outdoor wood furnace

WV 2cyl

New User
I am sure I am about to open a proverbial can of worms. We are building a new home and are planning to purchase and install a new outdoor boiler. ANY SUGGESTIONS? stainless, grates, no grates. auger to remove ashes? BRANDS! GOOD, BAD OR OTHERWISE. Have used a hardy brand, as with all of them it took a man and 2 boys cutting wood and feeding it, as it seems with most brands.
 
Buy soon if you want one.

The federales will soon be regulating the sale of wood burning stoves and furnaces. You will not like the results.

Dean
 
An interesting note:

Europe has a lot of wood stoves, but they run on chips or pellets. A chip is much more efficient at burning. US wood stove users tend to throw a big piece of wood in and let it smolder. Most neighbors do not like the stoves because they smoke all the time.

A chip stove could use an auger, much like the old coal stokers. You could control combustion by regulating the amount of fuel, instead of closing a damper, that way the ratio of fuel and air could be regulated. I would think the wood could be run through a chipper then fed in.

Discussion welcome.
 
If you love to cut wood, have time to cut wood,like to go out in the cold to stoke the fire, and have a wood supply, disregard this post.

Other wise check out the cost of the wood burner verses a geothermal system that can also cool your house.

You most likely will be putting AC in the house anyway.

Geothermal is the least cost to cool a house and the heating is economical as well.

Just saying give it some thought.

Gary
 
There is an old brick factory north of Terre Haute, that makes bricks the way they were made a long time ago. Hand made kilns with a stoker. They use a combination of sawdust and coal. I bought 20k clay bricks from them in 1991. You have to use a diamond blade to cut them. Hard as steel.

It's a neat place to see. The kilns are next to the road. You can do a drive buy and see the stokers.
 
I would concur on the geothermal.

I cannot see cutting wood unless you have a supply, plenty of time and the desire to do the work. I have a timber, work to much, and burn wood in the fireplace. My wife likes seeing the fire and smelling the wood burn.
 
If I was building today I would spend the money on insulation and windows. spray foam if I could afford it. I am lucky enough to have natural gas going by so I don"t have to buy propane. would also look at solar. I don"t have a ready supply of wood so I quit burning it. With the games the heating folks played last year my highest bill was $160 including hot water, kitchen, and clothes dryer. Good luck on your choice.
 
Good point, I have heard nothing but good from the people that foamed. I would DEFINITELY do this on another house.
 
Not only the neighbors, but yourself also, depending on what your burning the smoke can get a little intense. We stopped using ours as I did not the smoke plume drifting across the house and being able to smell inside. Also watching the smoke plume go across the field and drift around the neighbors house did not make be feel good about it. We were burning hardwood castoffs from a local sawmill.
 
Also depending on your setup you may need to keep a water tank full. It becomes full at -15 to run a hose out to fill up the tank. Also if the wood burner is your only source of heat, your limited on the amount of time you can be away. Someone will need to stoke the fire.
 
There are plenty of pellet stoves available. There is a pellet factory local to me. Don't know about prices, efficiency, etc., but it is an option.
 
If you season your wood you will not have a lot of smoke from it. A lot of guys around here cut green and try to burn it in those furnaces.
 
I have a inside wood stove in my house and split and season all my wood. I like taking down trees that have been dead for several years. The only smoke I have is on start up in morning. After stove get hot you see little to no smoke . On a real cold day you may see a steam vapor.
 
I have had quiet a bit of experience with outdoor wood furnaces. Good and Bad. Personally I have a Hardy. Have owned it for 9 years, other than a combustion fan and a relief valve,no problems.But it does like wood. Does better on green wood than dry. I do some warranty work on the Central Boiler furnaces for a friend. They do have one to leak occasionally. Water treatment and PH testing is a must. Taylors were very popular at one time but they have had leak problems also.Have a Woodmiser with a leak to repair now. The friend that has the central boiler dealership says the new EPA Regs are going to put most of the little companies out of business and less than 10 companies well be left nationwide,so research before you buy. A warranty is useless, if no one is around to back it up. If you don't have an abundance of wood and if you have neighbors that don't like smoke, don't buy one.
 
