Hot air wood Furnace

[Dunham Farm]

Thanks for all the info here it's been a big help. I was brought up with wood and have all the wood I can cut. We heat with a wood stove but the cold and cloudy day it is a little cool.
Thanks Brian

 

[Highbeam]

In the real world, if I had to advise someone about what to place in the cellar as an alternative heat source, hands down the wood fired furnace would be my first recommendation for its efficient way of getting heat where yo want it for equality of dispersion.

I'm with you now Arrow. It's not an efficiency issue. It is an effectiveness issue. You just can't heat well from a cellar unless you use ducts or pipes.

The secondary burn tubes and modern technology that makes a woodstove so darn efficient is only modern to wood furnaces. They've been required on wood stoves since 1991. The furnace guys were exempt so the typical furnace was made without such modern technology. Thankfully, we are seeing it now.

I wish I had a basement that I could put one of these modern central wood heaters in. To be honest though, I would probably choose an indoor wood boiler with a storage tank that would store a huge amount of heated water to extend the time between required wood firings.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I've used a woodstove for the past 18 years but for our next house I'm going with a wood furnace. The Hotblast 1950 EPA stove looks interesting: United States Stove Company

I have the 1537G from US Stove. I bought it last year but we moved into our new house in mid March so I did not have the time to hook into the duct system. We were able to get everything hooked up the week before Thanksgiving this year and it works great. I have 2, 8" pipe out of the top of the wood furnace tied into my duct system with a damper. I also put a "T" section on the pipe comming out of the top of the furnace incase it gets to hot upstairs I can open the "T" and let most of the heat flow into the basement. We also have the fans in the back of the wood furnace enclosed and duct work ran to one of the returns upstairs. My house is 2000 sq ft upstairs and 2000 sq ft of unfinished basement. I am still learning how to regulate the furnace as to how much wood to put in and where to set the stove damper. But I can easily maintain 73* upstairs. But if I'm not carefull it can get 76-77 degrees upstairs very easily. I end up opening the door to the garage and heating it to cool the house down.

I can put 3 good size logs in around 10:00-10:30pm and have coals the next morning at 5:30 with the temp being 70 degrees in the house. I have not loaded it to the max or any where close, since I don't want the house that hot at night. So far this wood furnace works great. Because of the way it is enclosed it does not put off a lot of heat around it. I can put my hand anywhere on the top and sides and it is warm. The only place on the stove that gets hot is the door and near the flue in the back.

My in-laws have a wood stove, my parents had a fireplace insert, both heated well but was hard to regulate and heat the house evenly. The wood furnace does great. It does not blow with the force of the heat pump but you can feel the flow of air.

I can take some pics and post my set-up if anyone is interested.

David

 

[RayMunising]

I have the 1537G from US Stove.

David

My neighbor bought a 1537G last year to replace his ancient wood furnace and he loves it. After using it for a couple of months he went out and bought another one for his pole barn!

 

[arrow]

I wish I had a basement that I could put one of these modern central wood heaters in. To be honest though, I would probably choose an indoor wood boiler with a storage tank that would store a huge amount of heated water to extend the time between required wood firings.[/QUOTE]

Interesting thought. From my viewpoint, a wood boiler is not an efficient way of getting heat or so it has been experimented with. If we wait a couple days things may change with just about any technology but it seems that fires get too cool in order to heat the heat exchanger loops within the fire box. A real long , hot burn would have to be sustained to effectively heat hot water that is looping within a house. That being said, I use one 275 gal tank of heating oil per year. What was the techology that created that limited usage you ask? The indirect hot water tank. I run the boiler every other day in the warmer months for only one 30 minute cycle to keep enough hot water for the wife and I. In the winter, the boiler runs no more than 4 hours per day and cycles about 12 times for 5 minutes each run. This supplements my wood stove which is in the cellar (rats) . Right now I'd be leary about trusting a wood fired boiler to provide enough hot water for both heating and dhw usage. I do not want to make anymore than 5 cords of wood per year but if I had to feed a wood fired boiler, I think I'd have to make more than that.

 

[arrow]

I have the 1537G from US Stove. I bought it last year but we moved into our new house in mid March so I did not have the time to hook into the duct system. We were able to get everything hooked up the week before Thanksgiving this year and it works great. I have 2, 8" pipe out of the top of the wood furnace tied into my duct system with a damper. I also put a "T" section on the pipe comming out of the top of the furnace incase it gets to hot upstairs I can open the "T" and let most of the heat flow into the basement. We also have the fans in the back of the wood furnace enclosed and duct work ran to one of the returns upstairs. My house is 2000 sq ft upstairs and 2000 sq ft of unfinished basement. I am still learning how to regulate the furnace as to how much wood to put in and where to set the stove damper. But I can easily maintain 73* upstairs. But if I'm not carefull it can get 76-77 degrees upstairs very easily. I end up opening the door to the garage and heating it to cool the house down.

I can put 3 good size logs in around 10:00-10:30pm and have coals the next morning at 5:30 with the temp being 70 degrees in the house. I have not loaded it to the max or any where close, since I don't want the house that hot at night. So far this wood furnace works great. Because of the way it is enclosed it does not put off a lot of heat around it. I can put my hand anywhere on the top and sides and it is warm. The only place on the stove that gets hot is the door and near the flue in the back.

My in-laws have a wood stove, my parents had a fireplace insert, both heated well but was hard to regulate and heat the house evenly. The wood furnace does great. It does not blow with the force of the heat pump but you can feel the flow of air.

I can take some pics and post my set-up if anyone is interested.

David

I'm interested Dave. Realizing you do not have as many degree days in NC as we would in N.E. how much wood are you burning and how tight is your house?

 

[Bedlam]

""Actually, the standard wood furnace is not even EPA certified and allowed to be a very inefficient device but lets just assume that they are equal. ""


you say this like its a good thing. I would surely give a second look at anything that the EPA has approved. it usually mean its Got a catalytic converter or something. Been there seen that..Its only wood if I burn another cord because I'm not worried.
LOL

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I'm interested Dave. Realizing you do not have as many degree days in NC as we would in N.E. how much wood are you burning and how tight is your house?

Arrow,

I'll try to get some pics this week and post. My house is new construction and seems to be fairly tight, with the exception of the door leading to the garage...I need to work on that.

The first fire I built with kindling and paper wasnot too good. I had a lot of smoke comming out around the door and stove pipe but within a couple of minutes it was drafting good. Now when I start a fire in a cold stove I put in one of those fire starter sticks and let it burn a few minutes to heat the box up before putting in kindling and get no smoke. I also open the man door beside the stove to help.

The amount of wood I burn is hard to say at this point. I only fire the stove in the late evening and burn it till morning, also burn day and night on the weekends. I have a trans mule and extend the bed, load with wood a few inches over the side boards and that last one week. I burn only red and white oak.

Temps this week have been 15-20 degrees at night but the stove keeps it very warm.
David

 

[Dunham Farm]

Thanks Ray on your input on the US stove company. I have two dealers with in 15 miles. Thanks to all on everything.
Brian

 

[MDM]

I have a Brunco 150. Between my dad's place and mine, its been running every winter since 84'. I love it. It heats my basement and upstairs with ease - 2600 ft total. If I don't keep it choked down on 30 degree days, it will get up to 78-80 pretty quick. I can pack it full at 8pm and have plenty of coals left to get another fire going 12-14 hours later. Actually, its too big for my house. The 120,000 btu model would have been perfect.