Chimneys and venting for old heaters

Until I was 11 we lived in New England where the house heater was this scary monster in the basement. It burned some sort of oil. It had ductwork to the rooms above, but it was (I understand) a passive system, not fan forced. Then we moved to San Francisco where we moved about once a year and where the heaters were all natural gas fired. The design varied from funky floor heaters to wall heaters to stand-alone room heaters to central heating. There was one apartment (Stonestown) where the heating was all through the flooring.

For the last 24 years I've owned my own home, which (thankfully) came with a forced air natural gas fueled central heating system. It works reasonably well. Soon after the purchase I went into the crawl space and wrapped all the ductwork down there with an extra layer of foil-backed insulation. And then I added at least 3-6 inches of insulation to the uninsulated attic. After all that, my winter heating bill was cut in half.

On the lot, there's a separate 1200 sq ft workshop building, and a fan forced gas heater hanging from a rafter. I don't think I've ever fired that up. In fact I recall I turned off the gas supply to it so it wouldn't be consuming gas for the pilot light 364 days a year. Probably should look into upgrading it to a more modern unit with electronic ignition. Not a priority, since heating that space could be very expensive (it's got open vents in the roof) even without a pilot light.


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Post# 1146155 4/9/2022 at 22:20 (741 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes Did old kerosene or gas heaters use chimneys or vent stacks? I've often wondered this. My uncle when I was a kid had a little old house built in 1950 ish. In the dining room there was a newer ventless propane gas heater. I was interested but also afraid of the blue flames as a kid. On the outside of the house where the heater was, is a small brick chimney flue, smaller in width and length than a typical fireplace chimney. Would there probably originally have been some sort of gas, oil or kerosene heater here that would vent through that chimney? I know many of the old frame houses here in Florida had those horizontal tanks that I'm guessing contained heating oil or kerosene. I don't recall but they may have had chimney flues also. Many of those homes would use a heater like that to heat the entire home, likely by convection or some I think had a fan to carry the air a bit. Sometimes homes will have a round vent cap on the roof, I believe these are primarily for gas water heater venting.

Post# 1146159 , Reply# 1 4/9/2022 at 23:08 (741 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 3 Because newer homes are much more tighter, venting outside of any gas or kerosene heater is required due to the carbon monoxide given off. I grew up in the age of those heaters and most were vented into an outside chimney. Today its a simple vent thru an outside wall for exhaust and intake air and having a carbon monoxide detector to be sure. Ventless propane heaters today have an automatic shutoff if those CO2 levels go up.

Post# 1146301 , Reply# 2 4/11/2022 at 17:33 (739 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c )
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Oil fired heaters* Known in the South as oil circulators, always vented into a chimney, They typically burned kerosine, Many were made, Siegler, Monogram, Duo Therm and Quaker being the most popular brands, Many gas or propane heaters were unvented many likewise were vented,

Post# 1146309 , Reply# 3 4/11/2022 at 18:33 (739 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Duo Therm, Florence and Quaker were popular here also, as most homes around me had 2 or more brick chimneys. Usually, the kitchen range was gas and kerosene vented into a back chimney and the cabinet heater was in the front of the house with no heat going upstairs. Once furnaces became more affordable, most switched over to an oil fired whole house system. I can still remember walking into someones house and smelling the kerosene and how temps varied room to room.

Post# 1146334 , Reply# 4 4/12/2022 at 04:14 (739 days old) by SudsMaster (SF Bay Area, California)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Until I was 11 we lived in New England where the house heater was this scary monster in the basement. It burned some sort of oil. It had ductwork to the rooms above, but it was (I understand) a passive system, not fan forced. Then we moved to San Francisco where we moved about once a year and where the heaters were all natural gas fired. The design varied from funky floor heaters to wall heaters to stand-alone room heaters to central heating. There was one apartment (Stonestown) where the heating was all through the flooring. For the last 24 years I've owned my own home, which (thankfully) came with a forced air natural gas fueled central heating system. It works reasonably well. Soon after the purchase I went into the crawl space and wrapped all the ductwork down there with an extra layer of foil-backed insulation. And then I added at least 3-6 inches of insulation to the uninsulated attic. After all that, my winter heating bill was cut in half. On the lot, there's a separate 1200 sq ft workshop building, and a fan forced gas heater hanging from a rafter. I don't think I've ever fired that up. In fact I recall I turned off the gas supply to it so it wouldn't be consuming gas for the pilot light 364 days a year. Probably should look into upgrading it to a more modern unit with electronic ignition. Not a priority, since heating that space could be very expensive (it's got open vents in the roof) even without a pilot light.