DO any of you heat with an outside wood furnace

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I checked the threads and did not find all of the answers I was looking for. Do any of you heat with an outside wood furnace? If so... #1.How much do they cost,?(If you don't mind me asking) #2. How well do they work? #3 Is one brand/type better than the other? #4 Are you bothered with smoke? I ask this because the ones I have seen always seem to be a few yards away from the back door and the chimney are low and the smoke always seems to be blowing right at the house. Can you extend the chimney or would this effect the draft? I am asking you the consumer because you I trust. The dealers on the other hand.......

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), May 15, 2001

Answers

The one farmhouse that we rented did have an outside wood stove. It was constructed special by a man in the area that welded. He had done several stoves for simular farmhouses. It had an inner box and a large outer box to keep it insulated. The chimney went up past the roof and was "bolted" to the house using a couple of heavy metal braces to keep the chimney the required distance. (stove was on south side, so the north wind didn't blow it twards the house) I would check what the laws are in your area, check with local welders trying to earn a spare buck, and remember to keep an eye out for repairs. The outside stove rusted faster than indoor ones, and would have to have spot jobs done on joints, etc. They also had it hooked up to elect. for the fan, but I don't think that is a must. It just helped get the warm air further into the house via ductwork. Hope this helped. ~Brenda

-- Brenda (brenclark@alltel.net), May 15, 2001.

We have a Central Boiler type, but I can't remember how much it cost. It has been here for 7 years, I think. It keeps us warm and a good number of people around us have gotten them since we did. I guess we started a trend. As for the smoke, insurance says the furnace has to be a certain number of feet from the house. As with any smoke, it depends on the direction of the wind. If we have a good west wind, we smell wood smoke, which doesn't smell bad compared to the smell of the city, in my opinion.

-- Ardie from WI (a6203@hotmail.com), May 16, 2001.

grant There are several types available. Some blow hot air into the house, while some heat water and sends to your house , the water then serves your water heater and specially placed heater units that use a coil inside. A fan blows air across the coils which then heats your house. Outside units are good as far as only having to load them a couple times a day. But, if for some reason the electricity is off for a lentgh of time, then the fan blower or the water circulator will not heat your home. It has its advantages and disadvantages.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), May 21, 2001.

We heat with a Hardy outdoor furnace. It cost around $2800, but the necessary piping, "A" coil, water heater connection, etc bumped it up to about $4200. It works great. I have no experience with other brands, but I personally believe one constructed from stainless steel would be a wise choice. We are not bothered with smoke - we oriented the boiler downwind from the house and added two sections of pipe due to my wifes concerns of the smoke bothering our asthmatic grandson. He has never been bothered, and I have since removed the upper section of pipe. It burns more wood than a conventional airtight woodstove, but no more than our old central hot air wood furnace that it replaced. It's the most comfortable heat that I have ever lived with, and I fill the furnace right off of the wood trailer. It is located 40 feet from the house. As with any wood heat system, it would not be a neighborly choice for heating a home in a subdivision.

-- Paul (hoyt@egyptian.net), May 21, 2001.

i have a Taylor and love it i got a 300/000 btu per hour unit it heats the house and greenhouse and the hot water for the house it usualy runs at low output but cold weather and trying to keep the green house temp up will real eat the wood however it seems to be more efficient to me than conventional wood furnaces you can control the burn and best of all you can burn wood and scrap materials that would not be good enough in a regular stove or wood furnace with the large fire box you dont have to split knotty pieces just put them in on a few coals and the forced air feed will burn it right up and believe me i have burned some uggly pieces . Oh and again i will repeat to those who might get tempted DONT BURN TREATED WOOD in what ever you are using no matter how short you are on wood i have met people who were smart but still dumb enough to burn treated wood for fuel. my Taylor was expensive 5000+ with everything installed and seperate exchanges pumps the extra pipeing never had any major troubles the thing does eat the draft fans though due to weather exposure there are about a dozen co making them.wish i had always had mine!

-- george darby (windwillow@fuse.net), May 24, 2001.


Although I know almost nothing of wood furnaces... I'm wondering... what are the advantages to placing the stove outside?

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), May 25, 2001.


