It’s occured to me recently that my furnace produces a lot of air movement, very likely much more than my 2HP dust collector. It feeds more than 10 ducts around the house.
At the same time – it is so much more quiet you can’t even compare the two. It’s never even occured to me to wear ear protection next to my running furnace.
What if I looked for a used house (or RV) furnace, ripped out the heat exchanger, added a cyclone and dust bag, and made my own dust collector? Would that perform comparably to one of the 3000$ dust collectors I could buy?
Has anyone tried?
Replies
I'm no dust-collection expert but the big difference between HVAC air handlers and D.C. air handlers is not the C.F.M. (cubic feet per minute) but rather the static pressure.
Your 2hp dust collector likely has at least 10 times the static pressure of an HVAC system.
Mike
The furnace moves lots of air, but slowly. A DC moves air quickly enough to keep solids airborne. Not gonna work is my bet.
Some houses have both a basement installed central HVAC system and a central vacuuming system that is roughly similar to a cyclone DC. I don't believe one can replace the other.
My 2c, is that it will depend a lot on the power of the fan.
In theory, the CFM should be the thing that counts, but there is a LOT more resistance with a small pipe. I don't have ducted AC but I do have a positive pressure ventilation system to 12 rooms that uses 300W max. That's 1/6 of the power of my single stage DC.
I can't imagine the power being sufficient to move the volume of air required through small ducts. As others have said - the static pressure would be too low. Don't waste your time or money.
You probably could get quieter DC - the Harvey G-700 claims up to 72dB which is about as loud as it gets inside a car on the motorway or perhaps a quieter vacuum cleaner. I'd still wear ear protection in the shop though as the other tools get loud and it grates after a while listening to it. The price is also more like $2300.
You could also look at industrial type 2 stages. I have recently ordered a Holytek machine which is 3HP and claims 78dB. It's considerably more powerful than the two smaller Harvey machines but compares unfavourably on price at almost USD 3500 (shipping to NZ is a bitch...) 78Db is a LOT louder than 72 though and at it's quietest setting you'd be able to find louder washing machines than the Harvey.
Wrong style fan. Furnace uses squirrel cage, sheet metal fan. it wouldn't stand up to the impact of wood chips and would clog easily as well as probably be damaged.
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