Would it be a horrible idea to place a dust collector next to our furnace? I know that small dust particles are highly combustible but not sure if the furnace is sealed enough or if a DC is clean enough for this not to be a worry. The furnace is in a basement area under the house which is well ventilated.
Damian
Even more of a pita will be the micro-dust that escapes will then be "right there" to be blown all over the house--furnace filters won't come close to collecting it...
I doubt you would have enough to be a combustion issue (at least w/o a collector failure like a hole).
IMO, YMMV, $0.02, etc...
I'll note that while the furnace isn't supposed to be picking up circulation air, there are always some leaks...
Well the air for the furnace is being sucked in from the living room which is above the basement so it wouldn't be drawing the dusty air from the basement.
The dust tends to permeate everything over time, with or without a DC. Use the 5 micron bags and it will help.
Hmmm, it's sounding as though this isn't a great idea... Is there anyway to make it work? Sure would be nice to have the DC outside the shop and the basement is perfectly located.
Damian
Hmmm, okay next question, how do DC's deal with being outside in the rain :)
Best bet is to build a closet to hold it--contains dust and minimizes noise as well...
See my addendum to my previous post where I anticipated you... :)
They don't. But you could combine two of your posts, build an enclosure outside. A parishioner of mine is doing exactly that. His HF 16CFM (advertised) will actually have about 1200 CFM throughput and no costly filter bags, just the 30 micron bag that comes with it.
Deb
Deb
How would the DC deal with being in an enclosed area, would I just vent the closet outside or wouldn't that be needed? Thanks for all the input here guys.
Damian
Remember, A DC will add positive air pressure to an enclosed basement. Your furnace should only be using outside air for combustion so the dust *should* not be an issue. I would build an enclosure for it in the basement, vent the enclosure to the outside with a 12" tube. This should solve the positive air problem and vent most of the fine duct particles.
You might consider putting a cyclone outside so that empting the sawdust is not a big issue as well.
Dave
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basement. Your
damian penney wrote: ...
Would depend on the relative sizes of the DC and the enclosure...ideally, an exterior vent would be the best route for inside a dwelling...Otherwise, you do still have a potential problem w/ capturing the fines.
One of my jobs in life is helping design clean rooms. If you put the DC outside - say a 1200 CFM jobby - and your wood shop is in the basement - you will create a partial vacuum in the basement sucking a lot of air down the chimney - would probably extinguish any open cycle gas furnace or water heater - worst if it did not extinguish the flame
- would have build up of at least CO2 and maybe CO.
If you put it in a closet in the basement - air still must come out of the closet and it will have particles in the air. Guess you could put a bunch of HEPA filters in one of the walls and catch the vast majority of the fines.
All of life is a trade off - if you use some of the finer mesh bags it probably will not be a problem - unless you are one heck of a wood butcher.
Of course, if you vent it outside, you're heating or cooling all that air that you need to bring back inside to replace the 1200cfm... Could get a little pricy.
Cl> ...
There seems to be confusion in many of the replies about where air comes from and goes. The air being heated and circulated comes through the furnace ducting, and may or may not include air from/to the basement. In the case of my furnace, combustion air comes from the room the furnace is in, and is vented to a chimney when it leaves, taking combustion products with it. Combustion air does not circulate through the house unless you have a leak. If that happens, you will smell it and should get it fixed asap.
I ran a dust collector in the same basement room as the furnace for years, with no problems. I did have the dust collector as far from the furnace as possible. I also had an air cleaner with 3 levels of filtering; the initial furnace filter was the only one that ever had to be cleaned or replaced.
Good luck, Steve
Well I live in Oakland, California and the shop is in an unheated garage whose door is wide open when I'm in the shop so heating isn't an issue.
furnace is
replaced.
Duane said that even with the air being drawn from elsewhere there are inevitably leaks in the ductwork. Our furnace operates like you said, air drawn from the house into the furnace with the furnace being vented by a chimney. I think the setup will be the DC in the basement with the furnace inside a closet that is vented outside.
Damian
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