Oil heat in the Shop and dust problems

[lou sansone]

good afternoon WW's

I was wondering if any of you have an oil furnace in you shops and have had any wood dust / oil burner interaction. My shop is a seperate building with its own force hot air furnace and I have had repeated problems with dust or other fumes getting sucked into the combustion chamber and carbarizing (sp) around the " turburlator". The turburlator is a baffle near the tip of the oil nozzle and igniter that is used to spin the air and oil mist stream for better firing. It seems that several times a year I have to rip the burner apart and clean all the toasted sawdust off the unit so that it fires correctly. I have finally installed a home made fresh air kit on the burner( based upon a few converstaions with my heating contractor buddy ) , but I must still have some small air leaks in the fresh air ducting that is allowing dust to still drift in. I was thinking about trying to put a small muffin fan in the fresh air duct to always have a little positive pressure in the area where the air is drawn into. the thought being that it might prevent any shop air from getting drawn into the burner.

I do have pretty decent DC in my shop ( 3 hp industrial version of oneida cyclone ) , but unfortunatly my 37" widebelt sander is right next to the furnace and I am pretty sure some small amount of stray sanding dust is getting into the furnace.

any ideas ?

thanks
lou

[Rob Will]

Lou,

It sounds like you need a sealed combustion furnace or some other form of heat. A lot of people say that any sort of forced air system is a problem. Personally, I am interested in a heat pump/air handler along with some low-temp radiant panels. I don't see why a forced air furnace equipped with the proper air filters can't do double duty as a shop air cleaner.

Rob

[Barry O'Mahony]

FWIW i have oil heat at home. When I had a major remodel a couple of years ago, the furnance had to be put in its own sealed-off closest, complete with a gasketed exterior-grade door separating it from the rest of the basement. The GC had to drill holes through the foundation walls for fresh air inlet vents. Apparently it was a code requirement now.