Anyone built their own outdoor wood boiler?

I'm looking for ways to tighten the belt here.
Been wondering about using an outside boiler and piping the heat into my forced air system in the house.
Darned things are pricey to buy one new or even used.
I can cut and weld, plumb, wire.
Have the fundamentals on what is required.
Where does a guy go to find plans to make his own?
It would be nice to make something that would take at least 4' chunks.
Also, I'm a carpenter - do remodeling for a living. Every year I pay to get rid of a lot of used lumber from tear outs.
Would it be feaseable to try to use some of the couple of tons of lumber I throw away?
I don't expect to get off City natural gas completely. But if a guy could cut it back by 25 - 50% it would be worth looking into.
TIA
Jerry

http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/

Lots of good reading over there.


I just got rid of my heatmor. I hate firewood. Well I hate cutting 20 cord of firewood. Those OWB are very inefficient. But if you have a nice tight easy to heat place. They may be the answer.

I HAVE A FRIEND WHO INSTALLED A HEATMOR 4 YEARS AGO AND HE LOVES IT HE STARTED OUT USING SPLIT WOOD THEN FOUND OUT HE COULD FIT THE WHOLE LOG IN WHICH SAVED ALOT OF LABOR HE FILLS THE BOILER ONCE IN THE MORNING AND ONCE AT NIGHT HEATS 2800SQ.FT. AND PROVIDES HIS HOT WATER HE SAYS IT SAVES HIM ROUGHLY 300 A MONTH. BUT I DO AGREE THEY ARE PRICEY

I would think it is possible, but do you really want to? I would worry big time about building codes and zoning regulations, especially if I lived in a town. Such a system, even if you build it yourself, would be a large initial investment. And if it gets very cold where you are, you would need to keep the water warm all winter or deal with antifreeze.

A couple of different people I know have had, or still use outdoor boilers. Both of them thought that using such a system would save them a whole lot of money, but only the guy that is still using his system decided that it was really coming through for him. And he saves money only because he has a source of LOTS of free, or nearly free wood. A friend of his has a tree service and gives my friend most of the trunk wood his business generates. My friend owns 3 or 4 substantial trailers that the tree service loads wood on at various jobs. I think my friend spends quite a bit of time moving trailers around and unloading and stacking wood. And every day he has to fill the firebox with wood and often has to tinker with his system. He burns more than 20 cords of wood every year and probably has nearly 100 cords stacked on his property. Free heat? Not hardly. The other guy sold his place with the boiler because he found it to be too much hassle and expense for the wood he had to buy.

Both systems have had smoke issues. Especially when the fire is getting going, my friend's boiler looks like an old coal fired steam locomotive working hard. It becomes much better once the fire is burning well, but that initial smoke just wouldn't make it if my friend didn't live way out in the country, with no close neighbors. And my County sometimes has burning bans in the Winter because of poor air quality concerns.

Have you considered putting a wood stove in your house? A good, tight wood stove doesn't have to be kept hot all the time, and most can be set so they don't waste much heat up the chimney when they are not being used. Lots of people use wood stoves to supplement their regular heating systems, and unlike some other types of heating equipment, a wood stove will generally work fine when the electricity is out. And a good wood stove with chimney shouldn't cost more than a few thousand dollars unless you really got elaborate.

A buddy of mine works in a cabinet shop. For years he has brought home most of the scrap wood from the shop in 5 gallon buckets, all year. His boss likes the arrangement, because then he pays less for garbage fees, and Jim saves lots of money on electricity by burning the scraps in his living room wood stove. That room is also the most comfortable room in his house during the winter. For the most part, the fuel is very clean, chunks of hardwood that have been trimmed off for one reason or another. Jim also has a woodshed completely filled with pieces he has brought home over the years.

Construction and remodeling debris probably wouldn't be as clean as Jim's wood supply. And it would be more trouble and time to cut it to stove size and load it to carry home rather than just tossing it into a dumpster. And at home, you have to unload it again and probably stack it for future use. Only you can decide if it really is worth your time to get your heat the more self-sufficient way.

Unless your business really generates a lot of usable firewood and it costs you a lot to get rid of that debris, I doubt that you would ever come out ahead with an outdoor boiler. At least the ones I have been around require a whole lot of wood be fed to them. It would take an awful lot of labor to keep them fed with mostly 2 by lumber pieces. But again, only you can make the decision for your situation. Good luck!

The absolute first thing you need to do is discuss it with your insurance company, before you even do any serious planning.

Most of the insurance companies I deal with as an Insurance Inspector will automatically cancel a homeowner's policy if there's any kind of home-made wood burning device connected to the home heating system.

My son in law has one. The insulated in ground pipe is expensive, his was around $10 a foot so you don't want to go too far.

