Well, at least it’s not Albuquerque. What’s in Baltimore? I mean, besides all the things that belong in Baltimore? That parcel from Sketch-E-Commerce supposedly containing the hard-to-find vent kit for that furnace I wanted to use in the HomeBox. Why Baltimore? Blind Bambi! (No-eyed-deer). What I do know is my order clearly specified my correct address, the acknowledgement of the order clearly shows my correct address (which is not in Maryland), but the tracking info for my parcel says it was delivered to Baltimore. I’ve pretty much lost faith in Sketch-E-Commerce and have posted a dispute with PayPal about it. Maybe it can resolve, maybe not – but I can’t keep waiting to finalize my heating plan and without knowing for sure I can get a vent kit that works with my house’s ~6″ thick walls (RV-oriented heaters quite naturally expect thinner walls, you see), I’m definitely not going to shell out many $100s for the furnace itself, much less design around it. Okay, then, $48 lost to Baltimore — or China — or whatever. This is not wholly unsurprising, all things considered, but it is a disappointing weekend edition, for sure.
See what I did there? 😉
Okay, then, moving on to Plan B. It’s rare that I have only one plan for any given task. At the time I identified the prior furnace, that one appeared to be the only one that met all of my criteria with respect to how it was installed, how much heat it could throw, and whether it could be installed in a vehicle with such thick walls as mine. It occurred to me today that while it’s not my first choice (hence the designation Plan B), I could certainly make the effective thickness of the wall much less if I had to. Cut away the interior pine facing boards, the subwall behind them, carve out the foam insulation, and all that’s left is the exterior sheathing and siding — a wall that’s less than 2″ thick. Every furnace I looked into (of which there were several) could install through a wall of that thickness. Not my ideal plan, but totally do-able. This would mean recessing the tail of the furnace 4″ into the wall cavity, which may or may not be a problem for ducting or connections or what-have-you, potentially meaning the cavity has to be considerably larger than would otherwise seem necessary. The more cut-away, the less insulation there is in the home and the less happy I am about it. So really, that’s now Plan C.
Plan B is to find another furnace that’s compatible with my thick walls and for which a thick-wall vent kit is actually available. As it turns out, I think I was able to find one! I have ordered the aforesaid kit — this time $25 and from a US company that seems considerably more legit than Sketch-E-Commerce from China. Even if that doesn’t work out, I think I’ll buy that same furnace unit anyway if I can satisfy myself that whatever recess I need to carve out for it to use the standard vent kit isn’t a big deal. Looking at the return-air intake at the rear of the unit, a few inches of additional clearance should do it if that 2.5″ allowed recess isn’t enough to use the standard vent/intake tubes.