Basement Wood Furnace being used Outside

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Ok, we got the stove and it's been up and running about a week. It's a very large add-on furnace, no name on it, and has a jacket around it with the hot air comming out of the top. There is a squirrel cage fan for the return air on the bottom back. It cost 1500 new, we got it for 400 used. It holds allot of logs, in a V, and there's a long ash drawer on the bottom that pulls out.

We set it outside the back of the house. Our house is 30 wide and 50 feet long, so the stove is on the end, peak, short wall. It is about 7 feet from the house on bricks. We put those styrofoam sheets all around the jacket, cut to fit, taped with heat tape. Then we tore apart an aluminum topper for a truck and used the aluminum sheets for a "shed", and custom fit the pieces and screwed them together.

The flue comes out the top back, so the "shed" goes down at an angle back there, leaving the flue out of it. The motor and wires are all protected from the weather. The front and back of the stove is not part of the jacket, so no styrofoam there, just the top and sides. The styrofoam really holds the heat in.

We got a black insulated soft duct, 25 feet long for 25.00. We cut it in half and use half for the hot air in and half for the return air. There is a sliding glass door there, and we put plywood about a foot wide in the track to the far right, top to bottom, with the air vent low. We can still use the door this way.

The return air comes out of the bedroom window. Since the house is laid out long with a wall down the middle, the air circulates the whole house. The stove sits between the dining room and bedroom outside. I have the ceiling fan on in the living room to help pull it around.

This thing works so good, I am so thrilled with it. It has a thermostat on the jacket, and when the air gets to 150, the fan kicks on, and when the air cools to 100, it goes off. This thing will blow hot air with just coals in it for hours. It uses very little wood, about 1/10 of what the King woodstove was using. It has a blower to the fire, but we don't use it, only the first time we got it started. It looked like a locomotive with it on!

My house is very comfortable now, not hot, but not cold. This is an old house, it really needs to be drywalled in. You can adjust the air on the front blower opening, usually it's just barely opened. And if you want you can push in the button and the hot air blower will run all the time, but then you need to open the air and get it hotter, cuz the air cools off fast.

Ideally, it would be in a block building, but since we have this place up for sale, we just did it temporarally. I am taking this baby with me.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 17, 2001

Answers

Hello,

I am planning on getting an exterior wood furnace. Was this an interior wood furnace that you refitted to be an exterior? All the exterior ones I have found (new) run for $2300 on up and I am looking for a less expensive solution. Any insight on how to obtain a less expensive solution would be great. (Interior wood is not an option due to insurance).

Thanks

-- Stacia in OK (oneclassycowgirl@aol.com), January 17, 2001.


Yes, it was made to sit next to your heat pump in the house and just hook the duct work right into the existing duct work. I looked at the Charmaster Embers, and it was 2500, really nice, but I didn't want to owe that much money.

Ideally, the duct work should come up at the floors in each room, but we just set it up like this for now. The Charmaster site has allot of pictures of both kinds of stoves. http://www.charmaster.com

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 17, 2001.


I'm glad it worked out.You're ahead of me,but we have a building to enclose,and we've been lazy.Maybe this will inspire me to get moving!

It sure is alot more appealing,cost wise.Bet you feel better, too.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 17, 2001.


Stacia what kind of insurance do you have. i have farm bureau and yes they hassel me ever 3 years. had to change my flue and put one straight up and take out the damper. but at least i have insurance on the homestead. Bob in se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), January 17, 2001.

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