With gas going up and up i recently looked into purchasing a wood fired outdoor furnace – actuallly a boiler. It seemed like a good idea – I live in the country, have a large supply of wood & the furnace is outdoors keeping the mess outside. The 200K BTU/Hr. unit costs $6,000 – installation, underground insulated waterpipes, etc would add another 1500 – $2000. We use about $2200/yr in propane now so the payback would be many years down the road assuming we still use some propane per year. Has anyone looked into the economics/practicality of these units?
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There are a few threads about these stoves here. Click on the blue title for Energy, Heating and insulation, this will give you only the threads in this section. Then click on the next 50 or next 20 button to find them. You could try the search but that usually gets ugly. <g>
Their are 4 of these in use in my family and for them, they are better than pop top beer cans, but they are not for everyone. They involve a lot of work, a lot of smoke, but save a lot of money. Nearly free heat and unlimited free hot water year round.
Ask away if you have questions. There are a lot of answers here, some may even be right. <g>
There's a lot of information online recently about them because of the spikes in petroleum prices. I put one in as the primary heat source for my new house, with a propane burner installed in the unit as secondary fuel source. So, no heat source inside the house. We are doubling in square footage, and burning about $2000 a year in fuel oil; with the new house I hope to cut that down to a couple hundred a year in propane (during summer) and the cost of gas and oil in the chainsaw for wood.
I am seeing many of these units being installed lately - the local dealer had about sixty or seventy of them in stock and all of them were spoken for.
I hope the laws in Vermont are still enforced: Have a look at the picture at the beginning of the document that I got some of the Vermont regs from:
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/aug/August%202005.pdf
Here's another that will be of interest:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS01/510170309/-1/SUMMER&theme=
The Vermont regulations include the following provisions:
(1) Installation of an OWB (outdoor wood boiler)must be at least 200 feet from the nearest neighboring residence;
(2) The stack on the furnace must be higher than the roof line if the furnace is between 200 feet and 500 feet from the nearest neighboring home;
(3) The OWB must comply with local ordinances and its operation must not create am nuisance;
(4) Dealers and sellers of OWBs must provide buyers with a legal notice stating that: only untreated natural wood may be burned; installation is subject to the distance and stack height requirements stated above; and that the OWB, even if meeting the above requirements, may not be used if the terrain is inappropriate and renders the OWB to be a nuisance or public health hazard. This legal notice must be signed by both the buyer and seller and filed with the Air Pollution Control Division of Vermont prior to delivery of the OWB to the buyer.
Edited 11/13/2005 5:05 pm ET by experienced
Have a look at this site:
http://www.woodheat.org/technology/outboiler.htm
Scott.
Edited 11/15/2005 2:11 pm ET by Scott
They're not as efficient as other wood-burning units (a good wood stove, for instance.) They do take large rounds and coming from someone who has heated with wood for years, that means a lot less time out splitting!
Why not put in a well placed EPA certified wood stove? I've been heating cheaply with wood for the bulk of my heat needs since 1975. Go to:
http://www.woodheat.org
Thanks for the woodheat site link. Great site. The wife likes a fireplace - as I do - but it doesn't do much to heat the house. So, no indoor woodstove. I like the idea of an outdoor unit but not sure I want to put up with a lot of smoke. Probably better to put on some stormwindows and weatherstip the doors. Thanks.
RSF fireplaces (and others) have air tight sealed wood burning fireplaces that have options for forced air heating using the fireplace as the heat source. This includes the ability to have zones and a thermosaticaly controlled air supply to the fire so as yo lower burn rates when heat is not being called for. In most places you can run the heat duct from the fireplace into the heating duct work from your existing forced air system and take advantage of the fact you already have a distribution system in place.
You end up with a fireplace and heating system in one. Of course you still need some sort of backup heat for when you go away or if you don't feel like stoking the fireplace. And I suspect a fireplace is easier to have installed, and less subject to regulations then a outside furnace/burner
Robert