We have a very affordable alternative to the outdoor wood furnace. What we have is a wood furnace actually intended to be inside the house - these are much, much less expensive. For years, we just had it inside a small shed close to the house with insulation added to duct work to carry the heat into the duct work shared with our gas furnace and central air. It works, is less costly, makes the insurance company happy, and keeps the mess and any bugs that might be hiding in the wood outside the house. Last year, my husband built a cellar-like structure with a separate foundation right next to the house which allows the wasted heat off the furnace to travel upward and under the house. This keeps floors warmer. He also added a barrel of water which is heated by the wood furnace with copper tubing running through the barrel several times before it goes to our "water heater" which is really just a storage tank for hot water. We turned the circuit breaker for the electric water heater off months ago and have never run out of hot water.

-- Yvonne (poorfarmclan@hotmail.com), May 25, 2001.

Max, to partially answer your question about the advantage of having the furnace outside:

Over the years we have noticed more and more restrictions from the insurance companies concerning in-house wood fired heat systems. Most of the restrictions were sensible and did not affect us, since we already had all the required clearances, tile lined masonry chimney, only one flue opening into the chimney, etc. We felt the time was coming when the insurance industry would force us to choose between wood heat/no insurance, or propane heat/insurance. When it was time to replace our tired but servicable old basement wood furnace, we opted for the outside boiler. Not only did this make the insurance people happy, our premium dropped slightly, and our peace of mind improved. No matter how safe I thought our old system was, there was always the lingering late night thought, "What if...?"

Another advantage - the old basement furnace was virtually unusable in spring/fall 40 degree night 60 degree day temperatures. At night it was great - by day it was windows and doors wide open. That fire in the basement would not stop producing heat during the day.

Another advantage - No ash dust, bugs and trash in the house.

Another advantage - Because the flame is outside, it does not draw the cold dry winter air in through the cracks in this old farmhouse. Our humidifier rarely runs since moving the heat source out of the basement.

The biggest advantage - backing a trailer load of wood up to the furnace and chucking it directly from the trailer into the furnace door. Our basement wood storage would hold five loads of wood (bugs, dirt and bark), but the little 1 foot by 2 foot opening in the foundation was a back killer. Pitch a little in the hole, run down and stack it, pitch some more in, run down and stack it, etc.

Sorry to ramble.

-- Paul (hoyt@egyptian.net), May 25, 2001.


Thanks Paul, certainly some great information! I think I'll do more reading and searching re. outside furnaces.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), May 27, 2001.


I just bought an outside wood burner CENTRAL BOILER , 250.000 BTU The cost was 5,600 putting every thing in my self ,, as for the smoke , its the same as your neighbor burning wood , If the furnace is placed in the right place you will smell no smoke ,, mine can be placed 500 feet from the house ,, I chose my wood burner by the fact how long the company been building them and the fact that the warrenty is as long as a stainless steel one also I liked the insulation used in the underground lines , much thicker and durable ,,, they sell 6 out of 10 of the outside wood burners and supose to use much less wood than the compititon ,,, I havent got to use it yet but I seen one like mine heating 2 houses and a seperate garage ,,, It really seemed to be able to do the job , and will take a bigger pice of wood than you can pick up ,, all the dealers say there wood burner uses less wood , I guess the bottom line is the prices for everything you need is the same from make to make so look around and see what one you like

-- TIM RUSHMAN (shimmy220@aol.com), July 18, 2001.


The smoke isnt a problem , It don't smoke too much after its warmed up. You can place them far away , The cost is 5,000 + for everything you need , the price is the same from make to make by the time you are done , I have a central boiler 4436 ,,, I bought it cause its the only one that didnt have the chimney going straight out of the top of the fire box , I wanted to heat my house not my yard , You can add to the chimney quite alot and the draft can be reduced to make up for this , It has a burn time of 2 days in cold weather ,, and uses less wood than other ones I have seen . you can keep your house as warm as you want and the hot water is great , I like not having turning doun the heat when I leave for the day ,,

-- JOHN REICHMAN (FIXEDANDDIOLATED@aol.com), July 18, 2001.

I am now ready for my second season with the outdoor unit. I have a 250,000 btu Empyre unit I bought out of Canada and love it. It's stainless steel, well constructed, and they delivered everything they said they would.

Last winter I burned mostly green wood, this year I'm ready with a shed full of seasoned wood. My furnace is adjacent to my workshop and heats both my house and shop. It is 200 feet from the house and that is a bit much, but I only fill it twice a day in the winter, so its not like you spend a lot of time outside.

Bob

-- Bob O'Neill (roneill1@aol.com), August 27, 2001.


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