Corn Stove Ducted to an Oil Furnace?

I think that depends on your ducting/chimney and how big it is. In general if it was just designed for the oil furnace, then its likely not safe. You might want to consult a professional on this one, as having your house fill with carbon monoxide is a big price to pay.

I'm pretty much with Frank on this...

..but if the ducting is already in place you could check it with a smoke match or set some cardboard smoldering and make sure you are getting an updraught through both heaters when either or both is running (tested at various outside temperature/wind conditions just to be sure)

This is one of my pet subjects...I've had idiot double glazing salesman (and approved gas fitters) telling me I didn't have enough ventilation just because it doesn't happen to be a nice rectangular vent (trust me, yes I can do arithmetic) I also found that a lot of people install extractor fans in kitchens where they also have gas boilers.... the fan can suck the flue gasses right through the kitchen instead of up the chimney. (This saved me knocking a hole in the wall for the extaction....I just re-circulated it through a carbon filter instead).

So be careful, but don't necessarily trust the 'experts'.

(Every man is his own safety officer... terms conditions and exclusions apply)

If in doubt buy a canary (yum yum), CO detector, smoke alarm and rabbits foot/religious icon of choice.

I was surprised your furnace doesn't have a seperate source of fresh air from the outside. Here in Canada that is pretty much the rule. They don't like having the furnace draw air from the living quarters and the furnace is often in it's own room or closet with sepearte outside air supply.

I still like a powerful exhaust fan over the stove especially when using a wok and making a stir fry. Rice and pasta aren't a problem except they put too much moisture into the air.

While most newer furnaces installed in the US use a separate air source (which makes a lot of sense by not drawing air preheated by the room for combustion), most older furnaces in the US use room air. I recently had a high efficiency furnace installed that used the room air. I plan to have it modified. Are there downsides to this?

The corn stove is actually a corn FURNACE that is designed to go into the supply to the oil furnace. The corn furnace has its own exhaust chimney and air take pipe. My concern is-- can I run my oil furnace when the corn furnace cant keep up?

If you know the btu input ratings for both furnaces, you might be able to calculate the right chimney size. You need to factor both vertical and horizontal distance and dimensions.

If you can't run through the calcs, get 2 or 3 knowledgable professional contractors to give you an estimate. You do not want to get CO in the house at night, because you won't wake up again!

The oil furnace and the corn furnace has it own outputs, exhaust to the outside for the corn furnace and the oil furnace has the ch imney.

If the two furnaces are separate pieces of heating appliances and have separate chimneys or flues, then yes you could run them at the same time.

If they have the same combustion chamber, check the manufacturers literature.

If they have the same flue, the combined flue or chimney needs to be carefully sized for the combined BTU capacity.

I'm just confused now...

So the corn furnace powers the fridge but heats the greenhouse of the man who smokes a pipe?

The oil stove belongs to the house with a green gate.

Watt was the engine drivers name!