Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: jerkash on February 15, 2014, 07:52:57 AM
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I am thinking about buying a Shaver OWF, making my own lines and burning green wood.
What do you think? :bag:
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I am thinking about buying one too but the thermal wind 2000. I was hoping to get some info on it before I dump 4,797 on it. I was also thinking about the artic fox air stove or a hopsco. Can anyone help me. Thank you
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ffbare - I was only making a joke - Go the this home page and scroll down to Shaver and READ - YOU DO NOT WANT A SHAVER!!!! :bash:
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jerkash - If that's you pictured in your avatar, you can post anything you want. Roger
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I am thinking about buying one too but the thermal wind 2000. I was hoping to get some info on it before I dump 4,797 on it. I was also thinking about the artic fox air stove or a hopsco. Can anyone help me. Thank you
Wow, all of those are sketchy on there Best days... read on here a lot, read read read
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I have reading as much as I can about outdoor units. I Have been burning wood inside for over four years I have a osburn 2400 that I love when I'm home the problem is I have to babysit It every hour to put more wood in. I was thinking about an outdoor air stove because how my house is laid out and my old completely junk ductwork it just makes more sense to me. I'm not home offen sometimes gone for days at a time so that was one reason I am unsure about a boiler. Any comments would be grateful. Thanks
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FFbare, Many options out their for you. The outdoor air furnace should really be your last choice(especially Shaver's). I am not sure what you mean by 'junky ductwork in the house'? Could you elaborate on that? If you need to leave for days frequently then you can easily use an OWB, you will just have the upfront cost of filling with an antifreeze solution.
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Well I have a old farm house from 1852 that has been added to 3 to 4 times over the years. My up stairs 2nd floor has no ducting at all. I did cut in a chase in an interior wall which kinda works. Needless to say the rest is just as bad plus not much for cold air returns. I was thinking about running a new duct in the basement and cutting in a few new heat registers and cold air returns and keeping my existing furnace and a.c. with the old duct work. I dont wanna push heat with my furnace because the ducting is horrible and the fan on my furnace wouldn't work very well unless I do a complete duct work install for my house which might be a option.
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ffbare, if the system is in that bad of shape, do yourself a favor, do some research,find a contractor you can trust and listen to his suggestions, don't write him a blank check but listen to what he says.
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Yeah it wouldn't be the end of the world to redo all of my duct work I'm in the trades I'm and electrician I know a few tinners who I talked to about helping me out. I should just rope my buddy into helping me out. So the more I read I am understanding it seems every one uses a boiler I am just not sure about letting it get too cold if I don't heat for a few days. I think I would need antifreeze or glycol to keep from freezing. I guess I don't know if a boiler would keep my house 80 degrees or warmer. My indoor wood stove works great but I have to feed it every hour
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Well I have a old farm house from 1852 that has been added to 3 to 4 times over the years. My up stairs 2nd floor has no ducting at all. I did cut in a chase in an interior wall which kinda works. Needless to say the rest is just as bad plus not much for cold air returns. I was thinking about running a new duct in the basement and cutting in a few new heat registers and cold air returns and keeping my existing furnace and a.c. with the old duct work. I dont wanna push heat with my furnace because the ducting is horrible and the fan on my furnace wouldn't work very well unless I do a complete duct work install for my house which might be a option.
Our house was similar, one small duct in an interior wall that fed two rooms upstairs and the third room had a vent in the floor that came down to the living room. Heat from the living room rose up into the third room.
I blanked off the vent in one of the rooms and ran another vent into the second room up thru a 1st floor closet. Got a vent into the third room by going up the wall of the basement stairwell. Boxed the vents off and drywalled over them. To get heat into a downstairs room that has an inaccessible crawl space I ran another duct along the wall and up tight to the ceiling in the office then boxed and drywalled over that. Had plenty of cold air vents downstairs, but none upstairs. Placed on in the kick plate at the bottom of the stairs since the stair door is mostly shut wan ways.
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Yeah it wouldn't be the end of the world to redo all of my duct work I'm in the trades I'm and electrician I know a few tinners who I talked to about helping me out. I should just rope my buddy into helping me out. So the more I read I am understanding it seems every one uses a boiler I am just not sure about letting it get too cold if I don't heat for a few days. I think I would need antifreeze or glycol to keep from freezing. I guess I don't know if a boiler would keep my house 80 degrees or warmer. My indoor wood stove works great but I have to feed it every hour
One of two options there, either find a good buddy and buy him a six pack for stopping by once a day to fill your new OWB while your gone.
Or fill it clear full, then use backup heat and not the boiler to heat your house while your gone.
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I'm going to do some reading on here but is it possible to heat up a house to 80 degrees with a boiler? If I could find a decent boiler for under 6 grand with all the parts I would totally do a boiler but an air stove would be much cheaper from what I'm reading. I'm just nervous about a boiler because of water freezing up or rusting out my owb or keeping my home warm enough. Are people really getting 10 to 14 hours before filling up their owb and can I get some pros and cons for a nice stove, also is it worth buying the biggest one I can afford? The less I have to fill it with wood the better obviously.
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I'm going to do some reading on here but is it possible to heat up a house to 80 degrees with a boiler? If I could find a decent boiler for under 6 grand with all the parts I would totally do a boiler but an air stove would be much cheaper from what I'm reading. I'm just nervous about a boiler because of water freezing up or rusting out my owb or keeping my home warm enough. Are people really getting 10 to 14 hours before filling up their owb and can I get some pros and cons for a nice stove, also is it worth buying the biggest one I can afford? The less I have to fill it with wood the better obviously.
