Indoor wood furnace newbie

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I have a 125+ year old 2300sq farm house. Last winter I used over 1800 Gal of propane. No more for me I'm going to buy a indoor wood furnace. I have an unlimited supply of free firewood. Any suggestions on an indoor forced air wood furnace? where to get them? what to look for? brands? I plan on spending right at $1000. Also, living in central IL average winter temp 25/10, how many cords should I have on hand? Thanks for your responses Jason

-- Jason Hinds (gt01970@aol.com), August 14, 2003

Answers

Are you talking about a furnace with all the ducts and stuff, or just a forced air woodstove?

-- Tabletop Homestead (tabletophomestead@earthlink.net), August 15, 2003.

this in an indoor with forced air through duct work. Thanks Jason

-- Jason Hinds (gt01970@AOL.COM), August 22, 2003.

I have a wood burning indoor forced air furnace I need to get rid of due to my wife's allergies. The furnace has been used by previous owner of the house and I bought it in 1996. I have never used it myself. It has all the duct work and is stil installed. If you're interested I would gladly sell it for $1000. I live 45 minutes southwest of St. Louis.

John Joyce

-- John Joyce (john.joyce@mci.com), September 03, 2003.


To determine how many cords of wood you'll need, first determing the btu content of 1800 gallons of proane. Then determine what kind of wood you'll use and divide the btu content of a cord, which you should be able to find on a conversion chart somewhere, and divide that into the propane btus. That should give you a rough idea. And to get a closer estimate, factor in the efficiency losses with the wood furnace and ad that amount of wood accordingly.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), September 10, 2003.

Thanks for your responses to my questions. I have purchased a DAKA wood furnace with automatic damper and thermostatic control. I calculated that we actualy only used 1200 gal of propane last winter. Based on that, the calculations I got off of the internet says that 1 gal propane = 91000BTU 3000/lb of wood per cord, pound of wood =8000btu I should need 7-8 cords of wood based on a 60% eficiency rating (I think the furnace is rated higher than that). Which is great because I have been hard at work squaring away 10 cords so we wont run out.

-- Jason Hinds (gt01970@aol.com), September 12, 2003.


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