Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: PitMan on February 08, 2014, 07:17:16 PM
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Hello, Im new to the forum and outdoor wood burners. We just moved up north and are looking at getting a FA outdoor wood burner because our first (and last that BIG) electric bill made me faint! I am going to make a return in the house but I dont know how to hook up the hot air coming in to my existing ductwork without it blowing backwards through my air handler? My house has rectangle metal duct and I know how to tie into it but not how to keep it from going backwards through the air handler. I know I have to put backdraft butterfly dampers to keep it from blowing back into my wood furnace but thats with round flex duct. Do they make something similar for the rectangular metal?
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This is a crude drawing of what Im saying.. the box on top is my air handler and the box on the bottom is my wood burner. Sry for the poor drawing.. its the best I could do LOL
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Pitman, Any particular reason why you would want to go with a forced hot air owb? These units are very inefficient. The way that 99% of us with forced hot air systems in the house go is with a traditional owb with water and use a water to air heat exchanger in the forced hot air duct to bring the heat in. This system works extremely well.
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Its about half the price. Where we live it shouldnt have any trouble keeping our house warm. Dont get me wrong.. I would love to be putting in a boiler but that isnt a option at this point.
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What unit are you looking at?
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Shelter SF3042 Outdoor Wood & Coal Furnace.. $2,299.99 @ Menards
I would like to go with the Earth Bear cub 305 but as I said.. not really feasible at this time and our last electric bill is forcing my hand! :(
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I'd go with a water stove over forced air anytime. Is there any way you can finance a water OWB?
Like has been pointed out forced air is not as efficient, it's a lot easier to run pex lines in the future to where you might need more heat than insulated ducts. You can also heat a hot tub or whirl pool tub with a water OWB it could also run radiant heat for your floors, heat your domestic hot water, and could even heat a side walk to end shoveling snow, a forced air boiler can't do any of those.
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Like I said.... it is not a option.
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I know I have to put backdraft butterfly dampers to keep it from blowing back into my wood furnace but thats with round flex duct. Do they make something similar for the rectangular metal?
You could talk to a good sheet metal fabricator and explain what you need. They can usually make just about anything related to duct if you find a good one.
You may also be able to modify an old fire damper and install it in the appropriate place (just a thought). Look at these pics and see if they are useful.
http://tinyurl.com/njsjl9l (http://tinyurl.com/njsjl9l)
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You can save yourself a few hundred buck through walmart with free shipping.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shelter-Furnace-SF3042-140-000-BTU-Outdoor-Wood-Coal-Burning-Forced-Air-Furnace/33450920 (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shelter-Furnace-SF3042-140-000-BTU-Outdoor-Wood-Coal-Burning-Forced-Air-Furnace/33450920)
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I can't offer advice on the ducting but if a water boiler is out and you are installing hot air then maybe you should consider putting something in your basement. Maybe that isn't an option either but used hot air units would be a pretty small market I would think. If you buy a unit for in the house at least you would be saving money to put towards an water boiler and you could sell your inside unit then or keep as back up. That's what I did, just took longer than I figured because I bought a used water boiler. I used a Hotblast for 8 years and now it's back up.
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You would be able to get a used owb for around 3k if you look around. There are also some manufacturers that are very close in price range to the 3k for a new owb. I can't remember off of the top of my head which ones but some people will chime in hopefully. Are you all ready with your firewood right now ready to go? It is late in the season already if you don't. You may want to think about having this ready to go for next fall/winter. In that case it may be an option to save an extra few hundred dollars up to get a boiler instead of a hot air furance. I am just not a big fan of them because of the inefficiency and the fact that you have to pipe large duct work into the house which is going to look quite ugly.
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Something like this -
http://www.ventilation-system.com/cat/200/ (http://www.ventilation-system.com/cat/200/)
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Ridgewood has a small boiler now thats 2799!
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Thanks guys. I have looked for used boilers and it isnt looking good for my area. I get that some of the cheaper boilers are close-ish to the same price but they are much much more costly to hook up... right?
