Oil Furnace Intake Vent

[David]

I have some basic questions about venting a closed utility room in a basement to the outside air.

I am finishing my basement and will be enclosing the utility room from the living space. In the utility room there is the oil furnace, for water base-heat and hot water, and the Oil Tank. The utility room is about 6' deep by 15' long. I live in CT so it gets cold in winter. The doors will be non-louvered and the walls insulated to the living space. (I want to keep the noise of the furnace out of the new living space.) I would like to vent the utility area with outside air for combustion. The furnace exhaust is already connected to the chimney stack, located next to the furnace in the basement. The furnace is not presently designed to have a deticated air intake duct added, so I believe that I will have to vent the entire utility room. I guess I would follow the advice of others and simply add a grilled vent to the outside wall and duct the vent to the utility area. My question are:

1) How do I determine the size of the Vent ducts to match the combustion requirements of the furnace? 2) Will the outside "cold" air in winter be a concern to freeze pipes in the utility area, specifically the cold water lines?

Any other comments or suggestions are very appreciated.

Thank you,

David

[Dr. Hardcrab]

Is you burner (not the boiler brand) a Beckett? If so, they make a fresh air kit that you run to a vent (included with kit. Looks pretty much like a dryer vent) that goes through an outside wall. I've installed them with a "flex" like hose (between the burner intake and vent) and with hard pipe (4" metal). Check with you oil company and I'm sure they will sell you one or better yet, have them install it.. I'm pretty sure they make them for a lot of burners, but i know of the Beckett one for sure....

[David]

The Boiler is a Smith Cast Iron. The burner is a Carlin Combustioin Tech. burner. I will check with the local oil company to see if they can put on a kit. Otherwise I will see if Carlin has one. Thanks for the advice.

David

[Dr. Hardcrab]

Look on page 10 of this link:

[Mark]

or you can install a dreyer type vent and run the duct into the room and leave the end of the duct open in the room near the furnace.

the room will be kept warm by the funrace and the vent will provide a source of air to replace the air that the furnace uses .

Mark

[Dr. Hardcrab]

True. In my old house, my forced air oil furnace was in a hall closet with louvered doors which was too noisy. I cut a vent going into the attic and then installed a solid door. It cut down on the noise and did not effect the operation (return was in the ceiling).