This concept has probably come up before, but I could not find a previous
thread into which it would neatly splice.....if one exists, please feel free to move it there.
Rocket heater without mass, in an existing basement and "co-ported" with the exhaust of the oil-burning furnace. In the past, I was interested in adding a wood-burning stove or one of those hybrid oil/wood furnaces, but the exhaust from a standard wood-burner would violate the code for the age of the (unlined?) brick chimney. But a rocket heater with either direct porting to the chimney or after a few 'turns', at basement floor level, before entering the chimney at the same location as the furnace would be pushing already 'cooled' air into the chimney. At the same time, I notice that the furnace installer had placed a pressure-triggered baffle in-line with the exhaust pipe before it reaches the chimney brick....is this to mix the furnace exhaust with cooler air before sending it up the stack? At any rate, it would seem that this would also cool off any too-hot air coming from the Rocket heater.
The objective would be this: It's an old, drafty farmhouse. When the furnace turns on, there is good draft into the basement from many points, both outdoor and indoor (there is no 'piped' air coming into the furnace for combustion). In sub-zero (F) weather, we prefer to have the furnace run a lot because we don't want the
water pipes in the basement to freeze. But if a rocket heater were in the basement, warm air could be generated that not only would warm the basement, it would pre-warm the air being taken into the furnace. Between this an any warm air rising up through the floor registers from the basement to the main floor (where the thermostat is located), would this not reduce the amount of time the furnace ran (saving fuel), yet keep us from worrying about basement pipes freezing? Thanks for any responses.