

shopastry

Wow. Thank you everyone for the quick feedback here. A lot more things to check up on I can see. The chimney sweep company I had out for my wood fire place looked at the unit but didn’t think it was within his wheelhouse. He is licensed but doesn’t see many of these wood furnaces but did say it looks like it’s in good shape. I’m in southern Ohio now, this does make some sense. Since it wasn’t a full inspection, I will reach out to someone specifically for it. Safety and knowledge to operate it is my top priority.
Regarding fans:
I have figured out what turns on the forced draft fan. The 120V switch that is mounted on the side of my oil burning furnace controls that fan. I figured this out by changing the thermostat on the side of the wood burner to manual. The fan fired right up.
The front air circulation fan is not operational right now, but I did find the thermostat transformer right beside the switch for the draft fan. There are no wires to this transformer and no thermostat in the house that would control this unit. All along I thought this transformer was for my wired doorbell that did not work.
Regarding ventilation:
I will check the door gasket and ducting closer. The lever above the fire box does open to the flue. I watched a bit of YouTube to learn as well and one video suggested opening that lever before opening the door to let any smoke escape. Great tip on opening the ash tray for a draft. The oil and wood furnaces do share a common flue. I have not looked inside yet, but will certainly do so before a fire. The return pipe is 8”, supply is 12”.

Thanks again. This was a huge help. Merry Christmas!

hot_rod

The front combustion fan is pretty important to get good, clean, hot burns. It’s basically forcing additional air/ oxygen into the fire. A hot fire helps prevents creosote formation.

When the fan is running, that is a good time to check the door gasket. In the dark room with a flashlight is one way to see if there are leaks around that door. A CO detector in the room is not a bad idea it alert you if there is a problem.

It will also wake up from idle mode quickly when the fan kicks on.

Biggest drawback is the noise from that fan.

Dry, hard wood is best, cut and stack a year in advance next season. Open any door or window when you open to load or check the fire so you don’t get a backdraft and face full of smoke🔥

It looks well maintained, no signs of overheating.

JUGHNE

The switch on the oil burner is most likely just the power for the wood burner.
With that lever on manual the fan will run constantly.
That control with lever is a high limit/fan control.
It has an insert bimetal coil sticking into the furnace jacket (not the actual fire box) to sense the temp in the air plenum.
When temp rises the back fan starts, when fire cools down it will shut the back fan off. The limit switch will cycle the front fan if fire gets too hot.
The wall tstat tells the front fan to run, it too will cycle the front fan.

Again this is obviously not an on-off furnace. It is easy to over heat.

The previous owners may have never used the front fan and just the ash drawer for air control.

The unit I had had two blowers on the back with a filter box, it simply pulled air out of the basement down the open stairway.

To pull air out of the basement is risky as there was a NG water heater down there.
But it was a pretty leaky basement and I was young and dumb.

It is possible to back draft other appliances in the area.......so caution is urged.

The supply was about 20" square going straight up into the supply ductwork.

There were some problems with these units when people tried to take the supply from the wood and pipe it into the return of an oil/gas furnace and rely upon it's blower to move the air around the house. The wood furnace supply air was so hot it would kick the gas/oil furnace blower motor out on overload.

In my case the wood air would push some air backwards thru the NG furnace and I would have slightly warm air coming out of the return air vents in the house.

shopastry

Great perspective again guys. I'll make sure to be careful. Glad to hear it appears to be near working order. I was trying to decide if I want to move it out to a barn or keep in place and use. Sounds like I will use it once I get it all checked out as we have a nearly unlimited supply of wood here. Tend to believe the original owners of the house took good care of everything they owned. We are 3rd owners and the last people didn't think it worked so they left it in place untouched for 7 years.

SkyBlue_123

To operate your wood furnace, start by locating the model name on the chamber door, which appears to be Energymate ERCD. Although you couldn't find a model number, this information can be useful for further guidance. Ensure that the chamber and ashtray are empty and that ducting for both in and out air flow is clear. While you found a switch on the oil furnace connecting to the wood burner, it didn't activate the wood blower fan.

Check if there's a thermostat controlling the wood unit's fan; the switch might not directly activate it. Additionally, explore the thermostat slider on the side of the wood unit with options for manual and auto. When testing the power, make sure the thermostat is set to the appropriate mode. Review the provided photos for a better understanding and, if possible, consult the manufacturer's manual for detailed instructions on operating your specific wood furnace model.