«Previous    Next»
Simple Wood Stove Heat Exchanger
Rick Plunkett of Albany, Ky., recently sent FARM SHOW photos of a heat exchanger he built for his indoor wood stove that makes use of an old barbeque grill cover. The cover traps hot air coming off the top of the stove and uses a motor and fan unit to send the air out through the house’s original ductwork.
  “We started experimenting with this idea about 20 years ago and have used the current setup for more than 10 years. It works great and doesn’t cost much to operate,” says Plunkett.
  The stove is located on the one end of Plunkett’s house. The problem was that the stove alone couldn’t keep the other side of the house warm. So Plunkett’s dad set the cover off an old Weber barbeque grill on top of the stove, notching out one side that fits against the stove’s chimney. He cut a hole on top of the cover and bolted a small electric fan over it, then ran a 2-in. dia. flexible hose from the fan to a ductwork vent in the basement’s floor. He also bolted a thermostat onto the cover next to the fan.
  “The add-on fan helped circulate the heat evenly throughout the entire house,” says Plunkett.
  He didn’t spend much money on the project. “I bought the fan, motor and thermostat at a closeout sale for a total of about $10,” notes Plunkett.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Rick Plunkett, 577 Campbells Ferry Ln, Albany, Ky. 42602 (ph 606 306-1981).


  Click here to download page story appeared in.



  Click here to read entire issue




To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.
Order the Issue Containing This Story
2017 - Volume #41, Issue #2