Mannino

Buckley Rumford Fireplaces
Smoky Fireplace Fixed
12/30/07

From: "Robert S. Mannino"
To: buckley@rumford.com
Subject: fireplace
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007
Hello Jim,
Happy New Year to you and your family.
I want to sincerely thank you very, very much for all your time in helping me get my smoke problem under control. You certainly pointed me in the correct direction.
Attached are photos showing the additional 12' of chimney that was added and the makeup air system and the fireplace. You can see that the corbelled-out section on the chimney is where it originally ended. We corbelled back in at that point and added 12' of chimney. This in itself made a great difference with draft.
On an extremely windy day we would still get a puff of smoke. So I followed your advice again and installed a makeup fresh air duct system on the North West side of the house. It went directly into the return air duct on our Hydro air HVAC system. The system has a switch where you can automatically open up the damper to allow fresh air in when needed. The system also has a tempeture probe before the heater coil in the duct where the air enters. This probe will only allow the circulator to go on to the heater coil if the outside incoming air is below 60 degrees but will allow the damper to stay open if makeup air is required, winter or summer. An additional limit probe was installed after the heater coil to monitor the heated air. It is set to allow the circulator go on at 55 degrees and go off at 65. This again controls the circulator, maintaining the heated air.
We also installed 1 strap on aqua stat on the return line of the heater coil. This is just an additional safety ensuring that the water temperature does not exceed 120 degrees. With a little adjusting, I think we have the make up air system working temperately. So far no back drafts of smoke. If I experience any, I will be installing another make up air system like you suggested on the North East side of the house to balance any air pressure differences.
I would like to thank you again for you help.
Be Well.
Respectfully,
Bob Mannino*