External Wood Heaters

[bluegrasshammer]

Does anybody use an external wood heater that does NOT burn pellets, instead burning actual wood? I want to have one in the yard and pipe it into my existing duct work. Who makes a good one? Pros and Cons to these stoves? Do they all require fans to blow the heat in?

[woodsman416]

I looked into these last year. My house is about 3300 sq feet. A wood burner from Central Boiler would cost me about $9000. I could adapt it to my current oil burner hot water system. By doing this, I would use the oil system as a back up on a second thermostat set at a lower temperature. I have not seen any info on an outdoor furnace not could be adapted to a forced hot air system. It might exist, but I don't see how it could be very efficient.

[penokeemtn5]

My cousin is a dealer for aqua therm outdoor boilers,they can be hooked up to an lp or nat gas forced air furnace,it just runs into the hot water heater first.The one;s he sells are just regular wood burners not corn or pellets.

[wllmtrapper]

look at build.com they got outside forced air stoves a guy i work with has one he loves it

[Canadian trapper]

Not sure if its the same thing you are talking about but I helped install a couple outdoor boilers. They burn wood heating water up in the reservoir which is then pumped into the house. I installed a heat exchanger in the plenum of the existing oil furnace and also ran the water line to the existing electric hot water tank which also heats the water in the water tank. Ran a second zone into the garage and installed a unit heater out there. Now their house, hot water tank and garage are heat from this outside boiler. The unit burns 4' logs.
It was installed to reduce the mess in the house, less chance of fire and they can also heat the garage. I think the main con against the unit is making sure the unit doesn't freeze when no one is home for a few days.
This unit has a open water reservoir which means it will not build up pressure like a pressure cooker. I seen an older model that had a closed water tank and a malfunction of the relief valve cause the unit to blow cause considerable damage to the building it was housed in.
Hope this is helpful info.
The Canadian Trapper

[lilweasel]

There are a few of them around here. Be prepaired to cut a LOT of wood. While there is less cutting with a chain saw, they burn a lot of wood.

[Admin]

I started looking into these but found it's just not my thing. Everytime I see someone with an outdoor boiler they have a mountain of wood beside it. Like Terry said, You'll be cutting a lot of wood.

I love cutting wood but I don't want to be married to my woodpile. I also like my woodstoves IN the house, heating my house, cooking my food and heating my water. If it was me, I'd spend the 9 grand on some solar. A couple grand can buy you one heck of a woodburning oven that can be piped into your domestic hot water and multitasking from a single fire. ;D

[ninedeer]

Im with JC I dont want to have to be cuttng wood for my outdoor boiler.I got enough stuff going on already Iv been looking into the solar stuff latly

[fishleclair]

My Dada had one when I was young, Feed it 4' Logs all day and night long, It would need a good Stoking before bed time, And if it burnt out there is no heat.

It ended up burning out the inner plates and they needed replacement, Not a fun task when its - 30 C..... But the Heat that came from that puppy was just great!

[billfosburgh]

i have one, its a woodmaster. installed it in Oct. 2000. $4900. i have not ran my funace at all in those 13 years. i use 8 cords a year. one year i totaly used junk pallets & cut no firewood. we have a large 2 story house. best money i ever spent.

[dvranish]

Has anyone looked into geothermal heat? I'm looking now because heating oil is so expensive. Although, I looked like a genius with my oil when Propane spiked this past winter. Oil or Propane are both too expensive and an outside boiler for an old guy is a bad idea. Geothermal while expensive to start with, looks like a good idea if I can live seven more years for a payoff.
David