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[Grizzly]

Hello everyone, I just registed, what a wonderful forum.  I am in the decision phase as to whether or not I want to get an OWF.  My house is 3500 sq ft, not including the full unfinished basement.  I also have a 3.5 car attached garage that has a bonus room above it that I may finish this year for a rec room.  I think this room is an additional 700 sq ft. My home is well insulated and has good windows and doors.  I live in Southeast Michigan and the energy bill I received today was $225 for gas and $150 for electricity for Jan 18-Feb 18, so not that terrible.  I was thinking of the following, can you please tell me if this makes any sense.  I would like to put the outdoor furnace about 40 ft from the house and run the feed and return line to the basement.  From that point I thought of making a manifold with the following loops 1. Water to air exchanger in basement furnace which feeds main level of house 2. Water to water exchanger for domestic hot water 3. Water to air exchanger for furnace in attic that heats upstairs bedrooms 4. Water to air exchanger with fan behind it mounted to garage ceiling.  Is it possible to run these four loops off a manifold fed by a single loop from the boiler? If so, what size pex for feed and what size for each loop?  I would only keep the garage at maybe 50*F unless I was out there working.  I generally don't hear the upstairs bedrooms during the day as everyone is gone.  My current water heater is a powervent 75 gallon unit.  Just trying to figure out how to design the plumbing but also how to size the OWF.  I was thinking of the Heatmor 20css.  They advertise 5000 sq ft, not sure if that is enough stove or not.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you in advance

Jason

[Scott7m]

You would have to use some good diameter line from the stove, likely 1 1/4" and then 3-4 to 1" to your appliances.

As far as the stoves ratings go, most are over rated from what I've saw.  If I had in the neighborhood of 5-6000 square feet I'd likely go with a stove rated for 8000 sq ft, "with most brands".

[willieG]

Hello everyone, I just registed, what a wonderful forum.  I am in the decision phase as to whether or not I want to get an OWF.  My house is 3500 sq ft, not including the full unfinished basement.  I also have a 3.5 car attached garage that has a bonus room above it that I may finish this year for a rec room.  I think this room is an additional 700 sq ft. My home is well insulated and has good windows and doors.  I live in Southeast Michigan and the energy bill I received today was $225 for gas and $150 for electricity for Jan 18-Feb 18, so not that terrible.  I was thinking of the following, can you please tell me if this makes any sense.  I would like to put the outdoor furnace about 40 ft from the house and run the feed and return line to the basement.  From that point I thought of making a manifold with the following loops 1. Water to air exchanger in basement furnace which feeds main level of house 2. Water to water exchanger for domestic hot water 3. Water to air exchanger for furnace in attic that heats upstairs bedrooms 4. Water to air exchanger with fan behind it mounted to garage ceiling.  Is it possible to run these four loops off a manifold fed by a single loop from the boiler? If so, what size pex for feed and what size for each loop?  I would only keep the garage at maybe 50*F unless I was out there working.  I generally don't hear the upstairs bedrooms during the day as everyone is gone.  My current water heater is a powervent 75 gallon unit.  Just trying to figure out how to design the plumbing but also how to size the OWF.  I was thinking of the Heatmor 20css.  They advertise 5000 sq ft, not sure if that is enough stove or not.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you in advance

Jason

you know what you paid to heat your heom for the month so i would look at your bill and see how many cubic feet of gas (or it may be in therms) and then how many KW of electricity you used....look on the net for conversion program to convert these to BTU's then you will know how many btu you used in that time period, then you will have to estimate if this was an average, above normal, or below normal month and makea "guestimate" of how many btu you would actually need on a very cold night. your stove only 40 feet from the house with 1.25 pex pipe into a header and then split to 3/4 or 1 inch pipe could likley easily deliver upwards of 15 gpm (at 180 degrees) and deliver 150,000 btu pr hour to your home (this is likley way more than you need) ((you will determine that by your math and conversion from your present bill)  so we know what you could deliver now you need to figure out just how much you need to deliver and then size the stove to match (and your chainsaws and determine if you have time and energy to cut that wood)

you have more howework to do...good luck

[Grizzly]

Willie, my energy bill states I used 278 ccf last month. This would include both furnaces, clothes dryer, DHW and gas range.  1 ccf=103,000 btu.  If I assume 90% of my usage was for furnaces and DHW, that would be 25,770,600 btu's to heat my home and DHW in the coldest month of the year here.  If I had a mix of Oak/Maple dry wood, my understanding is I would have about 25 million btu/cord.  All that being said, if my math is right, it seems I would need about 1 cord per month, most likely more as I would probably turn up the thermostat about 2 degrees and keep the garage around 50*F.  Can anyone tell me what a cord of hardwood bucked not split goes for in SE Michigan?  My total natural gas bill last month was $227.  I know I see face cords going for ~$65 split.

