Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: weswjohnson on September 04, 2011, 11:29:43 AM
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Hello everyone. This is my first post and I am a new wood boiler owner. I have a home about 2600 sq feet and was wondering how many cord of wood I will need for this fall and winter. Thanks!
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It would help a lot to know what kind of boiler you have. There are huge differences between brands and the efficiency of different models.
I rarely measure my wood in cords, however I know thats more common in the north, around here we go by the truck load lol.
Last year I heated 22-2300 sq ft on 9 full truck loads of wood and about 1500 lb of coal. Coal was experimental.
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Welcome to the site weswjohnson, like Scott said it would depend on your OWB
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depends on OWB and what part of the country you live in. If you do a search in form there are some old post discussing wood usage. Some burned 10+ cords others less.
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My smart alec answer to a question like this is: All of it! In other words, you can never have too much wood on hand..............
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My smart alec answer to a question like this is: All of it! In other words, you can never have too much wood on hand..............
Stacks of firewood is like money in the bank!
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Gotta side up with tulenut on this one. It aint ever enough
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How about "You need all of it, but you hope you don't use all of it? "
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Amen to that Ridgekid! I'm a little on the short side of things this year, but tree trimmer friend has a bunch of oak for me today. He burns too. Says 2-3 years worth of burnin off 1 job. Motherload!
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Not sure why everyone says "depends" on the OWB you have...The real factor is the type of wood your burning..What type of climate you live in..and Ultimately if it is insulated and plumbed correctly..If your thinking of burning just pine..Yeah you'll burn more vs hard wood esp in a cold climate..
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Not sure why everyone says "depends" on the OWB you have...The real factor is the type of wood your burning..What type of climate you live in..and Ultimately if it is insulated and plumbed correctly..If your thinking of burning just pine..Yeah you'll burn more vs hard wood esp in a cold climate..
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i agree with you here matty..all of the above plus the type of OWB you use. so until the person that asked the origina question can post an answer to all of those topics the guy who said "all of it" is right..lol and the guy who said 5 to 15 cords is likley safely in the ball park ;) ;)
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Not sure why everyone says "depends" on the OWB you have...The real factor is the type of wood your burning..What type of climate you live in..and Ultimately if it is insulated and plumbed correctly..If your thinking of burning just pine..Yeah you'll burn more vs hard wood esp in a cold climate..
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i agree with you here matty..all of the above plus the type of OWB you use. so until the person that asked the origina question can post an answer to all of those topics the guy who said "all of it" is right..lol and the guy who said 5 to 15 cords is likley safely in the ball park ;) ;)
Yeah Willie, I burn whatever drops, is dropped off, etc. If I got to clean up the property anyway, I doesn't care what species it is. In fact, I tell tree guys to bring it.....If is free and I have no money in it, it's all good!I am just finicky on what wood goes in at what time. I burn the junk(soft) wood when I am out in the shop all day and throw the hardwood in at night...............as most do.
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Willie.. why u say the "type of OWB you use"? Just curious.. I guess I don't get why it "depends" on the OWB brand or homemade..Every situation is so different...I agree 5 to 15 cords is pretty much the ball park..Guy up the street burns 50 cord a season lol But he's heating like 3 apts. Owns a Central Boiler 7260
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type of OWB? well i guess i am under the assumption that these new "gassifiers" that are supposed to burn the smoke and claim more heat work.
If these new boilers are say 80 percent or better at efficiency and my old home made and most older store bought OWB are 50 to 60 percent efficent then yes, it would depend on the type of OWB. i will say i doubt there is much difference betwee any of the brands if they are of the same "type" but i still believe that , yes ,and old style OWB will burn more of say, dry oak to heat your home than a new gassifier "type" burning the same wood will.
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MattyNH-
Was that a jab at CB? lol 50 cords!! My goodness. How old is his CB? never heard of the 7260.
As far as debates on which OWB is better or how much did you burn, we should all keep records and report in the spring. I know I will!
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Yes the type of boiler gasifier or regular style will dictate the wood usage in the same situation.
I hope to keep a record of what my stove uses this year unlike last year.
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i burn between 8 and 12 full cords every year...nothing but dead elm and what ever i pick up off the forest floor getting to them elms. i think i could cut that down some with kickory and ash and oak but i refuse to cut live trees. i know the ash will die soon enough now that we have ash borer in the county
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Yes the type of boiler gasifier or regular style will dictate the wood usage in the same situation.
I hope to keep a record of what my stove uses this year unlike last year.
I think I was in the 6 cord neighborhood last winter. My measurement of wood piles was not exact, at least they were exact as i could tell after a 6- pack from the shop ;D
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Not sure how old his Central Boiler is..7260 is the model below the pallet model..You can look it up on central boiler web page...The furnace is huge..literally 3 times the size I have..Yeah he burns 50 cord no lie....but he's heating 3 apts plus all hot water and then some....Course he has unlimited wood lol.. I burned 9 cord last season..I keep track of it..
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There is a guy near here that burns a whole cord per day all winter. I am not sure what he is heating. I think he has the largest Empyre boiler made and loads it with a skidloader.
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My friend Burns about a cord a week but is heating 2 homes of approximately 12000 sq ft.plus dhw for both.he is using a NC gt500 with dead ash.and it isn't really seasoned at all.just cut, split,and stacked then burnt.
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Don't know how I missed that model. (7260). That is a monster. Almost 800 gallons of water? 4x more than our 5036. It likes comparing a poodle and St Bernard. Glad I don't have to feed the St Bernard!
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All this talk makes me not feel bad about burning about a rick a week. LOL
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All this talk makes me not feel bad about burning about a rick a week. LOL
lol!
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It would help a lot to know what kind of boiler you have. There are huge differences between brands and the efficiency of different models.
