reduce heating bill with Wood Stove

[Car Doc]

I didn't read all the posts so don't know if this heater has been mentioned or not. I use a Hot Blast wood furnace to heat my shop, do a search its sold by Orchlens farm store for instance.

Its an enclosed forced air type unit and is ul listed as an indoor appliance as long as some simple steps are followed its not pretty though but it works and you could plumb the outlet air into the existing duct works or just blow it out into the room with a couple of elbows is what I do.

I wouldn't think twice about using one at the house if the need arose. I like the fact its safe and I can load it full at night and it keeps the shop warm all night. The only thing it doesn't offer that you want is a glass door don't know what to tell ya bout that sorry I like looking at the fire too but I open the door for that otherwise its hidden.

Oh yeah also they can be bought for around a grand so don't let the retail prices on the website scare you off mine is a 1400 fwtw.

 

[Scotty370]

I've tried it all. Cut, Hauled, Split, and fed wood fireplaces. In the residence, I found that the dirt, snow, boot prints, bark, coming in, along with the flying-ash, going out, the constant tending etc., was just getting too much. (I was younger then!) The time, cutting, ageing and splitting, chainsaw/splitter maintanence, etc., gave me a new respect for guys that cut, season and sell firewood for $75-$125 bucks a face cord. I wimped-out, for a Pellet Stove, and love it. Clean, bagged fuel, that I keep next to the stove in a 'foot-locker' type box with a scoop! Thermostat control, that I mounted right next to the gas furnace one. The furnace is set slightly lower, so the Pellet Stove is primary, but if it runs out, the furnace will kick on. Your back bedrooms might be a problem! Just gotta 'snuggle' more! In my Hunting Cabin/Summer place, I use an American Eagle airtight, for the 'butt-kickin' heat, and another pellet stove, for thottling thru the night. ~Scotty

 

[magicheater]

Sorry Ken, but general statements like that that are incorrect and are what lead to all out bans. There is a full spectrum of outside wood boilers - from some very bad ones all the way to very good ones that literally do not generate any smoke. The true gasification ones burn at over 2000 degrees, burning extremely clean. Unfortunately, the bad boilers give all boilers a bad rep. You only notice the bad ones because they smoke like crazy. The good ones have no smoke to see. The operator of the boiler also makes a difference.Ken

Kinda have to agree with you here. In addition to what you have said is how the heat is used. If you plug a big boiler into a small forced air system, naturally it will simmer most of the time. Too often people don't really look at the BTU potential/need ratio, they think lets burn wood and save money!! I have sand beds and although the heat is not as responsive as forced air, my boiler does not run 24/7. 5-8 hrs. on average through the winter and I heat 2 garages as well. As I write I am sitting in a room with a heated floor, the boiler was shut down 2 hours ago and I might light it off tomorrow afternoon. I am very warm, t-shirt warm. Conventional houses are not built for mass type heating. This is something to consider when making a decision about boiler heat.

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

We had a Buck Stove model 91 Catalytic insert installed. Here's a link Model 91 Catalytic Wood Stove . I believe all Buck stoves can be freestanding or inserts. Our home is 1800 sqft with a full finished basement. This stove is our primary heat source, heat pump back-up. It came with a thermostatic controlled blower. Installed with a stainless steel liner was about 3500.00. We figure on a 4.5 year payback (with current kWh rates). It's a front loader, wood goes in with the ends looking at you through an oversized glass door. It does a great job. Low, slow overnight burns of 8-10 hours on a loading. The catalytic aspect of it gets the most heat out of your wood. It's also EPA compliant. I've never used the ash drawer, it's easier to remove from the front. Like others have said, nothing like wood heat to warm your tookus up, or the tookus of your cat/dog/parakeet/ferrett. :laughing: Can't do that with a heat pump. There is a concern with the messiness, you soon learn how to do it all in the least messy way possible. Our home is in SW Missouri, we cut the wood we use from deadfalls on our property. Winters here might not be like in the northern states, we've already had single digits temps. It is a job to get wood cut, split, and stacked for the winter. Last winter we burned 3 stacks of wood, each stack 20' long about 5' high. I cut our wood about 18-20". The stove will take a 21" stick. I'm working on next years supply now, it's a labor of love. Mark

 

[Johnbro]

Sorry Ken, but general statements like that that are incorrect and are what lead to all out bans. There is a full spectrum of outside wood boilers - from some very bad ones all the way to very good ones that literally do not generate any smoke. The true gasification ones burn at over 2000 degrees, burning extremely clean. Unfortunately, the bad boilers give all boilers a bad rep. You only notice the bad ones because they smoke like crazy. The good ones have no smoke to see. The operator of the boiler also makes a difference.