1: I was picking corn late one night, wife wasn't feeling well and had the chills. Instead of turning the thermostat up, she turned the fan to manual on the thermostat. It was 86 when I came in late that night. Went back outside and stripped the Carharts and most of the rest of my cloths off, spent a few minutes trying to figure out WTF was going on after I walked around and opened most of the downstairs windows. Next morning I made it quite clear she was never to touch the fan switch again and it was ALWAYS to be left on Auto. OWB did that. 80 shouldn't be problem unless you're still using animal skins for windows and a chunk of canvas tarp for a door.
2: You get what you pay for, old farm house originally had a coal furnace, that was converted to oil, then had a wood furnace in the basement. Father and both his parents said this old house was never as warm as it was before I went with a outside boiler. House stays cleaner and the humidity stays up a lot better no matter how cold it gets.
3: My home built is going on 14 years old, no leaks, water looks clear. It would have to be out for days before freezing was a real possibity. Bypasses could be installed so no water flowed thru a sidearm or plate HX and your duct HX.
4: If filled clear full of oak and red elm I've gone two full days, most efficient though to only fill enough to get a 12 hour burn at a time.
5: Size it according to your heat load, if it's too big you could have the very real possibility of it going out on warmer days as it won't cycle enough. Bigger also costs mucho more $$$.
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Yeah thanks for that mlappin the more I read the more I may go with a boiler. Now I'm reading on everyone's thoughts about each brand and so on. I need to see what dealers I have near me. I live in Jackson Wisconsin everyone in my little old area burns wood but all indoor wood stoves. I want to be a first of my neighbors to get an outdoor unit. They should be allowed because down the road a mile or so a few of those guys have owbs. I just want to burn wood and come home after 10 to 14 hours and have a warm house. I'm not worried about wood, for the last 4 to 5 years I have had plenty. I'm still burning wood I made like 3 years ago I just wanna be able to make bigger pieces and save time on splitting and loading every hour. This is going to be expensive I am going to redo my duct work and go with a boiler. At least my a.c. will be better in the summer than.
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Yeah thanks for that mlappin the more I read the more I may go with a boiler. Now I'm reading on everyone's thoughts about each brand and so on. I need to see what dealers I have near me. I live in Jackson Wisconsin everyone in my little old area burns wood but all indoor wood stoves. I want to be a first of my neighbors to get an outdoor unit. They should be allowed because down the road a mile or so a few of those guys have owbs. I just want to burn wood and come home after 10 to 14 hours and have a warm house. I'm not worried about wood, for the last 4 to 5 years I have had plenty. I'm still burning wood I made like 3 years ago I just wanna be able to make bigger pieces and save time on splitting and loading every hour. This is going to be expensive I am going to redo my duct work and go with a boiler. At least my a.c. will be better in the summer than.
Before you drop bucks for an OWB, check with your local code enforcement officer regarding gasser vs non-gasser. In my state (NH) we are no longer allowed to purchase a non-gasser. All OWB's sold have to be EPA II compliant. It has to do with emissions. Good luck. Roger
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Thanks on that roger that will be my home work this week. The gasifire stoves look good I'm going to read up on them and see how people like them. So I guessing you have one how do you like yours?
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ffbare, Here's a place to start your homework in WI, the DNR take, it has some links for local regs and such, I don't think there are any restrictions on conventionals in WI yet but I would check on it.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/OpenBurning/Boilers.html (http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/OpenBurning/Boilers.html)
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Thanks on that roger that will be my home work this week. The gasifire stoves look good I'm going to read up on them and see how people like them. So I guessing you have one how do you like yours?
ffbare- I have a central Boiler E-classic 1400 which is EPA II compliant. This is 3rd season heating my 1840's, 3000sqft farmhouse and DHW. For the past 2 years I went through6 to 6 1/2 cord keeping my house at a comfortable 70 degrees 24/7. Due to the extreme cold we experienced in December and January, I'll use up 7 to 7 1/2 cord this year. Keep in mind the important thing; the oil furnace hasn't fired up once all winter. I've had no issues with mine (knocking on wood). The problem I had early on was an oversite on my part. I didn't keep the primary air holes in firebox open (creosote buildup) so I spent 3 hours one morning (1:30am) clearing those things. Now that I know they need to be kept open, I run a piece of stiff wire through them every other week and clear the ash from the reaction chamber. Also, the achilles heal of the CB design is the primary air elbow in the rear of the OWB. It will fill with creosote too. So, once a month I take 5 minutes to remove it (it's held on with a hose clamp) and remove the creosote buildup. I know many people on here have had issues with their CB units but part of me can't help but wonder if it was due to negligence. The gassers needs more maintenance than the conventional but for me that's part of the fun of owning one. :) But, I had no choice in my state to buy the gasser. Also, there is a learning curve operating one of these gassers. Keep in mind there are many knowledgeable people(Scott, Slim, Boilerman, Yoder, etc...) on this site who are willing to share their knowledge and experiences with you. You simply have to ask.
I'm not going to say Central Boiler is better than this one or that one. I went with Central Boiler due to their proximity to me. They are a short 25 minute drive away from me. For me time is premium. I work many long hours and some weekends so if I need something from my dealer, it's a simple skip, hop and very short jump to get what I need. Plus, all I have ever owned is Central Boiler so it would be dishonest for me to say anything against the others. Ii got lucky. When I went to see the dealer he warms his shop and office area with one so I was able to see one in operation. That's what sold me. Roger
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Ito - I saw that so I'm kinda happy that it shows Wisconsin should allow one I'm going call my town hall in the morning to see more. Thanks. Rodger- thanks on that info this is a great forum everyone seems very helpful and looking at past threads have reinforced that boiler is my answer.