Automatic Flue Damper - Worth It?
 

I've been looking at automatic flue dampers that close off your furnace chimney when it's not running and was curious if anyone had experience with them. Supposed to save 10-20% of your bill by stopping cold air from circulating through the chimney past the high surface area exchangers in the furnace that are in contact with the boiler water. Are they easy to hook up? I was tempted to make my own, but I doubt that would be looked upon favorably when looking to sell later and I can get them for less than $100 anyway. Thanks for any info.

Just nabbed a new one from a surplus place on Ebay for $50 delivered. Hard to pass up at that cost.

I have flue dampers on my boiler and my hot water heater at the dry cleaning store. They are built into the equipment though... If the damper is broke the gas bill goes up.

Any idea how much your bills increase with it busted? Thanks.

For my operation it was a few hundred dollars but then again our gas bill is over $3,000/mo. In a residential application there may not be a noticeable difference on a monthly basis, but if you totaled your gas bills up for a year you probably would.

Sounds like the 10% figure is reasonable. Cool.