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[Yooper]

I don't own an outside boiler.  Don't worry I'm not a person who is going to cause trouble for those who do own them.  I kind of like them, but I'm looking for a justification for me to get one.  Comments would be appreciated.

I have an indoor wood furnace.  I have a small house.  The furnace keeps my house warm.  I burn a little propane when my furnace dies out at night, but not much.  So, I guess I don't need one.  In fact, I spoke with the local Wood Master dealer and after talking a bit, he told me that I wouldn't see much difference between what I have now and a wood boiler.  (I found an honest  man - I can put the lantern away.)

Bad thing is that I've become fascinated with them.  I even got the DEB boiler do-it-yourself plans.  There's a part of me that would like to get one of these.  They are interesting machinery.

I see some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage - small savings in insurance.

Advantage - a lot less splitting of wood.

Advantage - Only one or two fill-ups a day.

Advantage - Burn green wood even though everyone tells you not too.

Advantage - constant house temperature

Advantage - wouldn't need to sweep wood bark and wood pieces from my basement floor.

Disadvantage - lots of money and work to put one in.

Disadvantage - burn a lot more wood.  Maybe I'd get better thermal efficiency with a really good boiler that has great secondary combustion or gasification, but with piping losses, pumping losses and heat losses from the outdoor boiler to the great outdoors, I'm sure more wood would be needed.

Disadvantage - more things to break

So - did I miss anything?  Are there any good reasons that I missed that I should get an outdoor boiler?  This is a weird post, but I'm sure there will be good answers.

[yoderheating]

You summed it up fairly well,  the one thing I would disagree with a little is the amount of work to install one. You should be able to get one hooked up in a couple of Saturdays.

[Scott7m]

There not hard to hook up, don't let that stop ya. 

Your burn times will be so much better you'll really enjoy that!  As far as the green wood, I can only ask why??  I've experimented with mine enough to know seasoned oak beats wet ok at nearly 2:1.  For example, a full load of seasoned oak on a day with a low of 20 and high of 40, it will go 24 hours.  On the same night it would burn the full load of green oak in 12 hours.

So, if I'm going to put in the time, getting twice the benefit out of the same amount of wood is a no brainer to me.

[juddspaintballs]

Gassification boilers are a great thing, and I'd probably consider one next time around.  They are a bit more temperamental as to what you burn, but they can be far more efficient than a regular wood boiler.  They also usually run on pressurized, closed loop systems. 

If I do another outdoor boiler, I will probably build my own.  They are simple machines. 


One big advantage to an outdoor (or indoor) boiler whether it be a simple boiler or a gassifer boiler is that hydronic heat ROCKS!  Granted, I have mine plumbed into my forced air handler, I do have a zone plumbed to a cast iron radiator in my basement under my kitchen's tile floor.  There's nothing like a warm floor.  My next house will have radiant floor heat in the whole house.  Forced air will never compare to the awesome feeling of radiant floor heat.  I may even retrofit some of this house to have it. 

[yoderheating]

Gassification boilers are a great thing, and I'd probably consider one next time around.  They are a bit more temperamental as to what you burn, but they can be far more efficient than a regular wood boiler.  They also usually run on pressurized, closed loop systems. 

If I do another outdoor boiler, I will probably build my own.  They are simple machines. 


One big advantage to an outdoor (or indoor) boiler whether it be a simple boiler or a gassifer boiler is that hydronic heat ROCKS!  Granted, I have mine plumbed into my forced air handler, I do have a zone plumbed to a cast iron radiator in my basement under my kitchen's tile floor.  There's nothing like a warm floor.  My next house will have radiant floor heat in the whole house.  Forced air will never compare to the awesome feeling of radiant floor heat.  I may even retrofit some of this house to have it.

Gassification boilers are not all the same, the ones we sell burn greener wood fairly well so long as you don't let the fire get too low. I have watched green pine burn with no smoke.

[Scott7m]

There is also a huge difference in a down draft gasification unit and an up draft conventional style.

[oldchenowth]

I'm not so sure I personnaly agree with the disadvantage of burning MORE wood.  My mom has a house about the same size as mine and 70 years newer with a 7-8 year old indoor wood furnace and they have gone thru about one full cord of wood every three - four weeks.  Equaling about 3.5 cord.  I have only been thru about 1.5 full cord with my gasifier pushing about a constant 75F day and night.  I am very pleased with my efficiency.  Just my humble opinion, but I believe it is way more efficient and by far cleaner.

