BY GEORGE LANTHIER
Figure 6
themselves! Even in forced draft applications, where the burner fan is supposed to provide the air( draft) to push the draft( air) all the way through, it has to be there to begin with. Bottom line again is,“ if you don’ t have enough air coming in, you won’ t have enough going out”.
Now there’ s another small problem that falls into the realm of overkill! You absolutely do not need outside air in a structure for venting, it’ s in every burner Code and manual in the world. You only go to 100 % outside air if there is
Figure 7
not enough air being delivered through infiltration, and that’ s in the books too! Another problem that makes us think of outside air is dirty air due to animal hair, dryer lint, sawdust and other heavier than air contaminants.
Outside air at the 40th parallel and above gets cold in the winter and when you work up at the 50th parallel or further North it gets very frigid. Before you go to outside draft, look at where else you can get your inlet air from. Can it be drawn from another room or from the rafters above? This may not only be clean air, but it’ s going to be warmer than outside! Keep in mind that cold air means cold air over the fire and depending on how it’ s brought into the burner may also mean cold oil. Well, that about does it for now and we’ ll wrap this up in Part 2. l FON
George Lanthier is the owner of Firedragon Academy( www. FiredragonEnt. com), a 35-year-old Massachusetts Certified School teaching both gas and oil and other heating subjects. Firedragon Academy has its training facility in Webster, Massachusetts. Firedragon is also a publishing firm publishing George’ s over 60 books and manuals on HVAC subjects. He is a CETP, ESCO, NATE, NORA, PMAA and PMEF Proctor and has been a Massachusetts Certified Instructor since 1975.
28 MARCH 2026 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www. fueloilnews. com