Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: truecountry on December 27, 2010, 08:09:22 PM
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Hi Everyone I'm new to this site .I live in South eastern Va near the NC line. The house im looking to heat is 2400 sq feet with 2400 sq feet basement finished (4800 total sq feet) 3 bathrooms 2 dishwashers and 2 washers 1 hot water heater .6 bedrooms 3 up and 3 down... Basically its My wife and me and four kids (we run out of hot water alot)..So im looking at heating the water and adding a coil to existing air handler ...The wood is free to me ao thats not a issue all i have to do is pay for hauling ( trash logs from a saw mill).. I've looked around on here for 2 days and i havent seen a Taylor owb Listed or mentioned ..I was going to look at a Shaver but saw the problems listed in forum so Ive cancelled them out ..A cousin of mine has a Hardy not sure what size but he hates it so im thinking he needed big stove ...Any suggestions would be help..Thanks
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Sorry this is a 10 old stick builted house with to pre formed soild concrete walls in basement and anderson double pain windows and doors ..
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Does VA have EPA emissions laws in place yet for outdoor wood boilers (if you care...)? If so, your best bet would be to find a gassifier and put it in an outbuilding. That would be the most cost effective solution if you need to follow EPA emissions standards in VA. Although, for the price of a new OWB these days, you can pretty much build an insulated shack in your yard with a new gassifier and water storage in it for about the same price as installing a normal outdoor wood boiler. More efficient, but more complicated and finicky.
If not, there are many OWB's that will heat what you want as well. Find one with dealer support close enough for you that has the features you want. I like my Heatmor mostly for the sand and firebrick firebox floor, which is a common corrosion area in OWBs.
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If I were in your area I would just call up Lauren Yoder at yoder heating. www.yoderheating.com (http://www.yoderheating.com)
he could tell you what you'd need and he sells a really good heatmaster stove as well.
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Thank you judd and scott the epa thing i dont has started here yet but i want the most efficiency i can get with out spending a lot .... scott i notice youre a Natures Comfort Territory Manager there is a dealer for them 60 miles from me... whats the difference is Heat Master outdoor furnaces better than natures comfort ..
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It depend on what you want. The NC furnaces are made of mild steel while Heat Master is made of 409 stainless (except for the gassifacations furnaces). I wouldn't say one is far superior than the other.
Most of my clients are going with either the MF5000 or the MF5000HE. If I was putting in a new furnace I would go with the MF5000HE. It has a double bypass and the draft blows both below and above the fire. This makes it produce less smoke and is 20% -30% more efficient than a traditional outdoor furnace.
Heat Master furnaces come with a shaker grate and ash pan so they are able to burn wood or coal.
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Truecountry,
I would look at a Natures Comfort 325G. It is capable of heating better than 2 times the area you are heating. If you ever add a shop or need to heat another building the 325G has the capacity. It is an updraft style gasification OWB. In my research I found this type is less finicky about the moisture content of the wood you burn although like all others, the better the wood the better the results. I am also new to the OWB but did research the subject for several years before going with the 325G. It was somewhat a gamble on my part because it is a new model but has proven to be more than what I expected. I am heating 3600 sq ft ranch with 3000 sq ft of basement; I have a plate heat exchanger for domestic water heat and have turned off my electric water heater. The propane furnace is used only as an air handler and I keep the house at 70 degrees. The house was built in the early 70s and is not insulated to today’s standards. I have gone 36 hours on a load of wood with 2 scoop shovels of Kentucky lump coal included and still could have gone longer before starting to lose ground on the water temp I maintain (180). The best part is having my first hot shower in 9 years! I would strongly suggest buying an OWB that is bigger than you need as this will allow a lot of freedom from having to tend the Boiler often. Good luck on your research and investment!
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The natures comfort stoves are efficient and very simple. The 325g is a big unit but will heat anything up to around 10k sq feet. If I were closer I would work with you on something, however, I realize the importance of having a good dealer close by, that's why I said to contact yoder heating, he's much closer to you and heatmaster have good furnaces!
