Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: Iceman on January 05, 2010, 10:03:20 AM
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I'm heating a 2240 sq ft house that was built around 1880. I use an insert that will burn about 3 1/2 hours whitch means I get up once a night to put wood on it. I use my 19 yr old propaine furnace as a back up. I called for propaine yesterday it's $3.40/ gal. Ouch! I have used about 250 gal so far this winter. I can only get the main living area to about 58 deg during the day. unless I want to crank the furnace, but I figure I could burn money cheaper. I have been looking at OWB for about a year now. Information overload.
Finally my question: can anyone recomend a brand?
Money plays a role I've looked at CB they seem costly. Looked at shaver look good. Any issues? I've also looked at Houser welding. Any thoughts? Other brands people like?
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I have a Shaver 290 and am happy with it after making a few modifications, In my opinion the Shaver is poorly insulated with no insulation on the bottom, but if you are a little handy, more insulation can be added fairly cheaply, Also if they still come with the cheap thermostat, a digitall auquastat is a huge improvement (aprox. $75)
Whatever brand you buy, my biggest piece of advice would be to go 2 sizes bigger than what they recommend, With possibly the exception of CB, from what I've read they are about the only company that size their boilers correctly.Soooo, knowing what I know now, CB probably isn't overpriced when you take that into consideration.
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I also have a shaver 290 . Will heat up to 7,000 sq. ft. as per shaver . I agree with yoda you will need to go at least two sizes bigger. Shaver works good and the hot water set up is perfect. Give me a call if you want and i can help you out with so more info. Russ 443-907-7455
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I am in the same boat as you and have been doing a lot of research. Contact Blaine at www.woodboiler.us No hype or outrageous claims. I am leaning in this direction for my OWB for next winter.
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I've been heating with a CB for the past two years. Have not had to by propane since. If you don't mind spending some time in the woods it a great way to save some money. Not to mention keeps the house at a steady 74 degrees. I looked at several diffrent types of stoves before buying a CB. I went with a CB becasue the dealer is only 15 minutes up the road.
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what kind of heating do you have now ie. forced hot air, radiators, baseboard, radiant, ect. it is important to know.. my father runs wood with a natures comfort 175 for about 2000 sqft but he uses radiant heat in the floors... can run water temps around 130 and get great heat... I have a 3500 sqft home and a small office that i heat with an ncb-250, when i used wood, it works like a charm...coal not so much... the natures comfort is a great wood burner... wood that is. their prices were reasonable i thought. i have fin-type baseboard and radiators and require higher water temps.. 160 min to be effective, 180 even better but not necessary.
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I have a NCB-175 heating 3600sq ft. w/domestic hot water. Heat basement to 65-70 house to 74. If you don't mind spending time to get wood OWB is a great way to heat your home, sure beats propane or oil bill. If i lived farther north I would probably have bought 250. Better to have one to big than not big enough.
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I would stay away from anything made by Global Hydronics, Mine just developed major leaks, company will not honor warranty - I wrote the BBB of Canada as I wish others would that I have read about that have had problems. Just spent last 4 days cleaning up all their welds and putting on 33 lbs. of SS wire to hold me over until I can build my own. All the research that I have done it sounds like Central Boiler is the best one out there. Definetly do your research and get all warranty in wording to detail of coverage.
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after building a furnace,and reading all the post about diff furnaces, i would consider having a welding shop build me one. only because you can over size your material ,insulation, etc. i think water capacity and insulation are the key to efficiency. i really dont think it would cost any more,if you did some work yourself , insulation , shed. i think the payoff would be in the long term.
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what kind of heating do you have now ie. forced hot air, radiators, baseboard, radiant, ect. it is important to know.. my father runs wood with a natures comfort 175 for about 2000 sqft but he uses radiant heat in the floors... can run water temps around 130 and get great heat... I have a 3500 sqft home and a small office that i heat with an ncb-250, when i used wood, it works like a charm...coal not so much... the natures comfort is a great wood burner... wood that is. their prices were reasonable i thought. i have fin-type baseboard and radiators and require higher water temps.. 160 min to be effective, 180 even better but not necessary.
I have forced air I was not awaire that the delivery system for the heat plays a role in what size OWB I should get.
Thank you to everybody's input. I have 25 acres and plenty of friends with land so getting wood is not a problem. I've used about 3 cords so far this winter in my insert. That's also running my furnace.
Has anyone looked at houserwelding.com. A local welder who is making OWB. One drawback I see is they have no ash pit/pan. I would need to let it burn out to clean ashes. Would this be a big deal? The price is right, and I like supporting local economy. However I want to buy the right unit the first time.
Thanks again for everyones help!
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I dont think shoveling some ashes once a month would be a problem at all. Make sure the welder uses a thick gauge steel and i would order a big door . 24x24 at least.
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Couple things about their boilers that I noticed (good, bad or indifferent)....
* says on web site that fire box is 1/8", where as a lot of bigger name brands are 1/4"
* door appears to be very close to ground.... tough on back when loading.... may have to raise the unit somehow
* how thick is water jacket, and it must not go under the fire box w/ door so low
* no ash pan = no problem.... a lot of them don't have ash pans
* cheap price
* local to you
With not much thought into it, those are some of my first thoughts.
I would love to have one local built.... at least you know where to go to get help if something goes wrong rather than playing phone tag with some distant company!
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you would need to be an umpa-lumpa to load that thing... loading that thing that low will get old fast. if you put it up on a couple of blocks that would not be unreasonable... it would be important though if you do lift it up to insulate the bottom. Since it is a small place that is building it I am willing to bet you can ask to make some modifications that would only slightly affect the price..
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I CAN SELL YOU A HOMESTEADER IV WILL HEAT 5000 SQ FT 250,000 BTU FOR 5307.00 PLUS SHIPPING
MARKC
http://www.outdoorstokerboilersofky.com/
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I have a hawken energy he2100. I love it, this stove is not made by global. despite what has been said on this board, i have no complaints with the service or from hawken energy. when i was looking as well price was a factor. Hawken was 2500 cheaper then all the others.
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I have a Wood Doctor HE 5000 Gassifier OWB and it is great. Like others have said, if you have access to and don't mind firewooding.....you can't beat them. I heat 3000sqft home via 2 forced hot air (propane) heaters, keep my hot tub @ 104 degrees, all DHW, and a 1000 sqft pole barn with in floor radiant heat. I love the unit I have but the only thing is that I should have gone up one size (HE 8000) for my application. I don't have a problem with heating, I just can't physically put in enough wood to get over a 8 hr burn time when temps are below 20. A full load for me is a 2 wheeled wheelbarrow, 8.something cuft slightly heaped with 20" logs. Not really a BIG issue, but would be nice to go longer before refill. My neighbor has a CB and gets 12 hr burn times but his loads are 3X bigger than mine. It is true that the Gasser uses less wood, but you have to "learn" (which is not hard at all) how to run it. The CB's you just fill with LOTS of wood and walk away. I will state that my Wood Doctor gasser only smokes when adding fuel and for about 1 min when the fan comes on, very clean machine. My BIL has a Mohoning which heats 2 large homes and his pool. It is a HUGE unit, heats LOTS of water, and SMOKES like a train.........all day. Good thing he lives in the woods.
http://wooddoctorfurnace.com/converter.html