Rich

[rosewood]

 you forgot about not burning down your house,cleaning chimneys,carbon monoxide poisoning,bugs ,ants,bark mess,hours of handling wood,restacking,spiltting ,smoke smell,as far as using more wood ...most owners have thermostats set higher..70-75deg, -7 deg last night house at constant 70 ..try  that with a wood stove you'll have to load it every few hours. prior to building my furnace ,i burned too stoves ..one in living room one wood furnace in basement which had ducted to upper floor.sold the living room stove and kept furnace in basement as back up. second season and still saying i should have done this years ago.

[baldwin racing]

I don't own an outside boiler.  Don't worry I'm not a person who is going to cause trouble for those who do own them.  I kind of like them, but I'm looking for a justification for me to get one.  Comments would be appreciated.

I have an indoor wood furnace.  I have a small house.  The furnace keeps my house warm.  I burn a little propane when my furnace dies out at night, but not much.  So, I guess I don't need one.  In fact, I spoke with the local Wood Master dealer and after talking a bit, he told me that I wouldn't see much difference between what I have now and a wood boiler.  (I found an honest  man - I can put the lantern away.)

Bad thing is that I've become fascinated with them.  I even got the DEB boiler do-it-yourself plans.  There's a part of me that would like to get one of these.  They are interesting machinery.

I see some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage - small savings in insurance.

Advantage - a lot less splitting of wood.

Advantage - Only one or two fill-ups a day.

Advantage - Burn green wood even though everyone tells you not too.

Advantage - constant house temperature

Advantage - wouldn't need to sweep wood bark and wood pieces from my basement floor.

Disadvantage - lots of money and work to put one in.

Disadvantage - burn a lot more wood.  Maybe I'd get better thermal efficiency with a really good boiler that has great secondary combustion or gasification, but with piping losses, pumping losses and heat losses from the outdoor boiler to the great outdoors, I'm sure more wood would be needed.

Disadvantage - more things to break

So - did I miss anything?  Are there any good reasons that I missed that I should get an outdoor boiler?  This is a weird post, but I'm sure there will be good answers.

I now own an indoor wood boiler a thermal-control wood boiler (nationalstoveworks.com) and love it model 500/2,000....it has the insulated jacket on it.....with a full 20 year warranty not prorated...... not only am i heating my house and shop (it's in the shop) i am getting the redaint heat off the stack and boiler also thats heating the shop..... I have a small boiler 130 gal water 125,000 btu with 9 cubic feet fire box and heating house by a heat exchanger in my forced hot air oil furnance and I have a modine heater in the other half of shop (devided in half) because added on later to put boiler inside...I am getting over 10 hours burn time when in the teens.....I had an out door one before the royall model 7200 stainless but found after 4 years it had 15 leaks in all the welded seams....course they sold to another company and now have pressurized units....they gave me a good deal on another one but I would have had to pay frieght for old boiler to factory and pay to have new one shipped to my house to wi from ny, so bought a unit out of my own state and plus there is 16 of these style units in my area and everyone loves them including my father enlaw....thermal-control make out door boilers also just ny has the epa laws out....so went with an indoor model...
kelly
ps i like the out door boilers, just had bad luck with the one I bought... just my thoughts hope it helps...

[Yooper]

I put my original post out in 2010 and every Winter I wonder whether I should get an outdoor boiler.  I did get a log splitter which has really been a help in getting enough wood.  Prior to this purchase, I'd be splitting wood in below zero weather by placing the cord-wood in a big tire and splitting it with a Monster maul.  I had some very large diameter gnarly logs that just laughed at my attempts to split them by hand.  The splitter just eats them up.

One disadvantage I missed in my original post was the fact that outdoor boilers can freeze up in cold weather if they are not fed every few days.  I'm wondering if adding a room to my basement and putting in an indoor wood boiler may work better.  In this situation, my propane furnace would kick on, at say, 55 degrees F and keep the whole shebang from freezing.  I could also have a big underground insulated tank like the GARN for thermal storage and not worry about stuffing wood in it so often.

I guess I can just keep watching what's out there for a while.  The technology is improving giving you more BTUs for your wood.  I can also see what furnaces seem to be in the business for a long time like Central Boiler and Heatmor.  Some, like the "Free Heat Machine," did not seem to be such a good deal.  It seems as though the units built in Northern Minnesota are generally quality units.

[johnybcold]

I think OWFs get worth it when you have a large house unless you live in a non EPA state.