Outdoor woodfired boilers?

[whistlepig]

A few of my neighbors have them. They use tons of wood. For a 2500 SQ ft house my next door neighbor has used 25 rick already this winter. About a rick every 5 days this time of year. He will use 35-40 rick per year. He has had his for 6 years now.

When everyone was putting these things in around here I did more insulation and new windows. I heat with propane and use about 600 gallons a year for my 2500 SQ FT house. Prior to the windows and insulation I was using 1000 gallons.

My next system will be a high efficiency heat pump with propane backup. We loose our power too often for electric only many times for 3-8 days. Its happened 3 times in the 7 years I have been here of 7 days or more and about 5-6 3 day stints.

Chris

Although I don't know anyone that owns one they are very popular in this part of the country. I see them everywhere. I sure didn't know they used this much wood! It would almost be like having a part time job feeding these things.

 

[roamerr]

I have an uncle with one of these outdoor boilers and it works really well. They hold a large amount of wood and due to the fan control they can burn stuff an oridnary fireplace or buck stove would choke on. I think his will hold 36" or longer pieces. The disadvantage is constant need for wood (not an issue for him) and the need to refuel it every few days. His is fairly close to his home -- maybe 50 to 100 feet since the further away the greater the heat loss in the plumbing. He uses it for hot water most of the summer but sometimes lets it go out and just uses the electric element for summer hot water...

 

[Adiredneck]

I own one, this is the 5th season. Burns about 10 -12 full cords in heart of the season (mid November to April). I also burn a lot of softwood in the spring & fall that I don't keep good track of.

I heat my 1800 sq ft home, a 32x24 garage with Radiant heat and my domestic hot water. I recently added a piece of radiant inside a sidewalk between the house & garage, which is really nice when the snow all comes off the newer garage roof while I'm at work.

 

[whistlepig]

Seems like cutting 10-12 cords of firewood is like taking out the trash reading it here. It's a lot of work and a lot of time. Nothing wrong with this if you know what you are getting in to.

 

[GE222]

I know several people who have them, including my next door neighbor. Yes they will often smoke a bit, much of which is due to what is being burned. Another neighbor across the street is 250ft from the boiler and will often smell the smoke in their house.

They are far better for heating multiple buildings. If you look at their heat output, it is typically far above what a normal home would require. I have stoked my neighbor's unit on a 10ｰF day when they were on vacation. I usually needed to fill it every day and a half or so. It is also only heating the house.

As was previously mentioned several times, having a free or very very low cost supply of wood is absolutely essential.

Run the numbers before you buy one. Look at both the up front costs, and your ongoing costs, your time for handling the wood, maybe upgrading a chain saw. Also, your time and expense for hauling in wood. By that, I mean once people hear that you have a wood boiler, they will probably offer downed trees for free. It still cost $$ to cut it up an haul it. $$$ to split the wood, etc.

 

[nue2farm]

I have considered an OWB unit because I have heard they can burn much larger pieces of wood...less splitting. I also have a very real concern about what happens when the power is off. I think it means no heat. That happened to a neighbor of mine last January, during an ice storm, power was off for several days. To bad there is no 12 volt back up power system to keep them going.

Just my 2 cents worth........Paul

 

[Adiredneck]

For power outages, I have the circulators wired with SJ cords and male plugs to switched outlets.

If the power goes out, I unplug the circulator from the wall and plug into an inverter for a while so I have a good amount of time to get the generator filled with fresh gas & fired up.

A UPS system would be nice for when I am at work.

 

[cfabe]

I use a Woodmaster 4400 to heat my house, it came with the house when we bought it Overall I do like it, but I don't think I would purchase another due to the high cost. I would instead go with an indoor wood stove or an indoor wood hot-air furnace depending on house layout. Only time I'd go with an OWB is if I also heated outbuildings from it, which I don't.

They are popular in my area and some seem to smoke much worse than others. The woodmasters I see generally do not smoke too bad except for a few minutes after loading with new wood as it catches. There are a couple guys with either older or homemade units which really smoke a lot 24/7. What you're burning makes a difference too. With dry hardwood mine hardly smokes at all.

They do use a lot of wood so having free or cheap wood is important. I use 10 full cord a year to heat a 1700 sqft house. I'd guess I could heat using an indoor stove with half the wood. They will burn as big of a chunk of wood as you can lift so you won't need to split, just cut logs into chunks. They can also burn green or punky wood, although wood usage goes up considerably. I got through a month burning wet cottonwood from a neighbor that would be useless in a normal wood stove.

They are making EPA approved units now for states which require it. They are probably more efficient as well, but very expensive.

 

[Low Bucket]

Seems like cutting 10-12 cords of firewood is like taking out the trash reading it here. It's a lot of work and a lot of time. Nothing wrong with this if you know what you are getting in to.

I cut 22 cords of wood last year, and had 14 cords of seasoned hardwood before I started cutting more.- It is a lot of work and time, but it's nice to know you have wood to heat through the winter.- I also work 60 hours a week for a construction company.

I have been using one of these stoves for 4 years now, and love it!- I read where some said these stoves smoke a lot.- The only time mine smokes is when I first build a fire, and it smokes some when I load it up again.- If you burn seasoned dry wood they won't smoke a lot like some have said, so the people must have been burning wet wood, or unseasoned wood.

I heat my 2200 sq ft home, 3 car garage and a two story 30X30 workshop.

 

[gerard]

I suspect the smoking is based on demand for heat. I think most of these have a fresh air damper that opens or closes based on hat demand and some even have a fan that forces combustion air in. Under this condition the fire will have more O2, burn hotter, and burn more completely with much less smoke. If you oversize it for your needs and it's never relaly calling for more heat, it's just going to sit and smolder, gving just enough air to keep the fire going. This is when you're going to get a lot of smoke. You don't want smoke. It's unburned material (though not a whole lot, granted) meaning you're not getting heat out of it. Trick to that is to size your unit correctly.