Jerry,

You may want to consider buying one like I have. I don't know if you could build one much cheaper than what these cost or not. It is built by a welder locally, and he has sold them for about 15 years or so. Lots of them in the surrounding area. I can think of at least 20 of them in a 10 mile radius of me. There is no problem at all with insurance, as they are not homemade. I paid $2200 for mine brand new in 2005. I've heard they are around $3000 now, but that still isn't bad when others are well over 6,000. It has a shed covering like any other brand, and has worked very well for us. It has a 40"+ firebox in length. If you'd like to see pictures of mine, or want the name and number of the place that sells them, shoot me an email.

I could tell you about a guy between Cold Spring and St. Joe who built his- heats the house and large shop using mostly junk pallets. Non-pressurized, runs in summer too for house hot water. email open

Just a few quick comments
1. They do use lotsa wood, I figure twice as much as an indoor fireplace but because they are tied into your forced air, your whole place is warm, not just your living room or the room with the fireplace.
2. Take a look at several commercial units then build a BIG firebox. Commercial units advertise square feet of heating but I think they assume dry hardwood heating a house with 3 feet of insulation and completely airtight in 60 degree outside temperature not a drafty farmhouse at twenty bellow using woodscraps or green wood.
3.The biggest problem with build it yourself is the welding. I'm not criticizing your welding skills. The problem is you build a firebox, surround that with a waterjacket, then surround that with insulation, then a protective covering. Simple? yes. The problem comes when your fire heats up the metal water jacket and the water cools it you get uneven expanding and contracting of the metal which causes stress cracking especially at the welded joints. If you run your smokepipe through the water or you install a baffle to try to collect more heat it puts many of your welded joints in a location that you can't get to to repair when you get stress cracks that pee water on yer fire.
4. I have (2) 200 gallon oil tanks in my basement that are hooked into my boiler water. The advantage is, if my power goes off, I have 400 gallons of hot water in my basement that will keep my home warm for several hours simply by radient heat.
5. Outdoor stoves are good...woodchips sawdust bugs ants bark smoke all outside and a controled even heat inside, but I have wondered about building a indoor woodstove with a large water resevoir on top that could be plumbed to a forced air system for even heating, repairs are simple with a separate water tank, heat losses are inside your basement or heated garage so they are not really lost.
6. For your insurance company you gotta be willing to call their bluff.If enough people said "Thanks, I really didn't need to spend that two grand anyway" and walked away insurance companies might figure out that hot water really isn't all that flamable or hazzardous to unfinished basements with concrete floors.

Just my opinions
Alf

You may want to look into getting a pellet stove, my stove cost $2000 and I cut my propane bill by 50-60%. I have seen my stove (AMerican harvest) for $1300 at Tractor supply, (after I bought mine for $2000 of course)

Can you purchase coal in your area?
Is there a good flowing well or a pond that never freezes deep on your property.
Purchasing the steel to build the outdoor boiler will cost more than purchasing a decent used boiler.
Plumbing, pumps and heat exchangers are going to add up $$$.

I built my own outdoor woodstove six years ago.At that time it was going to cost me around 11grand to do what I did. I put mine behind my shop away from the house,250 ft.It cost me approx 1500.00 in steel and a lot of time welding and 60 lbs of 7018 rod. I used heavier material than most builders.Borrowed a couple of different designs from other stoves.I built the fire box 3ft wide 4ft high and 5ft long, way to big over the years I found out that it takes alot of wood to the get that area hot to heat the water to 180,Now I keep the firebox half full with ashes and it helps like a firebrick, I know the ashes will eat the steel as I have been told but no problems so far.I heat my house 1600 sq ft on each floor,1200sq ft shop nad my wifes small green house. I dont have all the fancy new gizmos for control on mine. It is sort of a pain when some one else needs to feed it.I plow snow in the winter around home so I am commited to be home for the winter. I use water only. I Built my own insulated box to bury the pipe in underground after I ran the hoses through 4" sewer pipe and I also ran hot and cold water to my green house and a phone line and power line.I have mine 250 ft from the house and the pump is in the house nice and warm and easy to get at. I also heat my hot water with it. Not sure how much it saves me, It burns alot of wood,depends on what kind of wood and how dry. I get mine free from a friend that is in the tree business in the city. I still have to pay to truck it and the labour of doing it. So its not free but cheaper. I thought i could get away from supporting the oil companies but have to pay for fuel in the truck. Maybe a horse and wagon next year (NOT).I havent bought fuel oil for six years now.I fill mine twice a day morning and night. Check on it durung the day if i'm home. Nice warm heat in the whole house because the furnace fan moves the warm air around all day long.Even the cold corners are good because they don't have a chance to cool down. the floors seem to stay warmer also.It's minus 23 celius right now and the house is at 23 celius all the time. Anyways good luck with your decision and keep warm.

Sheesh. Botton of page two already.
This board moves Fast.
Thanks to all for some great suggestions.
Gotta read this a couple of times and digest it all.
Thanks!