I rarely measure my wood in cords, however I know thats more common in the north, around here we go by the truck load lol.
Last year I heated 22-2300 sq ft on 9 full truck loads of wood and about 1500 lb of coal. Coal was experimental.
I just got my CB 6048 running a week ago. Seems to be doing a really good job so far, but it is not cold yet. I will be heating about 2500sqft of house plus my DHW, 1000sqft of house to 88F, as well as the 25K gal pool inside it. I think the pool water uses about 500K BTUs/day based off the propane heater usage last year.
I plan to run the furnace from Oct thru April/May to support the pool water/room mainly. By then it should be warm enough to use solar supplemented with a little propane/electric.
Any idea on how much wood that would take? I was thinking 10 cords, or about a cord a month. Pipes are all insulated and my climate is fair. It rarely gets below 0F, typically hangs in aroung the 20s for the winter season.
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pool water uses about 500K BTUs/day based off the propane heater usage last year.
rough guess for thee pool... 1 cord of oak has about 20,000,000 usable btu in it. If we make a guess that your stove is 75% efficient then we can make a judgment call that you can reap 15,000,000 btu from that cord. based on your 500,000 perday pool usage that would be in the area of 30 days per cord for the pool
of course this is just an average from what you say last years usage in propane was, it will go up and down depending on the weather and the type of wood used. also i am guessing at the efficency of your OWB but i thinnk i am in the ball park.. a cb dealer here could maybe be more accurate on your efficiency
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i have cb 6048 and heated my 24' round 15,000 gal pool at a temps around 85-90 all spring and summer and my dhw and didnt use more then 2 cords
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an above ground pool will heat easier as it loses heat slower than an inground pool and it takes on heat faster than an in ground pool.
also if you use a solar blanket it will make a huge difference
if the user is correct on the btu they used to heat the pool last year than the btu's will be comparable that i stated. there are charts on the web that will tell you how many useable btu's are in a cord of certain types of wood at the "dry' stage and also if the stove is not a gasifier than the efficiency of the stove could be mush lower than the average i used. it has been said that our old type OWB may be as low as 55% efficient
i know my uncle used to have a pool with a gas heater and he said in the spring it would cost him 3 to4 dollars a day to heat it. i am not sure how many btu that was.
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All this talk makes me not feel bad about burning about a rick a week. LOL
what do you count as a rick? i have read 4x16x8 and i have read 4x24x8 and i have read 4x16x6
you can call it want you want but i think in the usa and canada wood is to be sold compared to a cord stacked 4x4x8 or an equivlent in cubic feet 128
i know here in canada a lot of wood is sold by the "face" cord = 1/3 cord =4'x8'x16" but what ever it is sold as it should easily be able to be compared to a 4x4x8 cord so you know if you are getting ripped or not.
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Around here a rick is a face cord 4X8 by about 16 but I cut mine a little longer, about 20 inches.
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All I know is I had better get stocked up quik. It is high 50's outside and the didgital thermostat says 75 inside and my wife is runnung around in sweats and a sweater tonight. Are you kidding me? what the heck is she going to be like when Jack Frost kicks the door in and screams "I'm heeeerrrrrrre"?
Apparently too much aint gonna be enough.
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Not sure why you heated a pool during the summer months...just saying...No idea where you live.. i have cb 6048 and heated my 24' round 15,000 gal pool at a temps around 85-90 all spring and summer and my dhw and didnt use more then 2 cords
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I have had customers who heated the pool year around because the pool was shaded.
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All I know is I had better get stocked up quik. It is high 50's outside and the didgital thermostat says 75 inside and my wife is runnung around in sweats and a sweater tonight. Are you kidding me? what the heck is she going to be like when Jack Frost kicks the door in and screams "I'm heeeerrrrrrre"?
Apparently too much aint gonna be enough.
wait till you get one in "that stage of life" the thermostat can't go high enough one minute and next the front door is open, all i can say is..good thing it's only wood!
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WillieG-
You got one of those wifes too? Well here's one for ya. Sleeps with the window open but wants to know when I'm going to fire up the OWB? :bash: Talk about mixed signals!
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Glad to hear that I am not the only one with a wife like that. LOL
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Same goes here!
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Oh yeah I hear ya!my wife is the same way.freezing one minute then claims we're in the desert the next.we're only in our 30's but bless her heart she did have to have a hysterectomy. So her hormones are all messed up.now me, I do like it warm in the house.
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sorry, missed the post about why i would heat a pool in the summer, because i can lol! and now that we do we are spoiled, no :thumbupo will go in un less its 80 or better and its sept 29 and we still swimming
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Here is a way of getting close to your usage for the winter once you have a couple weeks of usage or maybe a cord of usage.
Go to http://www.degreedays.net/ (http://www.degreedays.net/) and run the daily degree days for your location and the period of time you have used a known amount of wood, 1cord. Then you will know that a cord is good for X degree days (100 in this example. Then rerun the report for monthly for the last 12 months and add up the degree days for the months you figure on running your OWB (1000 in this example) then it is a simple ratio calculation to estimate how many cords you need for the heating season. Total Cords = (1cord used/100 dgree days) x 1000 degree days = 10 cords for heating season.
They ask for the base temperature. I used 65, that is the temperature at which your house doesn't need heat due to solar and internal heat.
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Haven't read all the posts so this may be redundent but..... It REALLY depends MORE on how well your house is sealed and insulated than what kind of OWB you have. If you have a newer house thats well sealed and tons of insulation you will burn far less wood than and older farm house that isn't very tight and lacking insulation regardless of what kind of owb you have. Way too much emphasis on brand! I've seen half assed homemade boilers that work just as good as the expensive factory made high tech boilers.