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You can save yourself a few hundred buck through walmart with free shipping.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shelter-Furnace-SF3042-140-000-BTU-Outdoor-Wood-Coal-Burning-Forced-Air-Furnace/33450920 (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shelter-Furnace-SF3042-140-000-BTU-Outdoor-Wood-Coal-Burning-Forced-Air-Furnace/33450920)
Thanks for looking bud... but I have a Menards close to me and I have a truck and trailer and a tractor with forks to get it where i need it in the yard. So that would end up being several hundred more.
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Thanks guys. I have looked for used boilers and it isnt looking good for my area. I get that some of the cheaper boilers are close-ish to the same price but they are much much more costly to hook up... right?
No not really.... you could buy that small boiler and hook it up for less than u would think. U mentioned bear cub, this unit is every bit as good.
Im not a fan of forced air, youd be better off paying the bill the next couple months than going the air furnace route
Ive to see anyone buy one who was happy
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Thanks guys. I have looked for used boilers and it isnt looking good for my area. I get that some of the cheaper boilers are close-ish to the same price but they are much much more costly to hook up... right?
No not really.... you could buy that small boiler and hook it up for less than u would think. U mentioned bear cub, this unit is every bit as good.
Im not a fan of forced air, youd be better off paying the bill the next couple months than going the air furnace route
Ive to see anyone buy one who was happy
Like how much less than I think? From what Im seeing install kits are like $1,000ish right?
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Forget the 'Install kits'. They are packaged together to make money for them, not save you money. This is the wrong time of year to look for used boilers. Spring/Summer/Fall is when they will be for sale on craigslist. If you plan on putting a fha stove in you will have it close to your house correct? If so that means that you can do the same with the owb and have a short run of inground piping to run. The inground piping can be pricey but if you do a short run it won't cost you much at all. Good stuff is 14 bucks per foot. Cheap stuff is 6 per foot. If you had it only 15 feet from your house you are looking at $200 for piping in ground, a Water to air HX which should be around $200, a pump for around $125 and misc. fittings etc which we will call $100. So that is $625. Now put in a sidearm or plate heat exchanger on your electric water heater for around $100 and save an additional $50 a month because you won't need the electricity for the water anymore.
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PitMan - I like the idea of waiting to next year and going with the boiler. These folks on this board know what they are talking about. Well, most of them anyway!! :thumbup:
Good luck in your decision.
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We hooked up an outdoor FA Fire Chief on my F in Law's house a couple years ago. It worked well for him but short burn times are the norm.
Last year we replaced the Fire Chief with a Hardy H2. He got it used with pipe for $2500. We put it right next to the house, right where the Fire Chief was sitting. To the untrained eye, they almost look exactly the same. Anyway, no underground pipe, just right in the basement window where the ductwork had been. The Chimney even transferred over.
Now he has over 12 hour burns and hot water too.
If you are determined to hook up the FA, shoot me an email because I've hooked up a bunch of those too.
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Yes, there are retailers where they can be purchased in the size you specify. Titus products is one vendor that carries back draft dampers. You will have to find a Titus rep in your area and discuss with them. I am from the Washington DC area and there is another vendor in Maryland called CG Woods and they too can get whatever size back draft damper you need. The dampers normally come as a slip in installation. You will have to cut an access door at the point you will want your damper and install some light gauge angle on all four interior sides of your ductwork in order to fasten the damper.
Hope this helps.
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You can save yourself a few hundred buck through walmart with free shipping.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shelter-Furnace-SF3042-140-000-BTU-Outdoor-Wood-Coal-Burning-Forced-Air-Furnace/33450920 (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shelter-Furnace-SF3042-140-000-BTU-Outdoor-Wood-Coal-Burning-Forced-Air-Furnace/33450920)
Thanks for looking bud... but I have a Menards close to me and I have a truck and trailer and a tractor with forks to get it where i need it in the yard. So that would end up being several hundred more.
Pitman if you could put a wood stove in your basement look at Thermo-control (www.nationalstoveworks.com (http://www.nationalstoveworks.com)) forced hot air units model 500 is $2500 with 20 year nonprorated warranty I have info and know the owner if you need info...
Kelly