Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => Home Made => Topic started by: dave_dj1 on February 24, 2013, 04:30:27 AM
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I got sick of paying over 4 bucks a gallon on fuel oil.
I have been testing the unit at the garage for almost 3 seasons and it works great.
More info on it here http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/154832.htm (http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/154832.htm)
I'll try to get a couple pics up later. It was dark by the time I got everything done including filling the dump trailer with splits and parking it beside the stove.
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Checked out the thread on the other site, looks like a nice project.
Did you tie it into your existing house ductwork, or just taking it into a window?
I am on my third season with a homemade outdoor wood/air furnace also. I believe have have around $300 total cash outlay in it (I had almost all the steel), guessing it has saved around $2500 in propane bills so far. :thumbup:
Not very efficient, and requires a lot of tending, but it's paid for and keeps the house nice and comfortable.
May be time to graduate to an OWB for me though. ;)
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I haven't tied it into the existing ductwork yet. I had a spare door way so I took the door off and put in a piece of plywood. It is right beside the furnace in the cellar though so it will be easy to tie it in.
We were away for about 5.5-6 hrs this afternoon, came home to 73 in the dining room.
This furnace doesn't really use all that much wood and it's pretty easy to use. I put three chunks in at 11:30 and still had one stick and nice coals at 6:00. Of course it's not that cold out, around freezing.
Do you have a write up of your build?
thanks,
dave
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No write up but I will attempt to attach a pic to this post.
I heated my shop with this beast for a year before I put it on the house.
I have a 2' x 2' 4-way diffuser on my outlet into the kitchen, the return air is cut through the rim joist and pulls from the basement, so I get natural circulation through the house most of the time, and just manually kick the blower on when needed. I also have an outlet timer on the blower fan for control that way.
I insulated the ducts with Solarguard this year.
Crude but effective. ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/barkeywayne/WoodFurnace10-20-10_zps6bd45f73.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/barkeywayne/WoodFurnace10-20-10_zps6bd45f73.jpg)
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Nice joe, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only redneck on here. :post:
My hot air one is a triple wall chimney, 10", 12" and 15", I insulated between the layers with vermiculite. The cold air line is only wrapped with one layer of reflectex.
Here's a couple of the new location.
(http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/dave_dj1/SDC10860_zps6cbbc607.jpg)
(http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/dave_dj1/SDC10861_zpsf98d3a06.jpg)
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Thanks for the pics Dave.
I consider my rig more hillbilly than redneck but...yeah. ;D
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Dave, you hit a soft spot in me. I grew up with that exact same wood furnace. Still have the remains. Too rotted out to use anymore. But boy it could crank out some heat in it's day. Nice job on the enclosure!!! I love it. I'll have to show my dad as he was the one who bought ours when I was a kid, around 30 years or so ago when we got it. I don't know how old your unit is, but it's amazing, same color and everything. Identical. I do still have the original blower and box assembly that sat on the side. I still use it with a water/air heat exchanger supplied by my OWBs to heat a greenhouse. :thumbup:
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dwneast, I think this one is at least 30 years old. It came out of a house we put a new foundation under.
It will crank that's for sure! I have it at an idle right now, it's about 45 out and 74 in (way too warm for our taste) LOL we are used to it being 67-68.
I had to replace my fan, the bearings went out in it. Luckily I have a plumber buddy who had one laying around and gave it to me.