Need some home heating feedback: Wood boiler or fireplace insert?

[4570Man]

Firewood isn’t worth a lot in my area and I still think heating with propane or electric is a better deal than buying firewood. Firewood is worth at least double sometimes 4 times as much in other parts of the country. I don’t think they’re paying 4 times as much for propane and electric there. I don’t see the firewood deal as being a money saving plan especially with the upfront cost of burning equipment.

 

[dodge man]

A picture of my setup. No way around it, if I knew than what I knew now. My setup isn’t bad for efficiency, it has an outside air source, it has a fan that pulls air around the box, so it’s not bad. What I regret is not getting air tight doors. It will do a decent job of heating the house until it starts getting down to single digits.

There is some value to the atmosphere and looks of a fireplace, it’s sort of the centerpiece in our living room.

 

[ericm979]

Our old fireplace looked similar but did not have outside air, so maybe it was older and not as good. It would make the house colder since it pulled lots of air from inside the house and cold air would leak in to replace it. Not much heat produced either. I stopped using it because it was so bad.

We replaced it five years ago with an EPA zero-clearance fireplace (basically a wood stove in a box that can touch the framing) and that is far more efficient and useful. We go through about 2.5 cords a year.

 

[M59 gray]

Have a Buck model 91 wood stove. Can be used free standing or how we use it as an insert. Even though had a good masonry chimney, used double wall insulated SS flue pipe. Self cleaning, better draw and added safety feature. Don’t need kindling, starts like a blow torch.
After 20years of primary heat now backup to ductless heat pump. Can’t cut wood that cheap but still like a fire when it really gets cold in our old log farm house.

Catalytic stove so very efficient and clean burning. At the time had biggest fire box of different brands. Takes 24” long wood. Have changed the catalyst once and probably needs it again. Can smell wood smoke sometimes outside. 12 hour burn time. 33 years in use.

Ok- saw this post and have something to share:
My background-45 years HVAC, 30 years construction teacher, studied super insulation and heating systems, built 125 homes from scratch. Oh, and 12 years of wood heating.

In the UP of mi. Lots of wood heating.
I have designed and built in many units.
Hate-hate-hate outdoor wood boilers!!!! Expensive —-very low efficiency at the burn rates needed to heat common homes—— poison air quality (bad for all and in residential areas poison for neighbors also).
Very high maintenance demands.
High quality in house or garage or lean to rear yard add on is the place for a wood heater.
Many inserts are available that are reburns high eff. Stand alone wood stoves are very nice. Garage or basement super high eff speed burn storage type wood over water types used in Europe cab be found.
All of these are much better than outdoor wood heaters!
Many people swear by them (its like when you buy a new car you have to believe it’s a great car). I swear at them as a lemon is a lemon.

Sorry I went off. Just been around many units that poison the air and waste wood.

 

[Oaktree]

I'm fortunate in that we're in a single story house and the roof is not too steep. I think my pole sections and brush were well under $100. If worse comes to worse, I can pull the pipe between the stove and the chimney and clean the whole thing from the basement up. But that would be some dust in the face for sure!

My chimney is external to the house, so it's easy to stand on the ground and clean it. Good thing, my roof is slightly over 45° in pitch...wouldn't want to be up there any more than I absolutely need to!

I'm not a fan of burning wood inside the house so much dirt and debri as well as insects are introduced into the house.

Never had a problem with insects (winter's supply is stored in a woodshed about 25' from the house...only have a few days' worth in a woodbox on the porch, besides it's cold enough so they're mostly dead), but no argument that wood is messy.

At my propane price ($2.75/gallon), 1 cord of Madrone hardwood is worth about $900 in propane, taking the efficiencies of my stove and furnace into account.

Of course there are multiple costs involved with processing firewood while the propane just shows up on a truck. If you account for all of them, and your time, then firewood's not such a good deal.

Propane prices can vary considerably by region...I paid almost twice that for a fill in Dec. We only use it for cooking & hot water, way too expensive to heat with.

 

[CalG]

Regardless of the indoor burner type, "Outdoor Air Supply" is a big waste of intellectual energy.

Do the math on how much "fresh air" is required for combustion verses how many fresh air exchanges are needed in a living space to keep the rooms from feeling "stale" and "close". Orders of magnitude apart!

But there is a "chimney effect" of the heated space exploiting ever egress point, and so requiring "leakage" to make up for the pressure differential. CONVECTION is real.

Don't even get me started on "make up air" on a windy day when there can be a pressure differential across a home of several inches w.c.

 

[bcjmmac]

Another opinion
We installed an EPA Certified dual chamber clean burning fireplace when we built 13 years ago. It has an “outside” air vent that is only used when starting the fire (essentially a pipe to outside next to the fireplace). Once the fire is going & things are up to temp we close the vent & the fire draws air directly from outside when the airtight door is closed.
Our house is very airtight - turning on the range hood or using the clothes dryer creates negative pressure until the HRV kicks into high mode & balances things out (took several minutes when the house was tested after construction). As such, if we open the airtight door when either of those are on we get a backdraft of smoke into the house
The stove burns very clean - only a cup full of ash every few years when chimney is cleaned. We burn hardwood that has been dried minimum of 2 years & normally run with damper wide open. Rarely smell anything or see much smoke once the fire is up to temp.
The unit/fan throws a lot of heat - normally the HVAC does not come on when fireplace is going so we run the HVAC fan continually during the heating season
Should have gotten the optional capability to feed the heated air into the HVAC ducting

 

[Oaktree]

The stove burns very clean - only a cup full of ash every few years when chimney is cleaned. We burn hardwood that has been dried minimum of 2 years & normally run with damper wide open. Rarely smell anything or see much smoke once the fire is up to temp.
The unit/fan throws a lot of heat -

I would imagine it would. If I ran my stove with the damper open all the time, you'd be able to bake bread on the kitchen counter top, which is the diagonal opposite corner of the house from the stove. Even so, mine burns very clean. I'll clean the chimney once a year, rarely get more than a shovel full on a 25' chimney.

By "ash", I presume you mean creosote?

 

[bcjmmac]

Yes - ash equals creasote /whatever they scrape off the inside of the 2 story chimney

I regulate heat by amount of wood in the firebox

 

[M59 gray]

Our old fireplace looked similar but did not have outside air, so maybe it was older and not as good. It would make the house colder since it pulled lots of air from inside the house and cold air would leak in to replace it. Not much heat produced either. I stopped using it because it was so bad.

We replaced it five years ago with an EPA zero-clearance fireplace (basically a wood stove in a box that can touch the framing) and that is far more efficient and useful. We go through about 2.5 cords a year.

The zero clearance reborn high eff fireplaces are top shelf these days. I installed an Englenook years ago and can heat my 2800sf home easy during a 10f day if I want. It looks like and has the beauty of a true fireplace. Not a wood stove in the wall! My trouble is my back has reduced my wood burning to just some special days. But if n ended its there and sweet.
About 4-6 hours on a charge-3 nice logs.