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[rick n kristi]

Lately we have been burning the indoor wood stove along with the outdoor boiler. Our controls for the boiler are located in the perimeter of the house at our bed room and the wood stove is central. The wood stove can’t keep our home completely comfortable by itself but has proven to keep the central living area comfortable. The current experiment has the boiler set at the minimum comfort level for the house (70) and the indoor wood stove being fired to make the maximum comfort level in the central living area (75-78) (read the temp Kristi is comfortable at). The house is left completely open to allow free movement of heat to all rooms.

Now the results:
The consumption of wood has decreased dramatically outside with the slight increase in wood burned indoors. Observations have shown that the additional heat in the central area of the house has caused the requirement for heat called for from the boiler to drop by about 50% based on outdoor wood consumption. The added benefit is I have eaten supper cooked on the wood stove each night since the experiment has started cutting the electric bill even further; by the way it was homemade beef and noodles, smothered pork chops and baked potatoes, back woods chili, and baked apples with pecans! Oh yea, there was some vegetables and some homemade Dutch oven bread in there too!

Final observations:
I need to get out and cut wood to burn off some of these extra pounds caused by the burning of the indoor stove!

[tulenutn2o]

I ran my stove downstairs in the family room for the super bowl.

[RSI]

If the savings in wood is just from not heating the rest of the house as hot then why not add a radiator, baseboard heaters, airhandler, etc to heat the part where you want it warmer?

[rosewood]

i still enjoy burning in a wood stove at my home in the mountains,its a vermont casting defiant stove.cranks out the heat for the cabin,but buy the end of weekend my arm is sore from lugging in armfulls of wood. lol ..still love a wood furnace better!

[rick n kristi]

RSI,
The savings in wood is from the residual heat from the centrally located wood stove making its way to the thermostat that controls the boiler causing the boiler to cycle less often. The wood saved outside is a lot more than the amount burned inside and a huge amount less that what it would take to heat the whole house up to the higher comfort temp. We are using a central gas furnace with a water to air heat exchanger to act as the "air handler" for the whole house. I guess I’m not willing to add systems to pull heat from the boiler to do what the stove I have can do now. During the day, our time is spent in the central area. At night everyone is in the perimeter in bedrooms. We only use the indoor stove to temper the central part of the house when we are there to tend it.
We have heated this house for the last 5 years with this stove in conjunction with another one in the basement and are a couple years ahead on stove wood. I have also heated my home before this one with the same stove for 15 years prior. We have a lot of cooking experience on top of a wood burner that I had missed using since the installation of the OWB. Besides, it's hard to beat sitting by that stove and feeling that heat! I too love the OWB, I just missed the other benefits of having the indoor stove cranked up!
BTY, have you ever had a Ducth apple pie baked in a Dutch oven on top of a wood stove? I think there is one in the works for this weekend

[603doug]

I have been running both. We heat 2 buildings with the outdoor boiler but the indoor stove bumps the temp up quickly so it keeps "mother" toasty on those colder nights.

[RSI]

Well if you like the indoor wood burner then keep using it, I was just saying you can probably do the same thing with the outdoor boiler.

[mikenc]

I have burned my wood stove a few times that is located in basement. It does cut down on wood consumption in OWB. Before buying OWB heated my house with it using a sheetmetal hood over wood stove ducted into supply air duct, with small fan to circulate air. Wood stove would not hold enough wood to keep fire all night so I had to get up at around 3am to add wood. Plus you had to deal with all the mess of wood chips  and ash dust in basement all the time.
One reason I invested in OWB was to eliminate all the mess associated with burning wood inside house. Plus all the other advantages of having OWB.
I currently heat my house and basement with wood boiler plus the advantage of heating DHW. So for me I may use the old wood stove on ocassion but not on a regular basis.

[RSI]

I have burned my wood stove a few times that is located in basement. It does cut down on wood consumption in OWB. Before buying OWB heated my house with it using a sheetmetal hood over wood stove ducted into supply air duct, with small fan to circulate air. Wood stove would not hold enough wood to keep fire all night so I had to get up at around 3am to add wood. Plus you had to deal with all the mess of wood chips  and ash dust in basement all the time.
One reason I invested in OWB was to eliminate all the mess associated with burning wood inside house. Plus all the other advantages of having OWB.
I currently heat my house and basement with wood boiler plus the advantage of heating DHW. So for me I may use the old wood stove on ocassion but not on a regular basis.

Do you know if you pull that stove out of your house it will lower you insurance? Unless they don't know it is there. If they don't know it is there and the house burns down they can deny the insurance claim.  Even if the fire had nothing to do with the wood burner.

[mikenc]

Your right it would lower insurance.

[MattyNH]

Not sure what ins co you have..I'm not penalized cause I got a wood stove in my basement...If anything I should get the discount  having the obw...But I dont....Mabe its different state different laws