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jdemaris
03-01-2004 18:28:39
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Re: outside wood burners in reply to rusty, 03-01-2004 15:59:03
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I'd like to hear more posts from people that have them. I'm in central New York State and I've got a dozen people nearby that have, or had, outside wood furnaces. Some love them, some hated and got rid of them. Some of the towns have banned them withing village limits due to the smoldering and excessive smoke. I'm thinking of getting one but I'm not yet sure if it's a waste of wood or not. One farmer next to me says he's using over twice the wood with his outside Central Boiler Classic than he was when he used an inside combo wood/oil furnace. He is, however, keeping his house warmer than before and also using it to heat his domestic hot water. He's got hot-air heat in the house via an oil hot-air furnace. The Central Boiler outside sends hot water piped underground that hooks to a heat-exhanger into his hot-air plenum. It only has natural draft, i.e. no blower on the fire. I've gone over and looked at it several times, and it just about never burns effciently; it's usally smoldering and full of cresote. He has gotten lazy about wood though, and much is green and unsplit. From what I've read, these outside furnces often run too cool to reach high efficiency, partly due to the water jacket. This farmer doesn't care much about how much wood it uses, he's got 600 acres of woods. He also bought the furnace used for $500 which was quite a deal! I've got another neighbor that bought a new Empyre outside furnace; this is his first winter. It has a stainless-steel firebox and supposedly has a great warrantee on it. He does not use in in warmer weather, just when it's 30F or below. It seems to be burning much more efficiently than the Central Boiler, but maybe it's because of the way he uses it. It has a blower on the fire that keeps it burning hotter than a natural draft model. He also splits his wood and gives it a least a few months to dry. I'm looking into a outside furnace for several reasons. My basement is too low for a wood furnace. We've been heating for 20 years with a woodstove in the house, but I'd like to have something safer and something that will burn longer between loads. I also have a heated three story barn with its own heating system (wood and oil). With an outside furnace, I could heat both buildings with one fire. So . . . I'm waiting to hear a few more stories. I priced a couple of different make furnaces, and they're all around $7000 if I install it myself.
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