outdoor wood stoves

I'm trying to decide between an outdoor boiler or an outdoor forced air stove that circulates air around the fire box a blows it into the house. All I have is electric heat at this point in my 1000sq ft house. Money is my biggest concern as well as longevity and wood usage. I would install a forced air hydronic heat exchange in my basement if I get a boiler which is a little out of my price range for now. Another thought is a large indoor boiler (250,000 BTU)that is local and could be had for $700 and putting a well insulated shelter around it. It appears in good condition. I was told it was used for 2-3 years, and sat pressurized with water in it for the past 25 years. Not rust anywhere. It is a very heavy built unit with about 3/8 fire box. The design is similar to ones being used today by taylor furnace. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I looked at a 10 year old Taylor outdoor boiler that was replaced in February. On closer inspection I found numerous repair welds and a lot of internal rust. Figured for what I would have to pay for this unit, I can build one from scratch and be very certain of the welds and assembly. I would be very leary of a used unit.

I thought about an Outside Wood Furnace, instead of the Oil/Wood Combination furnace that I have been useing, to heat my house, for years. Until I found out that they are not very effecient. You will go through a lot more wood, with one of those out door units, than you will with a indoor wood furnace. My Neighbor has an out door furnace, and he runs out of fire wood almost every year. I burn inbetween 18 to 20 bush cord of wood, cut in 12" lengths, a year with my Combination, and No Oil. But your wood has to be pretty dry, or you will have chimney issues. With those out door units, you can burn almost green wood. But you will also burn almost twice the amount of wood.
If you have any more questions, you can send me an email, and I will more than be happy to help. Bruce.

don't judge all wood stoves by the taylor

go with the hot water unite cleaner, safer,. with the hot air if you get a crack in it you will get smoke in the house and you can have a dust fire in the heat tube going to the house and it will blow fire in to the house [I'm on a fire dept. and seen this happen two times]. with a out door wood boiler do not get one bigger then you need make sure your pipes in the ground are insualted very good run them in 6in. pvc pipe with good insulation if you get water around them now you are heating ground water and will have a lot of heat loss. NOT all stoves are up to par!! do your home work ! make sure the company making your stove has been around for a long time and they us USA steel i know of two that do Johnson stove and Wood doctor both have made stove for 20 plus years. get a stove with as big a door as you can DON'T get one with any fancy ash auger they will plug and don't get any fire brick lined one they will rust out. Keep it simple you don't need all them little trinkets they like to us as a selling point. KISS is still the best { keep it simple stupid }

My son-in-law installed an outdoor hot water wood furnace just in time to fire it up a bit at the end of the season. What bothered me- and I didn't say a word- was even before I got close, I saw a strong blast of heat waves coming from the stack. To myself I wondered how much heat is being lost, and if there isn't a way of capturing some of that. One big plus with those is the big burning chamber and door that allows much bigger pieces than most indoor woodstoves saving cutting and splitting as much. I can see where it will go thru a LOT of wood.

If this statement is true."Money is my biggest concern as well as longevity". Then it isn"t going to happen with an outdoor wood furnace.
What part of the country do you live in?
Either an air source of water source heat pump is going to be the cheapest in the long run.
If you have a decent well then instead of a pond or creek/stream/river nearby. Just install a constant pressure controller on the well pump and use it for heat pump water.
If you price oil, gas & LP. Odds are forced air electric is cheapest at the moment nest to a heat pump.
What is the local cost of oil,gas,LP and electricity?
A boiler of that size is rated to heta a 3000ft house and a four bay workshop.
Cheapest option will likely be to just seal the air leaks around the doors,windows, baseboards, electrial boxes etc of the existing house and keep the elelctric.

If he is burning green wood, that is why it takes twice as much. Water doesn't burn. It takes a lot of heat to cook the water out of the wood before it will burn. That is heat lost up the chimney in steam.

No, my Neibour always burns dry wood. His problem, he never cuts enough wood to last the winter. He uses a lot more wood than I do through the winter. I always try to have more dry wood on hand under cover, and throw extra in the basement. I have 7 rows of piled fire wood in the fire wood room, in my basement. they are 16' long 7 1/2 feet high, 2 1/2 bush cords to a row. 3 on one side of a passage way, and 4 on the other side. when I get 2 rows empty, I refill those 2 rows again. I have plenty of wood left over. Gets me through the winter nicely.
Bruce.

I have a Heatmor outdoor boiler unit and so far it has been trouble free. In the dead of a extreme northern Indiana winter with a nice wind off the lake I will burn an average size truck load in 10 days or so. This is heating 2600 sq ft plus a 700 sq ft garage. Keep both at 74 degrees and heat my domestic water. When it gets in the mid and upper 30's I can go over two weeks on the same load. Hit the 40's and just about a month. Not all are the same and obviously you will have heat coming out the stack. Ever seen a fire of anykind not? Nothing is 100% efficient. Just remember that a regular fireplace or indoor unit is burning almost constantly while the outdoor unit will almost completely shut down and barely smolder part of the time. We used to heat the old farm house with an add on unit then switched to the outdoor boiler and if anything use less wood. I have found that really dry wood tends to burn shorter than somewhat green wood. I suppose due to the fact that when it shuts down the green wood is more apt to start smoldering sooner than the nice dry wood which would continue to burn. Just my observation... goes against the rules of science. Of course not everything on paper works out like it should in the real world.

If you look at most outdoor wood furnaces, they are all rated around 250,000 BTU, for even the smallest ones. I have about 1000sq. ft house, and want the basement heated also, so about 2,000 sq. ft total. I was told 100,000 BTU would be sufficent. I hope to have a garage also in the coming years to heat also. I live in Pa. With electricity jumping 40% in 2010 I looking into options. My house is pretty air tight and did all that you mentioned to do.

You don't happen to remember what manufacturer of stove it was do you?

I would put the boiler in the garage. I have 2 neighbors that have them in the garage and pipe the hot water to the house. The heat wasted off the smoke stack keeps the garage above freezing, they have a nice pile of dry wood inside, and a heater that can be turned on or off as needed. The garage is not attached to the house. When someone comes home and puts the car in the garage, they add wood before going to the house.

Most house furnaces are 30,000 or 50,000 btu. Being way over capacity tends drop efficiency.
Best to sit down with a sharp pencil and figure true full, real heating costs with electric, LP,oil and the wood boiler conversion. Then calculate the years until the savings break even on the installation cost.
Odds are a air source heat pump for temps down to freezing. Then electric resistance heating for below freezing is going to be cheapest. Even better adding a coal/wood stove in the basement to fire up on the coldest winter evenings.