Info on Power Vents for Oil Furnaces

Info on Power Vents for Oil Furnaces

Furnaces traditionally relied on the natural lift of hot gas to draw combustion by-products and heat up and out of the home via a masonry chimney. Power vents utilize special fans to blow the smoke produced by an oil furnace out through a port at the side wall of the home instead, eliminating the need for a chimney.

Efficiency and Hot Air

Old oil furnaces are usually less efficient than modern ones, enabling a great deal of heat to escape up the chimney along with the by-products of combustion. Modern furnaces utilize efficient technology to use more of the heat in the home instead of letting it go to waste. That usually means that the smoke is cooler than in previous generations, and thus has less natural lift to help draw it out of the home. Power vents function as an efficient way to draw this smoke out when used with an efficient oil leakage, despite the relatively cool temperatures of the smoke.

Power Vent Applications

Homes heated with electric heat, or people that never had central heat, might not have an existing chimney for venting a furnace. Power vents enable you to securely pull out combustion air if there is no chimney, or when the existing chimney is in bad condition and may be too costly to repair. These vents also function well when the chimney is currently being used to vent a different appliance, like a wood-burning stove.