Yukon furnace

[quilbilly]

I've got an older Yukon furnace, don't have the model. I believe it was multi fuel and used wood and coal or oil? I'm interested in the wood part and was wondering in a general sense how hard these things are to hook up to existing duct work? The electric forced air is killing the pocket book but I don't really like the fireplace insert we have either. So hoping to use the is existing furnace or a cheap new one. House is about 2500 sq ft and we aren't going to live here forever so I don't wanna put a bunch of money into a really nice furnace or insert. 

[rusticretreater]

I put in a used WoodMaster Furnace recently and did all the work myself.

Check with your homeowners insurance company on distance from the house for a wood furnace.  Usually its a minimum of 150 feet, though I have seen folks with a much closer setup(maybe they didn't check and just did an installation).   Once you site the furnace, then you have to make some decisions.

I replaced the Taco pumps on mine(two zone furnace).

You need to run insulated Pex tubing from the furnace into the basement of your house and to the heating ductwork over the fan from your electric unit.  So you either need a backhoe or trencher to dig the trench from your house to the furnace.

You can do this one of three ways.
1. Purchase premade wrapped lines.  This is the most expensive way I think.

2. Lay the lines in the trench supported off the ground and hire someone to come in and spray all around them with insulating foam.  You can see vids of this online.

3. Purchase the Pex and some insulating wrap( I used two-sided foil insulation for pipes), waterproof tape and drain tile.  I wrapped the pex with the insulation putting a layer between the two pipes, hot water feed, cold water return and secured it with tape and then slid it into the drain tile.

I recommend that you try to get your pex in straight sections.  I got long rolls of it and let me tell you, it doesn't want to unroll or lay flat at all.  I really had to wrestle with it.  You need to purchase all the connectors to put things together, make the pipe go around corners and whatever else you need to run the tubing. You will need clamps and a crimping tool to put it all together. You can buy or rent these.

I had to run the lines through my foundation wall and bought a big concrete hole saw to do the work as I already had a big hammer drill. 

In the duct work you need to place your heat exchanger.  So measure your ductwork and get one that fits inside.  I cut a rectangular hole much larger than the height of the heat exchanger so I could get my arm inside. Careful as the metal easily cuts you.  Then I drilled and pop riveted a piece of aluminum angle to each side of the ductwork to make supports and I slid the heat exchanger into the ductwork.  Then I screwed another piece of sheet aluminum on the front of the ductwork to cover up the remaining open space on the front.  Finally, I covered it all with A/C Foil tape.

You also need to make the electrical connection for the pump.  You should have a breaker for it or an on/off switch.  So you need a good bit of wire too plus conduit to run it through out to the furnace.

Its a lot of work but I got it done during the summer months.  Its definitely been worth all the effort and cost.  My upstairs still uses a heat pump, but the main floor and the basement use the furnace.  My electrical bill immediately dropped over $100 a month.  All I do is turn the fan on or off to blow air through the heat exchanger.  Most of the time the house will get up to 80 degrees inside and I will have to turn the fan off.

You do need to keep the pump running or the water sitting next to the hottest spot in the furnace will start to boil and empty out your furnace.  Then after that its just feeding the monster.  Depending on your climate you will need 2-3 cords of wood per season, maybe more.

[doc henderson]

Well, looks like they are out of business.  Also, the images i saw look more like a wood fired furnace indoors with a direct flame to air heat exchanger.  Sounds like it was a small company with about 19 employees.  I would guess many of the parts are not proprietary and can be found and replaced prob off the internet, so you can make repairs.  If you have easy access to wood (cheap) then it makes sense.  I have no direct knowledge of this company so maybe they also make wood fired boilers for setting 150 feet from the house.  But sounds more like a wood furnace than a wood boiler.

[quilbilly]

I do believe it is a furnace and not a boiler. The fella I got from had it in his basement I believe. 

If I had to place it 150ft away I'd practically be on the neighbors property. With all the purchases just to get a setup like that up and running, and me probably not lasting 5 years in my current house that wouldn't be feasible. 

But if I can just hook into my current ductwork and keep the thing in my garage or just a little shed I'd be pretty happy. After all the unit is free and can probably be up and running with a few hundred dollars in parts

[doc henderson]

closer is less ducting.  need a chimney.  you could have separate thermostats and set electric to come on at say 55 and the wood furnace to the temp you want.  hopefully it has a damper control to make the wood last and not overheat your house.  @SwampDonkey . 

many of them have round openings and you can get flex insulated ducting to make connections to and from your current furnace duct.

[rusticretreater]

Well I should have done a bit of research before typing my novel.  Good luck.

[SwampDonkey]

Thermostatic damper on my stove. Dry wood burns hot. Window is open now. 85° Sun is hot to in windows. @doc henderson   

Heat in 7 minutes, from loading to fan spinning. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiV7XpYNkps

[doc henderson]

Rustic, I have done the same many times.  I originally thought cutting referred to sawmilling and responded that way only to find that on here that is sawing is sawmilling, and tree or firewood cutting is cutting.  thanks for making me feel better!   � also milling is more in the shop like a planer, and on the saw is sawmilling.

[Tim in New York]

Yukon was well known in this part of the country back in the 1970's for those dual fuel furnaces.  I think the model was "Husky" and probably came in more than one size.