 | furnace/water heater venting... PVC |
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Question: I've just bought a new house (new to me anyway... it was built in the late 20's). Got a couple questions. There is a new (installed last fall) Rheem high eficiency furnace, which has the 2 pipe setup. One pipe for combustion exhaust, and the other for fresh air. They aqe both PVC and run through the sidewall. This is all well and good, but the genius who installed them did it so the pipes end right above the gas meter outside, and it is already starting to rust/corrode from the acidic condensation from the vent pipe dripping on it. I want to move them, and a couple people have reccomended running them up the old brick chimney (running the pipe all the way to the top, not just INTO the chimney). This sounds like the best idea, as the pipes get in the way of a few things the way they are anyway. The house is only 1 story, so it's not that tall of a chimney. QUESTION #1: Is it feasable to run the PVC pipes up the brick chimney? And what do I put over the top of the chimney to seal it off and run the pipes through? Sheet metal maybe? Or ??? I am also going to replace the water heater before we move in. I will be installing a high efficiency power vent model with PVC vent pipe as well. Which brings me to my second question. QUESTION #2: Can I "Y" the water heater and furnace exhaust vents into 1 going up the chimney, or do I have to run a separate pipe for the water heater?
Answer: Pretty sure that's going to violate code - and it sounds like a pretty ghetto fix anyway. Further, you may want to check the furnace install manual. There are limits to how long the pipe run can be and how many bends it can have. Not sure about the hot water thing - but since most similar furnaces have a differential pressure cut-off switch monitoring pressure in those in/out pipes, wanting them to be equal to a degree (or your furnace simply stops working), I'm pretty certain that idea won't work either. Why don't you just add to and redirect the existing pipe outside? Seems like it would cost you 20 bucks in some extra PVC materials, and 2-3 hours time. Also - super efficient gas hot water? Might want to do some simple math with that yellow efficiency sticker to see if something like that is going to ever pay off for you. Hot water is usually pretty cheap.
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