Gas furnace with heat shielding plate

A burner assembly mountable to a partition panel of a furnace assembly and operable to combust a pre-mixed combustible fuel and air mixture to produce a heated flue gas, the burner assembly comprising:

• a housing;
• at least two burners, each configured to produce a flame for the combustion of the mixture into a flue gas;
• and
• a heat shielding plate located between the burners and the partition panel and configured to reduce the heat communicated to the partition panel due to the combustion, the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy and comprising:
• holes through the plate, each hole aligned with one of the burners;
• and
• a groove extending between the holes and shaped to accommodate thermal expansion of and reduce thermal deformation of the plate.

A method of operating a furnace assembly for use with a combustible fuel from a fuel supply to heat an interior of a structure, comprising:

• supplying fuel from a fuel supply to an intake manifold;
• supplying air to the intake manifold to form a pre-mixed fuel and air mixture;
• flowing the pre-mixed fuel and air mixture to a burner assembly;
• combusting the pre-mixed fuel and air mixture on burners of the burner assembly to produce a heated flue gas;
• reducing an amount of heat from the combustion communicated to a partition panel to which the burner assembly is mounted with a heat shielding plate, the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy and comprising holes through the plate, each hole aligned with one of the burners;
• compressing a groove in the heat shielding plate between the holes during the combustion to accommodate thermal expansion of and reduce thermal deformation of the plate;
• operating a blower downstream of the burner assembly to create a negative pressure in a heat exchanger mounted to the partition panel in thermal communication with the burner and comprising tubes and pull the heated flue gas into the tubes;
• passing an air stream over an exterior of the tubes to transfer heat from the heated flue gas in to tubes to the air stream to produce a heated air stream;
• and
• flowing the heated air stream into the interior of the structure.