outside wood burners

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Greetings, We are thinking of getting an outside wood stove. We live in northern Iowa, it can get mighty cold. Our house is big and old. We've heated with a wood burning stove under a covered awning and piped the heat into our lp furnace ducts( in a window before the new duct work). The cost savings is tremendous-and there is NOTHING like the warmth of wood heat. If any of you have experience with the outside the house wood burners-please give us your ideas, opinions, comments, suggestions. Please tell us the down-side as well as the up-side. Thanks, Craig & Kathy

-- Kathy Giddings (ckgidd@netins.net), March 27, 2000

Answers

We're winding up our first winter with an outdoor boiler. Pros---(1) Clean, no wood mess in the house (2) Thermostatically controlled heat- nice if you like the conveniance (3) Once a day tending the fire. Cons---(1) my biggest gripe is the amount of wood they seem to use. We bought ours because they claimed it was more efficient. We used about 8 cords this winter in a fairly well insulated 2000 sq ft home. If it is more efficient I feel for others who bought a different brand. (2) they do require electricity to operate. All models have a circulating pump to move the heat into the house, requiring electricity and some also have a combustion blower. You must either operate it during a power shortage or drain it to keep it from freezing. If you burn it during that time you will also want to keep the water moving so the pipes don't freeze. (3) If you do get one keep in mind you have to load it. Some of them will handle a 4 ft log and they can get heavy and hard to handle.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 27, 2000.

We don't have an outside heater but I had a LPG boiler, I filled the system with a 50% antifreeze solution to keep it from freezing if the power went off, I had a wood stove back up too. I have given some thought to an outside unit but I would rather get away from burning wood, I have been at it for over 30 years.

-- Hendo (OR)r (redgate@echoweb.net), March 27, 2000.

Hendo: I thought about freeze protecting our system but it has a capacity of about 200 gallons. You'd need at least a 50 gallon drum of antifreeze to do you any good. At $4/gallon thats a $200 expense plus the heat transfer efficiency loss. Since we're getting geared up for a renewable energy system anyway and y2k was right around the bend we opted for back-up electrical.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 28, 2000.

Good morning, Kathy. We're going on our 3rd year with a Heatmor(e?). It sits on an insulated concrete slab about 50' from the house. The underground pipe is a special (read that expensive but very efficient) insulated pipe to carry the water into the basement floor. John covered most of the major advantages and disadvantages. I find loading the thing a terrible and unpleasant job. I'm still looking for some mechanical way to load it without hurting my back. Each year as we get the house better insulated, the efficiency increases. John didn't mention the cost. By the time we were done we had put $10,000 into this system! I wouldn't do it again. A friend down the road put in a new wood furnace in their basement for a LOT less than that. They used existing hot air ductwork and even without electricity the hot air rises to provide some heat. They drop the wood through a window into a bin built into the basement just like the old coal bins. All the mess stays there. I haven't asked her how they get the ashes out however. Seems like that would be the downside of that system. For me (and the dogs and cats) the nice thing is the toasty warm basement floor. If you are going to build a new house or add a new concrete floor with pipes in it make SURE the underside of the concrete slab is well insulated with high density foam. Our contractor told us we "didn't need that" and he was dead wrong! Our efficiency would have been much better with it.

-- Peg (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), March 28, 2000.

I am on my third year with a Heatmor. I have an old farm house, and a large garage workshop. I like cost savings, the ability to run pipes anywhere I want heat, and the thermostat-controlled fire. It is most efficient in cooler weather, but not the best in sub-zero. I think this may be a size problem, it should be bigger. It was expensive to buy and put in, but I think it will have paid for itself next year. I also just like to burn stuff. Having it outside, I don't worry about sparks from papers and stuff. I put mine next to a pole barn (door inside) so I can load it while protected from blizzards and rain. I did not put antifreeze in it, and good thing. I had a major leak within a month after installing it (pipe settled in the ground, and pulled loose from the fitting). I didn't buy the fancy pipe, I just used 2" foam to make a box around the pipes, and covered the whole thing (insulation and pipe) with 'clean chute' silo chute liner. I am in S.E. WI , and buy my firewood, or get slab and cutoffs from sawmills. I wouldn't want to cut trees to feed it. I think I use about 15 to 20 cords a year. I consider the work to haul it as my health club membership. P.s. my house already had hydronic heat, and I just tied the system into the furnace. I think my efficiency will improve when I add storage tanks in the basement for stability. It will also heat the water for household use. This requres the pump to run continuously, though, so it is another consideration. I recommend the in-floor heat for anyone with an old farmhouse. That distributes the comfort better than the old radiators. It just takes a lot of work (and cost) to install.

-- Dan Conine (dconine@dotnet.com), March 31, 2000.


Dan Unless you have a monster of a house,it's possible that your garage space is sucking the heat out of your pipes. We, too, had our garage floor heated, but the space wasn't insulated enough and we drained that portion of the system. After that our efficiency drastically improved. Maybe after everything else is insulated fully we'll start that up again. We heat about 2500 square feet and use about 9 cords a year, mostly oak. We also have the sidearm heater that heats our domestic hot water during the winter. The water is hotter in the winter than when the new water heater heats it.We are in far north WI.

-- Peg (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), March 31, 2000.

Peg, can you tell me what a "sidearm" heater is? I'm not familiar with this term; I gather that it's a wood powered water heater? Is it a brand name?

Thanks,

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), March 31, 2000.


re: wood burning boilers. The most efficent brand would be the Central Boiler "Classic" according to the EPA data and testing results. No outside unit is worth a darn if you loose heat through the insulation into the ground. I saw one back in the fall- a CL17 from Central Boiler that had the insulated pipes enclosed in a 6" corrogated sewer pipe used in hog confinment buildings. He had it water tight as the ends were above ground and sealed off to prevent water seeping inside. My brother also has one [CL-17] but he didn't enclose the pipes inside anykind of water tight enclosure. Guess what he's doing this summer? He has a nice green grassy yard after a rather cold winter. He also used bunches of wood that grew that nice, green grass! Other than that-he wouldn't part with it.

-- hoot gibson (hoot@wworld.com), March 31, 2000.

Joe- I don't think "sidearm" is a brand name, just a type. It's a copper pipe inside a larger copper pipe. The water from the water heater circulates through the inner pipe. The outer pipe circulates hot water from the wood stove. The water heater water and the boiler water never mix. In the summer, when the stove isn't working, a shut-off valve keeps the water heater water from circulating and the water heater works normally. In the winter, the hot water in the outer pipe keeps the water so hot, the water heater themostat never comes on. The whole contraption sits vertically beside and slightly lower than the heater itself. Works wonderfully.

-- Peg (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), April 01, 2000.

Thats good to know about the side arm water heater. I got one for our system but haven't installed it yet. In case any one is interested, I got mine from Johnson Mfg. in Ogdensburg Wisc. for about $150.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), April 02, 2000.


We have a Taylor water stove, bought and installed last Feb. so far we are very satisfied. takes care of heat and hot water. Paid $5000 to have it put in but if you do it yourself it can be purchased for about half the price. Ran it all summer for the hot water as we have four small childre and lots of clothes to wash. Had to Fire it up once about every five days in the summer, did not use much wood, lots of paper/cardboard as the water stays hot in the summer.

-- Bruce Burdge (burdgebruce@richmond.com), October 04, 2000.

We have been thinking of getting an outside wood stove also.Every one who I have talked to who own one LOVE it, But they seem to be very smokey and I mean VERY smokey.If you live in an area close to other people this could be a problem.If not, go for it!

-- roy cleary (chrisandroycleary@yahoo.com), June 17, 2001.

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