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[mackdx]

I am still fiddling with the idea of a wood boiler of some sort and am currently debating with myself on the indoor boiler vs. outdoor boiler.  I realize this is an outdoor forum, but there doesn;t seem to be a decent forum for indoor boilers that I have found.

I am looking for some opinions (or even better - real life experience) as to why one would be better than another.  Being a Scotsman, the cheaper installation cost of the indoor boiler appeals to me.  I have plenty of space to store wood in a nearby barn so the idea that putting a large amount of wood in my basement would be messy isn't as big of a concern.  My house is in a 25 acre field so siting an outdoor boiler wouldn't be an issue

What say you?

[Bull]

If you can put one inside your barn and keep the mess out of your house and save a few bucks I say go for it.

[benj1975]

The main reason i whent with an outside boiler was for safety. No fire in the house.

[d conover]

I had a Victor wood furnace in our first house for 12 years, it was very efficient, sometimes too good.  Have had the doors open on a 20 degree day because it got going too good.

I also have had a Hardy outdoor boiler for 11 years since then, I would never ever go back to the smoke, bugs and bark in the house.  I really don't have a choice my wife would kill me.
The hardy uses twice as much wood, I could get by on about 5 cords a winter with the indoor furnace.
 
I am getting ready to go to a H4 in our new  (3rd)house, I hope I don't burn much more wood, but I am trying to to a better job with insulating the pipes and the house.  On the second house (H2) pipes were not insulated at all.


Forgot to throw in the safety issue also, I was raised heating with wood in the house and remember a few flue fires that scared the crap out of me.

[Scott7m]

I love indoor boilers, go to YouTube and type in elite 100 or empyre elite 100, www.profab.org is where you can see the elite line of indoor boilers, they are highly efficient and have exhaust temps around 300, chimney fires are non existent

[MattyNH]

Outdoor way to go..Take the fire and mess right out of the house hands down.. Check out Buderus if your mind is  set with a indoor boiler..Buderus makes a kick ass oil boiler.. German technology..Seen the set up a few times..

[mackdx]

Thanks for the input guys.  If I were to go with an indoor, it looks like I have access to at least Vigas and Tarm in a reasonably local range.  Anyone with intel on these models?

[Scott7m]

Yea I'm somewhat familiar with them, most of them require additional water storage and such, installs on them can often go from 14-20k

[mackdx]

So the Empyre does not require storage tanks?

[Scott7m]

No, the empyre elite was designed around the notion of not having to have storage, or a dump zone, or a pressurized system.  Efficiency peak has also been reached in these units, burn chamber temps are over 2000 degrees and yet exhaust temp is only 300.  If you start dipping below 300, you have condensation issues in the chimey and there isn't enough heat left to carry moisture out, so it's about as efficient as it can possibly be. 

They have 2 models, elite 100, and elite 200.  Folks are heating very large 5k plus square foot homes on these without any issue and wood usage I'd minimal.  They are also EPA phase 2, there is a b415 testor standard in Canada they use and these units were 5 times cleaner burning than what was required. 

The elite series also won the vesta award, it is a world wide award where anyone who is in the heating business submits there latest unit for testing, it won hands down.  Some of the brands u mentioned were also entered. 

The units are also hybrid ready, they have ports where you can install electric heating elements into it to have electric as a back up if need be, it is an option.

Maintenance is also a big plus on these units, they only have one set of tubes vs other models having 3 sets, yet efficiency is maintained.  There are many many pluses to these boilers