Ken

X2--True wood gasification is the ultimate in wood heat.

 

[Johnbro]

Guess I'll weigh in here--been heating with wood (and coal back in the day) since I was a kid and my family moved into a farm house built before the Civil War.

I've had fireplaces, wood stoves, fireplace inserts, and a Russian fireplace. the Russian fireplace was the best, heated the top two floors of a 5200 sq ft house I built (and my ex-wife lives in now :laughing with just two armloads of wood, burnt twice daily. But it cost, well, it cost a lot! and that was 20 years ago.

Here's what I've learned over the years, take if for what it's worth.

1. Smaller is better because you can burn it hot and not build up creosote or pollute the air.

2. The key to even heat is thermal mass (see Russian fireplace above). Most woodstoves don't offer nearly enough thermal mass to be helpful.

3. The second key is DRY wood. Ideally it should be cut, split, stacked, and out of the rain but open to the air for 2 years before you burn it. Green wood isn't worth the bother; just run your heater for a season and let it dry out. Green wood burns cold, smokes, doesn't put out much heat, creates tremendous air pollution, and leads to chimney fires.

4. Trying to burn your stove all night by choking it down is a bad idea. A choked stove pollutes and creates creosote. Just relight it in the morning--you'll sleep better in a cool house and it's nice to take the chill off in the morning with a fresh fire and a hot cuppa.

5. Some new stoves load from the top. I know a guy with one of these and I think it's the bomb. Mine loads from the front and I like his better. magically, there's no smoke when he opens the top of his stove.

5. Don't try to salvage heat from the flue pipe--keep it warm to keep your draft strong.

6. Draft is everything--make sure your chimney isn't being blocked by trees, your roof, etc, from the prevailing winds in the winter.

7. to really save money on your heating bill, you need the woodstove, a big wood shed, hydraulic wood splitter for your tractor, a tractor for your wood splitter, grapple bucket, winch, chain saws, axes, chaps, thermos for coffee... about $50,000 worth of stuff: but you can save $100 or so a month on your heating bill

 

[lostcause]

there's a lot of commentary on how much it costs to burn wood, and certainly there is some validity to those comments, though the $50k to save $100 a month is a little bit of a stretch. if you live in suburbia and have no yard and garden equipment then you will have a larger outlay to get into doing your own firewood.

in my case, i had a chain saw about 10 years before i started burning wood. it was bought to clear some of my yard at a house not even set up for burning wood. i also had a small tractor several years prior too, but a tractor really isn't needed unless you are planning on cutting trees and skidding your own wood. if you have the land to do so, then there's a fair chance you have/need a tractor already. a splitter can run you anywhere from $500-$1500 for a used to new splitter for PERSONAL use. a saw of the same class is $200-$400. for somewhere between $1000 and $1700 you should be able to get both in pretty good to new condition.

i get my wood delivered tree length. i had 6 cord dropped off this fall for $100 a cord. in my experience, people who sell tree length tend to make sure that you get a good measure to avoid a bad reputation - hardwood trees don't always stack well on the truck so it can be hard to tell exactly how much is loaded, so they load a little more to be safe. after i got everything cut, split, and stacked, i had 7 cord. this will last me 2+ years. i spent around $50 in oil and gas to process all of the wood, so that's a nearly negligible cost, since that's 2 years of wood. it took a lot of hours to cut and split, plus stacking in the basement, and then bringing it up to fill the wood box this winter, and finally filling the stove. it's way more work than turning the dial on the thermostat, but i am willing to do it. a little exercise and fresh air really isn't a bad thing in moderation.

when i burned only oil i would go through about 650 gallons a year, and if i figure an average of $2.75 over the course of the year, that's just under $1800. now, i fill my tank in the summer when it's low, and i'll use maybe 200 gallons this year at $2.50, so $500 there, and 3+/- cords at $325 total. i'm saving nearly $1000 in cash a year by using wood along with oil. as a recent tbn post commented: time is not free... well, it's not free, but nothing in life is free. i look at it from the point of view that i have a certain amount of cash to live on each year. by spending my time burning wood, i freed up $1000 a year that i can spend on something more frivolous than heat.

 

[Kyle241]

i get my wood delivered tree length. i had 6 cord dropped off this fall for $100 a cord. in my experience, people who sell tree length tend to make sure that you get a good measure to avoid a bad reputation - hardwood trees don't always stack well on the truck so it can be hard to tell exactly how much is loaded, so they load a little more to be safe. after i got everything cut, split, and stacked, i had 7 cord. this will last me 2+ years. i spent around $50 in oil and gas to process all of the wood, so that's a nearly negligible cost, since that's 2 years of wood. it took a lot of hours to cut and split, plus stacking in the basement, and then bringing it up to fill the wood box this winter, and finally filling the stove. it's way more work than turning the dial on the thermostat, but i am willing to do it. a little exercise and fresh air really isn't a bad thing in moderation.