I purchased the furnace in the link (actually changed some since then), in 2008. I had looked hard at the Hardy, but was told by someone that had ran both that the Heatmaster used far less wood than a Hardy. I disagree with those that burn green wood, as I was told the same and did so for the first few years until I learned better. I now only cut dead wood, or let it dry well, and I probably use half the wood I did when I put green in it. I also heat my hot water. I can agree that if you do not like cutting wood, going outdoors in all sorts of weather, you would not enjoy one. I am all in it for the cost savings, or I would not own one, but this furnace saves me a LOT of $$ over the course of a year. I figure it paid for itself in 5 years, and I have had very little problems with it so far - other than a door gasket which I purchased locally and made myself. Not sure how well I will like it as I get older, but I can always install something else when the time comes. Wife does enjoy the endless supply of very hot water that it provides which is a side benefit. Geothermal would definitely not help with the hot water my wife likes to use during the winter months. One thing I can comment on is that I still do not buy into those that say they can refuel only once a day - maybe on a sunny 50 degree day, but when it is cloudy, and stays below freezing during the day, I have to put wood in at least twice, and usually a third time. My normal day is check/fill when I get up, again when I get home from work, then again before going to bed. Keep in mind, depending on the weather, I may not have to refuel or add much during those checks, but get in the habit.
Furnace I own
 

I would plan on a pellet stove and plan on a place to install a bin that can be filled by a truck making bulk deliveries. If you have an attached garage the bin could go in the garage and the stove on the other side with an auger from the bin to the stove. This is how pellets will be delivered soon to those who can accommodate the auger truck delivery.
 
My hot water is pre heated with the Geothermal furnace. We also have plenty of hot water.

We have never run short in 14 years.

Gary
 
(quoted from post at 08:32:06 08/16/14) I am sure I am about to open a proverbial can of worms. We are building a new home and are planning to purchase and install a new outdoor boiler. ANY SUGGESTIONS? stainless, grates, no grates. auger to remove ashes? BRANDS! GOOD, BAD OR OTHERWISE. Have used a hardy brand, as with all of them it took a man and 2 boys cutting wood and feeding it, as it seems with most brands.
I agree with Gary. If I were building a new house I would put in the best insulation and windows I could find and install geothermal. I've had both geothermal and now have an outside wood boiler in the house we bought 6 years ago. The geothermal was probably just as cheap in the long run and all you had to do was move the thermostat. The only trouble I had with it was the 13 days we were without power during an ice storm but a wood boiler needs electricity too. My wood boiler works very well but you need to have a good source of a lot of wood. I will burn 8-10 cords to heat a 2800sf house in Arkansas. My WB is 6 years old and is an Earth brand made in Mo. I've had zero problems, I bought it from the guy that makes them. Fantastic customer service, they saw a potential problem and contacted me before I had one.
 
For those advocating pellets for fuel- that was a fine idea when pellets were $2.99 or even $2.50 a 50 lb bag. Last winter we saw prices climb to over $4.50 a bag. We went thru close to 3 tons at my daughters place and it's small. Whenever you consider a heat source that requires a specialized fuel, ( pellets, coal, corn, oil, electricity), you are tied to the demands of the market. That's where wood shines. As long as I'm physically able to cut wood I can heat my home. Some people see that as a tremendous burden. I see it as a tremendous asset.

As far as OWBs, I want one simply because I have lots of wood, enjoy hot water heat and my dream is heat in my garage! You spend 30 years on your back in front of a salamander or trying to force hot air down to the floor and you'll feel that way too. OWBs aren't for everyone and not for every location. OTOH, my indoor furnace is becoming a fire hazard and if i have to borrow money to replace a furnace, I'd rather it be outside. When you live 20-30 minutes from the firehouse a chimney fire isn't a laughing matter.
 
I do not like them they burn to much wood and an on demand hot water is the way to go. If you had say 3 buildings (office, house and shop) all on it they would be more efficient. I have seen people burn 20 cord to heat a ranch house!!!
 
Like Dean said,you better check the new Fed.EPA rulings as of 4-01-15.NO SMOKE PERIOD will be tolerated.Dealers are already warning people about the new rulings.Grandfathering is still up in the air.
 
One option to consider is a Charmaster wood furnace, Inside the home, in the basement.
A co-worker of mine has one and he loves it, sub zero temps and he is toasty warm. OWB may be nice, but pricey for install and it gulps down the wood from what I am told.
 
I need to ask, Does the EPA have thugs driving around looking for smoke producing stoves? I would think that in the city this could be true, but out in the country, why would anyone care?
 
We LOVE ours (Central Boiler) - and it is 13 years old! I feed it in the morning and evening. We burn mostly Oak with a few others mixed in.
 
The stainless steel water tank on ours cracked leaking water after 10 years of service. Local dealer told us up front the estimated life was 20 years. I am going to weld it up but it is a guess how long it will last. It does use a lot of wood. Wish I could buy coal within a reasonable distance.
 
A Portage and Main forces the smoke twice through the water jacket before it goes out the chimney. Gets a lot more heat out of it. It's effencey rivals that of the gasification units. I'm installing one now, before the new epa rules take effect and make all new installations illeagle.
 

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