Talk:Furnace

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So if the term in Britain mostly refers to a smelting furnace, what do Brits call the things that heat their houses? Oh, that's right, Brits are well-known for not having central heating . . . surely that's changed with the coming of the twenty-first century! ;)} jaknouse 14:19, 4 May 2004 (UTC)

Like the text says, it's called a boiler or a heater! Take a look at http://www.diydata.com/planning/central_heating/boiler.htm. In 2001, 91% of homes in England, 92% of homes in Wales and 93% of homes in Scotland] had central heating [1], a few percentage points higher than in a 1997 USA survey [2] 80.46.137.17 15:58, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hmmmm... I can't believe that anyone would write an article on furnace without at least mentioning metallurgy. But then again, someone redirected smelter to forge. I guess in the wild west they meant much the same thing, but I thought that had changed, too. I've redone the intro to take account of the possibility that English Wikipedia may eventually become available outside of the USA. (;->

But all kidding aside, folks, I think we should seriously consider splitting the article, maybe into furnace (domestic) and furnace (industrial). What stops me is the extensive material already at furnace#Industrial furnaces. I haven't a clue where where all that comes from, or where it belongs. My guess is that it's US English again, in which case we need to find a term other than furnace (industrial) for the head article describing metallurgical furnaces. Maybe furnace (metallurgy)? Or maybe steal the article name furnace for the head article on metallurgical and industrial furnaces, and create industrial furnace for the detailed material under this heading, and furnace (domestic) and furnace (disambiguation)? Andrewa 18:26, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

The references show a lot of heavy-duty textbooks; I reckon the text in 'industrial furnaces' comes from those books. I personally think that the 'industrial furnace' section could use some cleanup (too technical), but I don't know where to start, as some of that text is relevant. Sentinel75 08:07, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
Dammit, hit 'save page' before I had finished thinking; who wants me to put a 'cleanup' tag at the top of this article? Sentinel75 08:08, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

How about "central heating furnace" or "warm air furnace" with disambiguation to bring furnace or other terms to it. Also, furnace (at least in the US) generally only refers to a heating appliance that uses air as the distribution medium. An appliance that uses hot water or steam as the transfer medium is usually referred to as a boiler. Maybe "central heating equipment" would be more appropriate if boiler and furnace are to remain in the same article. Also coal was once a common fuel for residential heating but is not very common anymore.

Also, the percentage of central heating in the US vs UK(in the discussion) doesn't account for areas of the US where the climate is relatively mild and central heating is more a luxury than necessity. Mattmia2 05:02, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleaning up furnaces

I think the outdoor wood fire boiler section should be moved to the boiler page. It seems wierd to include it in the furnace page.

And, although the term furnace is itself very vague, one should try not to mix up the terms boiler and furnace or just a simple heater. Typical standards of definition would be by the type of fuel used. Another way would be by deducing whether only liquid phases are involved or both liquid and gaseous phases. Another way is whether it is used for chemical reactions, or just simply heating up stuff? This way, we can focus the page down. Otherwise, anything that burns something and produces heat can be called a furnace and gets included in this page. And with induction furnaces, it seems like anything that heats something else can be called a furnace.. Anchorage48 (talk) 10:39, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Life of furnaces?

How long do furnaces last?

16:05, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

It varies enormously based on the quality of the materials used, the fuel used, and the amount of maintenance performed. For household hot-air furnaces, the heat-exchanger usually sets the life of the furnace; once it fails, the cost to replace it may exceed the remaining value of the furnace, especially if the old furnace can be replaced by a new furnace with higher fuel efficiency.
Atlant 22:54, 5 May 2007 (UTC)


Efair 15:07, 15 August 2007 (UTC) Organizing around or providing refernces to the variety of home heating devices might be helpful on this page, along with some discussion of what "efficency" means and the relationship of efficiency to the handling of combustion byproducts. Specifically from the Natural Gas perspective (which is most common in my part of the world) there are various techniques to handle those byproducts -- unpressurized metal ductwork, lined or unlined chimneys, or through pressurized piping. Some rationale of why to use each technique would be helpful.

Speaking as someone who lives in SW-Ontario (same climate as Detroit, Buffalo, Toronto) where the heating season starts late October and ends in May, it's not unusual for houses built in the late 50's or early 60's to still have their original natural-gas forced air furnaces, and certainly not unusual to see furnaces built and installed in the 1975 - 1982 time frame. That would put the working life well into the 30-year period.

Yes, the end of life usually comes because of a cracked heat exchanger, but also note that the air pressure of the household air inside the exchanger will be positive with respect to the combustion side, so air will tend to flow from the interior side of the crack to the combustion side - meaning that combustion gas will most likely NOT leak into the household air, but instead the household air will tend to leak into the combustion side of the exchanger, resulting in flame disruption if the leak is bad enough.

Old furnaces get a bad rap because of their constant pilot light, or poor efficiency electric motors. However, most of the efficiency gains of modern furnaces come because of better scavanging of exhaust heat, which is essentially an issue of "plumbing". Electronic ignition, and electronic motor control, are gimicks that contribute little to efficiency but add A LOT of extra maintainence costs when they break. And when you think about it, the heat of a constant pilot light is not really lost - it is seeping into the house one way or another. It's like the issue with incandescent bulbs. They generate a lot of heat, but that heat helps heat houses in the winter (and the winter is when there is less natural light vs the summer). So the waste heat from incandescent bulbs is actually not wasted during the heating season. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.93.87.81 (talk) 00:44, 3 November 2007 (UTC)