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GASSIFICATION !!!! It is the only way to go, you won't believe how much heat you can get out of a little bit of wood and hardly any smoke !! check out the Natures Comfort GT-220 :thumbup:
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Yoderheating im localed in clarksville va and will be contacting you later..
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Thanks for all the info from all you guys
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... Now guys i have to tell you all , Me wanting to get the owb for the house is for saving money and getting more hot water and heat .. My wife is a HVAC TECH and now has decided if we get a OWB that we are going to move the hot water heater to the wood shop we have in the basement and build a blower box for the same room and not use the heat pump split unit ... confusing it is to me but in a nut shell she doesnt think theres is enough room in the split unit for a water coil .. so she going to make it separate from it and use same duct work ... Anyways i got her thinking , and got the AOK to start looking more and more into this
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there is room... you can put it in the return and on some models you can lift the A coil up about 3" and slide the water coil right under it, its a near perfect fit sometimes. But, thats with a downdraft. There is always some place to put it though.
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Even though she's a HVAC tech, maybe you could get her turned onto radiant floor heat too. That stuff rocks, but most traditional HVAC folks stray away from it because they're unfamiliar with it. Nothing like walking barefoot on a warm tile floor...
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Thank yall for all the resposes
@scott There is not much room where the A/H is now. It is a 5 ton unit and located in the basement. When we do this I would like to have it seperate from the H/P. There would be no problem in me adding a blower and box and adding it into the existing duct work. In the future when I have to replace the heat pump it will be moved. Where it is located now is beside a bedroom, and in my option it is loud.
@judd I have looked at radiant flooring and like it myself but in all the houses I have been in, there is not one around here that has it. It doesn't get that cold here and this is the first year I have actually seen snow in about 6 years.
Mrs Truecountry
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radiant heatis by far the most costly to pu tin but by far teh nicest heat there is. and it is absoultely quiet i have installed it in a basement floor with the rest of my house being forced air. i now almost live in that basement. the room is always 70 to 72 and the floor is always nice and warm on the feet and there is no noise coming out of furnace pipes!
if i ever build a new house it will be floor heat all the way!
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With a five ton unit you will want a fairly large coil. If the coil is too small you would have trouble getting enough heat off of it and also could restrict air flow hurting your heat pump. Better to do a little more work and get a large coil in then undersize everything and them have problems later on.
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If it really doesn't get that cold there, I wonder if your money would be better spent on a more efficient heat pump and gas furnace combo. You're looking in the $8-10k range for a wood boiler and installation, plus your time spent either splitting the wood or your money spent buying the wood. Just a thought.
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Heat pump is a Carrier, and top of the line at the time installed 10 years ago. Like I said before, this would be installed seperate from the A/H on the heat pump. I will add in another blower and duck work in a different location and tie it into the existing duck work. Wood is no problem getting. Hubbie gets all he wants from work. We got 3 dump truck loads this year.
Mrs Truecountry
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Another cheaper option might be to find an indoor wood boiler and put it in a simple shed. Those are usually in the $2-4k range. You can actually find a couple of new gassifiers on ebay for about $3500. That is probably the route I would go these days if I were putting in one so I could throw a good pile of wood inside the shed with me for the cold cold days when I'm loading.
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stick with your outdoor wood boilers, you get what you pay for. This indoor gasifiers and such are worthless unless you have LOTS of storage for water. It turns into be a much bigger job than it seems. A lot of people running those indoor gasifiers have 2000 gallons of pressurized storage. I'd just keep it simple and get a efficient outside stove and do like you said with it's own blower.
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if yoder is willing to work with us im heading his way see what we have and with my wife decide whats better... point blank wood is free i pay for it hauled here ...
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Of course I would be happy to work with you on whatever you might need. You sound as if you may be a little far away for me to do all the installation but it sounds like you may have that covered also.
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Personally, I would look for the following in an OWB: Heavy duty steel (1/4"+), ROUND INTERIOR design has 40%? less welds and round from an engineering standpoint is desirable, simpler the design the better (how available are replacement parts?), the DEALER who sold you the stove is very important if you have any problems or questions after delivery...