Wooddust and the home furnace

[John M. Corro]

We're in the process of building a new home and I was planning on doing my woodworking in the same area as the basement furnace/water heater/wiring closet/water softener. After reading up on the Bill Pentz site recently, I've become worried that the dust I'm creating will be entering the air ducts (polluting the air for the whole house) or the furnace (creating a potential fire hazard).

The downside is that I can't get a dust collection system for some time for reasons I won't bother going into. The upside is that I am now using a higher end dust mask. I will also have a small basement window in that room as well as a door leading up to the garage. The dust mask will help me, but I'm still worried about my family (esp. my 1.5 year old daughter) and the furnace. I was thinking that a temporary solution (until I get the ok to purchase a ClearVue) is to use 3 or 4 cheap box fans and face them towards the window. After a session of woodworking, I could turn on all the fans and have them vent outside through the window for an hour or two. The door has a larger opening, but I thought that would be dangerous expelling wooddust out into the garage.

Can anyone offer any thoughts or other interim solutions?

 

[Jim O'Dell]

John, being that this is new house construction, I'm guessing that the heat-A/C will be a sealed unit if gas fired, do you know? It would get its combustion air for the gas furnace from the outside, instead of burning the heated air from inside the house. If it is a sealed type unit, why not build a closet around it, and use weather stripping at the door to seal the dust out of the closet, and therefore out of the furnace? This way, you can have the best of both worlds. I'm not sure about using fans to blow dust. There might be a fire hazzard with that. Maybe some one else will know the answer. Get the Clear Vue as fast as you can. I'm in the process of installing mine now. Hopefully I'll have it mounted this weekend. Then all I'll need is electricity!! Jim.