Dedicated Air

Air to supply the woodstove comes in through this duct hood...

...then passes under the first floor and up to the woodstove...

...then into a little add-on air-supply box under the woostove where the stove draws it's air. Once combusted, the fumes travel up the stove pipe...

...into the insulated pipe in the second floor living space and up through the roof...

...and back out to the great outdoors, having never mixed with the interior air

A key element required of a super-tight super-insulated house is insuring a dedicated air supply to all combustion. Likewise all combustion needs to have a dedicated vent route, also isolated from the interior air.

Two examples of this principal are the propane boiler in the basement which has a short in-and-out combustion air supply and the woodstove on the first floor. The woodstove, unlike the boiler, is located in the middle of the house so there is a good measure of ducting running from the outside supply hood to the woodstove and then exhausting from the wood stove up the stovepipe to the insulated stovepipe and through the roof. I've been quite careful to make sure the whole run is tightly sealed so that the woodstove is only pulling air from outside and only venting to the outside. I don't want any leaks.

The not-really-resolved aspect of this equation is the propane-fueled gas stove-top range. The air supply is the ambient household air, and the venting, such as it is, will be a hood mounted over the stove top. This will all work okay, but it isn't ideal. If we run the hood, we'll need to open a window or door to allow air in so as not to create a negative air pressure in the house which could then result in a back draft in the woodstove. We have carbon monoxide detectors on both floors even though they are not required by code since there will be a small amount emitted by the stove.