Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => Home Made => Topic started by: Jd79 on April 28, 2014, 04:16:25 PM
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Anybody else have any issues with their insurance carrier over a home made wood burner? Mine says no-go and that they will not cover mine due to not being UL listed and something about NFPA 211 compliance, although NFPA 211 appears to have to do with indoor wood appliances, minimum offsets, insulation of chimney, etc. I have KY Farm Bureau for my carrier. Just curious who everyone else uses and their insurer's policy on home made wood burners.
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We have Farm Bureau as well, they've never said a word about my homemade boiler.
How close to the house is your's? I'm at almost a hundred foot.
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I haven't set mine yet. I was contacting him to see how far I needed to put it away from house/shop and the underwriter said "just follow manufacturer's directions" and "the installer will know." That's when I told him I built it, and they put the brakes on from that point forward, citing NFPA 211 and UL listing, etc.
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I would assume they do that so that if something happened, they could try to go after the company that built it so they don't have to pay up even though we all know how they work let's face it most of them don't have a clue they figure everything out with a computer program.
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Well we never asked, just installed. Nothing has ever bee said though.
Hows the saying go "It's easier to beg forgiveness than get permission"
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Well we never asked, just installed. Nothing has ever bee said though.
Hows the saying go "It's easier to beg forgiveness than get permission"
My thoughts exactly. I was asked about wood burning stove inside the house and just happened to have one that was there when I bought the house. It was UL listed and installed to code so no problems there.
As far as my home built OWB it is not connected to the house and is 50' away. I don't expect insurance to pay for it if something goes wrong and I have not volunteered the information that I have one.
I would shop for a new insurance carrier.
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Insurance carries in my area are tightening up on anything wood burning related, I now own the house I grew up in, there has been a wood burner in it all but the last 20 something years, I'm now told I can never again have another one in the house, or nobody will insure the house at all. I can't put an owb in a shed or lean on a building or even a covered open air shelter, it has to sit out on its own a certain number of feet from any building or those buildings won't be able to be insured either.
I've contacted several different insurance companies and their answers are identical, but get his, I can buy any waste oil boiler, build one even, and install it myself, no set rules on the installation in my shop and the insurance company could care less, it won't even raise my rates, I was so skeptical, I had them put that in writing, which they did and compared that to other companies as well, all came back with the same answer.
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I just switched insurance companies because the one I had quit offering homeowners insurance. I now have to pay $200 a year because of my owb!!! I tried to explain it to them but they didn't care. But now I can add that fireplace in my living room that I've always wanted without worrying about my rates going up.
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I casually asked my insurance agent what if I just never mentioned it if I were to put an owb in the lean on one of my sheds, he told me first off, if there was a fire and upon investigation found what remained of the wood burner, they would refuse to pay the claim, then cancel all my insurance I have with them.
Another option would be when they do a walk through inspection every few years and found it, I'd either have to remove it immediately, or depending on my reply, my insurance would be cancelled on everything effective immediately, pretty much take my choice, then every year after that they'd do pretty in depth inspections of everything I have insured. If by chance I wasn't around when they came to do their walk around, I'd be notified via mail that day, my entire policy with them was cancelled, and I'd have to reapply with them once the violation was taken care of.
As of yet, I can have firewood in buildings to keep it dry, but I've also been told, that won't last too much longer either and shortly it would have to go outside and stay outside.
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We have different insurance companies for the house and vehicles. Wife called the car insurance co to cancel an old vehicle and they asked if they could give us a quote on home insurance. Wife said ok but you couldn't compete last time we checked, we were using oil then. They ask what are you heating with and when wife said OWB they said declined. Big city insurance co can not differentiate indoor vs outdoor fires, never heard of an outdoor furnace, and don't care. Once the word "wood" was mentioned the conversation was over.
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Also my home ins co had no problem with putting in an OWB as long as it was not home made and kept the distance from combustibles to the manufactures specifications, which to me were not far enough so the boiler sits 110' from the house and 80' from shed.
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Guys from what I have been told you can have a owb away from your home and get insurance! The problem with the owb is they cant be your primary heat source for the home. Its not that there going to cause a fire. its that you could have water damage!!
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Its about fire risk, I asked and was shown data to back it up, by more than one insurance carrier, the statistics are really shocking when you compare house or building fires when it comes to wood fueled heaters verses any other form of heating. Its also about payouts by the company in terms of dollars per claim paid in damages.
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Well we never asked, just installed. Nothing has ever bee said though.
Hows the saying go "It's easier to beg forgiveness than get permission"
Ayuh,.... Ditto,..... Just Did it,....