[Grizzly]

As a follow up, I would imagine I would have to account for losses so 25 million would most likely not be enough for the month.  I am new to all this so experience is much appreciated.   

[Homerglide]

In northwest Michigan we pay $85 per (what is called a pulp cord) of hardwood. These are 8 foot lengths of varied diameter and usually requires a 10 cord minimum purchase. Of that 10 pulp cords you might get 7-8 cords split and stacked. I purchase the oak and mix that with the poplar, cherry and aspen that I harvest at home.

Believe it when folks say there is a lot of work in getting your wood in order. Falling, bucking, splitting, stacking, transport, and loading. Not for the faint of heart but to some it is fulfilling. If you go with a gasifier, you will likely burn 35%-45% less wood to get the same results as a standard wood burner. With that said, the wood processing for a gasifier requires pre-planning by at least 2 years for hardwoods and more work splitting (smaller splits required).

[willieG]

Willie, my energy bill states I used 278 ccf last month. This would include both furnaces, clothes dryer, DHW and gas range.  1 ccf=103,000 btu.  If I assume 90% of my usage was for furnaces and DHW, that would be 25,770,600 btu's to heat my home and DHW in the coldest month of the year here.  If I had a mix of Oak/Maple dry wood, my understanding is I would have about 25 million btu/cord.  All that being said, if my math is right, it seems I would need about 1 cord per month, most likely more as I would probably turn up the thermostat about 2 degrees and keep the garage around 50*F.  Can anyone tell me what a cord of hardwood bucked not split goes for in SE Michigan?  My total natural gas bill last month was $227.  I know I see face cords going for ~$65 split.

your btu from a crd of wood is off some i think.

you may be right in how many btu are in that cord but it takes some of those btu to boil the moisture out of the wood so it can burn. with that figured in you are likley around (depending on the mix of wood) 17 to 19 million "recoverable" btu in a cord of mixed hardwood . then you need to take into consideration the efficiency of your current stove (s)  and the efficency of yoru OWB then you will come up with a more reasonable btu count

[phil6967]

Check out Portage & Main OWB.

[baldwin racing]

Hello everyone, I just registed, what a wonderful forum.  I am in the decision phase as to whether or not I want to get an OWF.  My house is 3500 sq ft, not including the full unfinished basement.  I also have a 3.5 car attached garage that has a bonus room above it that I may finish this year for a rec room.  I think this room is an additional 700 sq ft. My home is well insulated and has good windows and doors.  I live in Southeast Michigan and the energy bill I received today was $225 for gas and $150 for electricity for Jan 18-Feb 18, so not that terrible.  I was thinking of the following, can you please tell me if this makes any sense.  I would like to put the outdoor furnace about 40 ft from the house and run the feed and return line to the basement.  From that point I thought of making a manifold with the following loops 1. Water to air exchanger in basement furnace which feeds main level of house 2. Water to water exchanger for domestic hot water 3. Water to air exchanger for furnace in attic that heats upstairs bedrooms 4. Water to air exchanger with fan behind it mounted to garage ceiling.  Is it possible to run these four loops off a manifold fed by a single loop from the boiler? If so, what size pex for feed and what size for each loop?  I would only keep the garage at maybe 50*F unless I was out there working.  I generally don't hear the upstairs bedrooms during the day as everyone is gone.  My current water heater is a powervent 75 gallon unit.  Just trying to figure out how to design the plumbing but also how to size the OWF.  I was thinking of the Heatmor 20css.  They advertise 5000 sq ft, not sure if that is enough stove or not.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you in advance

Jason

Jason,
do you have a shed or a garage thats not filled with stuff, but would like to get heat in that as well? may want to look into a indoor wood boiler? get heat off boiler plus getting heat from hot water...... I have the wood boiler thats in the insulated jacket....we love it along with the 9 other people in our town that have bought them.......www.nationalstoveworks.com thermal-control ben around for over 37 years with 20 year nonprorated warranty? that could be an option as well as reg out door boiler....just trowing it out there....if you want the owners personal cell number send me a pm or just shout....
kelly

[stretch184]

I am thinking of getting a nature's comfort 345 or a shaver 340, and i would like to burn some coal with my wood, is anybody doing the same thing? and which furnace would do it best?
thanks