This is exactly what I used to do and it worked very well. I may be doing it again to make things easier as I now live in hardwoods however time is factor me due to my business. I would love to cut all my own wood and will do some, just don't know how long it will take. I now have a masonry heater/russian stove and it works great!

 

[Michelle K linnane]

Well as always you guys have placed a lot of information on the post, (which is GREAT! and thank you) I think it has been interesting.

An outdoor wood boiler for is not the answer too much wood and too expensive to heat a 1500 sq foot home. It is just not a good return on investment to heat that small a house. If I was heating my barn, garage and house I might consider it but really do not want to bother with that much wood. If I was heating about 5000 sq feet I might consider it. I believe I stated this in my orginal question. But anyways this is my reasoning.

Ok here are lessons learned for me!

[*] I am going to get a wood stove.

[*] Chimney will go Straight thru roof. no bends better draft

[*] Ash pan in the stove.

[*] Get one that is approved for mobile homes makes the best sense as it
gives me more freedom of placement.

[*] No fan on stove I already have a ceiling fan in the living room and will install another in the dining room will move air pretty well with that.

[*] I live on 106 acres and 35 acres is woods, I have hedge rows which I wish to thin and get rid of, plus 35 acres of woods. So as far as trees to cut if I choose I can cut what does not have to be split if I want to. Also a splitter for my tractor would not be that expensive and a friend has offer to loan me his. The key word here is fellows FREE

[*] I already have two tractors a massey 165 and john deer 5103 Both have a front end loader. The JD has forks and root grapple. I also have a **** spreader that has been converted to a wood wagon. I also own three chain saws, chains, along with john deere gater and mule, and have used an ATV to skid logs on occassion.

[*] My plans will be to wait till the leaves start to bud and then cut the trees so as the leaves dry up they help the wood dry. Once I get it up to the barn I have very big parking area for my kennel with shale parking area to lay down trees, not in the mud will not dull saw. During the summer as I want an outdoor fire I will use branches from the trees for my little fire pit on the deck. Will get rid of brush.

[*] Once I am ready to cut wood I will take some kind of pallets and add three sides and roof. I will pay a kid to stack wood in the pallets, as it gets cut. Once I need wood will lift the pallett on the deck with JD which will be about 3 feet from outside deck door, which is right next to wood stove, once inside the house the stove will be right beside the door. Will have an area big enough to keep a days wood inside. I agree with having to carry wood thru the house that is messy, and up any steps gets old quick. But if I only have to carry it 3 feet outside the house, and 2 feet inside that is not bad.

[*] I have enough scrap tin from past projects to cover and side the Wood pallets a few support 2X4 from what lumber I have and it should not be too bad. If I can get a big pallets I can almost get 1/2 cord a wood on one pattet. it only has to 4X4X4.

[*] I am doing to supplement heat not replace heat, so I do not see needing any more then 2 cord a year. I would say in three years the stove will pay for itself. I agree if you are burning 4 or 5 cord a wood in less then 2500sq foot home it is not the right set up or you need to more insulation

I am a little confused about size. Eddie had said go bigger, but it seems like some of you said go a little smaller. So I am bit confused on that part. I know if a fire is hot you do not get a build up in pipe. So I am leaning a little toward maybe something that will heat up to 600sq to 1000sq ft.

I would not mind a little more conversation on the size for square footage.

 

[EddieWalker]

I am a little confused about size. Eddie had said go bigger, but it seems like some of you said go a little smaller. So I am bit confused on that part. I know if a fire is hot you do not get a build up in pipe. So I am leaning a little toward maybe something that will heat up to 600sq to 1000sq ft.

I would not mind a little more conversation on the size for square footage.

While I still stand by going for a stove rated bigger then your square footage, I'm by no means knowledgable about what I'm saying. I have a good fire going in mine, and it heats my living area very nicely. Basically I can get 20 feet or so around the stove hot enough to wear shorts and a t shirt when it's freezing outside. Go farther back into the house and it's cool enough to sleep with a blanket on.

I dont think it's so much how big the stove is rated for, but how big of a fire you want and will enjoy. I can get mine a whole buch hotter if I want, but have found that once I get it going, adding a log onto it about every hour or so, depending on the size of the log, is plenty.

I carry in one load of wood in a canvas sack for the day, and never burn all of it.

Here is the manual for my stove. There is all sorts of good information on stoves in there that you might find useful.

http://www.napoleonfireplaces.com/Tech/installation_manuals/EPA.pdf

Eddie