Fresh air feed

[stinkydavis]

Question for any furnace professionals and fellow hobbyists. I am trying to feed fresh air into my skimmer for co2 build up bringing my ph to 7.8. I can just drill a hole through the side of my house but with my exposed basement the tube will come out right at eye level.
The question is my furnace is very close to the skimmer and am thinking if I just drill a hole on the intake the feeds air in from outside I can get the same result without having the eye sore. I will do it close to the exit and feed the hose all the way to the exit. Will this hole which I plan to seal with caulk or silicone be an issue for my furnace?

 

[Joe31415]

Right off the bat, if you do this it MUST MUST MUST be the furnace intake. If you do it with the exhaust, your skimmer is going to pull carbon monoxide right into your living room.
On the intake side, however, it would probably be just fine, if I had to guess. Something I'd worry about is that when the furnace is running, the skimmer isn't going to get as much air as it needs. As it draws in more water, which may or may not cause it to overflow, the water level in your sump will drop, your ATO will kick on and you'll be fighting constant hyposalinity.
At least you'll find out relatively quickly if it's going to be an issue and what you're planning to do is all pretty easily reversible.

Something you might want to check is if your house has a fresh air intake. See if any of the HVAC return ducts have a branch that goes off to an exterior wall with a matching vent on the outside. That's meant for makeup air when you're running things like a bathroom or kitchen exhaust. If you tie into that, you might still have issues, but at least you're not screwing around with the combustion side of things.

 

[stinkydavis]

Right off the bat, if you do this it MUST MUST MUST be the furnace intake. If you do it with the exhaust, your skimmer is going to pull carbon monoxide right into your living room.
On the intake side, however, it would probably be just fine, if I had to guess. Something I'd worry about is that when the furnace is running, the skimmer isn't going to get as much air as it needs. As it draws in more water, which may or may not cause it to overflow, the water level in your sump will drop, your ATO will kick on and you'll be fighting constant hyposalinity.
At least you'll find out relatively quickly if it's going to be an issue and what you're planning to do is all pretty easily reversible.

Something you might want to check is if your house has a fresh air intake. See if any of the HVAC ducts have a branch that goes off to an exterior wall with a matching vent on the outside. That's meant for makeup air when you're running things like a bathroom or kitchen exhaust. If you tie into that, you might still have issues, but at least you're not screwing around with the combustion side of things.

Yes, luckily the furnance is marked which one is exhaust. I plan on push the hose all the way until it is slightly poking out of the intake part to ensure it can pull enough air while running.
I will look for the fan exhaust as well but am pretty sure that it is fed out the otherside of the house

 

[stinkydavis]

Pictured it the furnace marking exhaust I am thinking I will drill the hole right by where the pipe leaves the house

 

[bobbravo2]

One of these could be used to pull air, that way you get a more consistent air volume to skim with verses just relying on the skimmer to pull in air.

VIVOSUN 317GPH Air Pump 15W 6 Outlet 20 L/Min for Aquarium and Hydroponic Systems https://a.co/d/inSM1Ab

Used one of these, and also ran the air through carbon to ensure no pesticides from neighbors gets in.

 

[Joe31415]

Yes, luckily the furnance is marked which one is exhaust.

Also, you can put your hand on them when it's running. The intake is cold, the exhaust is warm.

I plan on push the hose all the way until it is slightly poking out of the intake part to ensure it can pull enough air while running.

In that case, the skimmer will probably be fine, but you still have to find some way to be 100% sure it can't draw in the exhaust. Remember, it doesn't matter if the furnace draws some exhaust in since it'll just be pushed right back out, but the skimmer line brings it into the house.

I will look for the fan exhaust as well but am pretty sure that it is fed out the otherside of the house

That's very likely the case as they want to keep it away from the furnace exhaust.

 

[stinkydavis]

In that case, the skimmer will probably be fine, but you still have to find some way to be 100% sure it can't draw in the exhaust. Remember, it doesn't matter if the furnace draws some exhaust in since it'll just be pushed right back out, but the skimmer line brings it into the house.

The exhaust and intake are about 3 feet apart. Do we think that is to close

 

[mrpontiac80]

So it looks like you have a 90% furnace. As Joe mentioned, one of those vents is exhaust while the other is fresh air intake. If you pull the door on the furnace you will likely see the exhaust connected to the inducer motor while the fresh air intake is open. You can see an example in the pic below. The fresh air is on the left in this picture.

Also just be aware that there can be moisture inside the pvc and that could also be drawn into the skimmer.
I’m an hvac guy. I don’t see an issue with doing this at the moment. As long as your 1000% sure it’s fresh air only!

 

[stinkydavis]

So it looks like you have a 90% furnace. As Joe mentioned, one of those vents is exhaust while the other is fresh air intake. If you pull the door on the furnace you will likely see the exhaust connected to the inducer motor while the fresh air intake is open. You can see an example in the pic below. The fresh air is on the left in this picture.

Also just be aware that there can be moisture inside the pvc and that could also be drawn into the skimmer.
I’m an hvac guy. I don’t see an issue with doing this at the moment. As long as you’re 1000% sure it’s fresh air only!

I will quadruple check. I plan on running the tube literally sticking slightly out of the intake and kind of floating out of the tube slightly