Old Reviews Furnace blower wiring

[ElGuapo]

Question for an Electrician:

I have a brand new direct drive blower unit for a forced air furnace. The motor is wired up for 3 speeds. I was thinking of hooking this thing up as an exhaust for both of my grow boxes. If I hooked the high speed connections directly, it has enough power to suck all the carbon out of my filter and spew it into the neighbor's yard, followed closely by anything not nailed to the bottom of the box. If I were to run the low speed section through a speed control, would I create any issues or over heat the motor?

BTW, I have set several of these units up with a sheet metal base, 4 position rotary switch from Radio Shack, and hardware cloth guards. They make excellent shop fans. I salvaged most from the junk pile behind a HVAC shop, they were happy to sell them for $10 apiece.

 

[gtron]

I think BamaGrow is an electrician. he has offered advice on electrical issues. I would hit him up directly with a PM.

 

[Cave Dirt Cody]

How horsepower or amps is the motor? What kind of speed controller?

 

[ElGuapo]

The blower is home, I'm a work, I'll have to check, I don't really like to guess about such things. I don't have a speed control yet, my current setup is each box has a 6 inch duct booster wired without controls.

 

[Muddy]

Make sure and check the voltage on it. My experience with furnace blowers most have been 220 volt.

 

[ElGuapo]

Its a Permanent Split Capacitor Motor, 115v. The 3 speeds are:

1/6 hp, 3A
1/4 hp, 5A
1/3 hp, 7A

I've looked at a standart blower speed control at the local hydro store, as I recall it's in the $35 range. I plan on putting a damper in the duct coming from the small box so there is a way to balance the airflow. The other option besides a speed control is just a damper in both fan intakes and run it on low speed.