Outdoor Wood Furnaces

[Weirs guy]

dpg, search the forums. Seems to me we had this thread last year with a lot of info in it.

[Island-Ho]

They have been banned in some towns because they don't burn clean and can really create a public nuisance if you have neighbors. Can you imagine being downwind of one with it burning 24 hours a day?

[Coolbreeze]

Try googleing Central Boiler.
We (here in Pa) have a few customers who have the system and swear by it. It is fairly residentially developed here and the smoke at fire up is pretty bad. There are alot of European companies who have better technology for this type of system and the smoke amounts released are less than the American competition. My customers have both residences and farms which the central boiler is there primary heating system for the winter and hot water yearly. They get the wood for free from us and stoke it every two to three days depending on the temps. In some cases they use unsplit wood in the burner. The systems are based on circulating hot water that is piped to the location to be heated from the boiler unit. Pretty impressive especially if your neighbors are far from you. The average costs for materials starts around 5k and up.

[idigtractors]

I had one of these units in Maine. It worked just like an oil fired hot water furnace except it took 4' logs whole up to 10" round. It had a special table one would put the log on and then just push each log into the fire box. It did smoke like Haiti's when first lit and every time one loaded the fire box. I was very fortunate that I lived away from neighbors as it looked as if it was a dam foggy day when it puffed out the chimney. When one had to clean out the ash pit it was a job as you had to do it hot and it would fill a fifty-five gallon barrel. I ended up selling it for just about what I paid for it 9 years before. I had to give it up do to age and health. They are not for weekends or short time burning as they are built for non stop winter burn. I would go through 20 to 30 cords (Mid Oct thru 1st April) of wood both hard and soft mixture.

[fatlazyless]

Hey Idigtractors, that's a very informative post. So, not only does it heat the house all winter, it gives you something to do all winter, too.

For a reliable and never ending source of firewood, there's the nearby Meredith transfer station which always has a big dumpster that gets filled with construction lumber debris. They get so much unwanted lumber in there, and by scrounging lumber you is saving the town money since they have less to haul away.

As a matter of fact, a good friend of mine done built a third bedroom-second floor on his little cottage built entirely from scrounged pt lumber. Don't never have to paint it.......golleeeee!

[Puckster]

I have a woodmaster and I love it. Outdoor woodboilers (owb) are not for everyone though . They will take some wood. I have 1400 sq feet of living space and a 2 car garage that I heat. I burnt 8 chord last year (from oct to may) for heat and hot water. I also live in the middle of 30 acres and do not have a smoke stack right next to my neighbor. They do smoke when the first start and stop. They also need constant tending to. I have to feed it once in the morning and when I get home from work during the cold days of winter. Otherwise it is once every or every other day. That said, I love mine, and I have a cheap source of wood, so it will pay for it self after this winter. I love cutting wood, it is good excercise . I look at as doing my part to wean us off foreign oil. Most of the bad press has come from people burning trash and plastics in the owb in urban areas. If you would like more info on types of owb and common mistakes in setting up a owb, feel free to send me a private message. As far as manufacturers, I would check out Woodmaster, Central Boiler, Freeheat machine, and there is a company in Maine making high efficiency owb's now called Black bear?

[trfour]

dpg,

This may help; http://www.centralboiler.com/

[arthurc]

dpg. John Harrigan writes a column in the Meredith News and the Sunday News. He frequently writes about his monster outdoor furnace. His address is Box 39, Colebrook, NH 03576
Email him at hooligan@ncia.net

[dpg]

Thanks all, seems we're way too close to people in Moultonborough to consider one. I know it would get frustrating for me if a (close) neighbor of mine had one. Speaking of scrap wood there is a larg unit that's actually made and big enough to burn pallets. A good source of course if you had an endless pallet source. These things sound like they take miles of wood though, not a good source if you intended on buying it all.

[Frdxplorer]

You might want to stop by Spider Web Gardens in Tuftonboro. They have a unit that they use to heat their greenhouses. They are happy to show you the system if you ask. It's pretty neat.

On another note, I just heard a news report here in PA about a town that is considering banning them for many of the reasons discussed above. Depending on who is sitting downwind, it can be quite an annoyance to have the constant smoke.

Other than that, they are pretty cool.

[HomeWood]

A guy I know here in NC uses one for his house and it's his only means of heat. He loves it. But if you go on vacation or something you'll have to find somebody to tend to it or your house will be an ice cube. I'd only have it as a back up, not a primary system.

[idigtractors]

Originally Posted by HomeWood

A guy I know here in NC uses one for his house and it's his only means of heat. He loves it. But if you go on vacation or something you'll have to find somebody to tend to it or your house will be an ice cube. I'd only have it as a back up, not a primary system.

My wood burner had a backup oil fired system that was tied into it. This was needed as it was a early 1800 14 room B&B. When the water temp got to low it would kick in and take over until the wood burner reached water temp and then the oil fired shut down. It was a great system for when we were away for a few hours longer than anticipated.