Outdoor woodfired boilers?

[ultrarunner]

I don't see how they can outlaw wood heaters, many folks in rural areas would freeze to death if they couldn't burn wood.

It's already happened in parts of California... and even those that have em have to check each day so know if there is a wood burning ban in place... no joke.

 

[dodge85rc]

As somebody who has one, here is my experience. I have a central boiler 6048, 500,000 BTU. I do not need to split anything. Depending on the diameter of the wood, and type, I cut in 3-3.5 ft lengths and heave it in. It helps that I am 25. This unit will take a bigger piece of wood in the firebox than I can physically lift. I fill twice a day because I am **** about it and it seems to burn less wood that way. If I filled it plumb full I could go a full day easily. Best investment I ever made. This is my second winter with it and it is already about 1/2 paid for by what we are not using from propane. I currently only heat my home with it and eventually will be heating my shop with it, if I ever get in insulated. I have about $10k into it, pipe, pumps and everything. I also have 400+ acres to get wood off of, for free. I went through about 16-18 cord last winter and expect to go through about the same, although I haven't quite figured out a system to keep track of it acurately. I am also currently using my 4wheeler and a home made trailer to haul everything and it takes a long time to haul that much wood when you are maybe taking 1/4 cord at a time! Working on building some bigger equipment to be more efficient.

 

[Dogballs]

Dodge, 16-18 full cord? That's a lot of wood.

 

[LD1]

As somebody who has one, here is my experience. I have a central boiler 6048, 500,000 BTU. I do not need to split anything. Depending on the diameter of the wood, and type, I cut in 3-3.5 ft lengths and heave it in. It helps that I am 25. This unit will take a bigger piece of wood in the firebox than I can physically lift. I fill twice a day because I am **** about it and it seems to burn less wood that way. If I filled it plumb full I could go a full day easily. Best investment I ever made. This is my second winter with it and it is already about 1/2 paid for by what we are not using from propane. I currently only heat my home with it and eventually will be heating my shop with it, if I ever get in insulated. I have about $10k into it, pipe, pumps and everything. I also have 400+ acres to get wood off of, for free. I went through about 16-18 cord last winter and expect to go through about the same, although I haven't quite figured out a system to keep track of it acurately. I am also currently using my 4wheeler and a home made trailer to haul everything and it takes a long time to haul that much wood when you are maybe taking 1/4 cord at a time! Working on building some bigger equipment to be more efficient.

Here's my train of thought on what you are doing.

A geothermal unit (or even an air to air heat pump) would heat your house for considerabally less than your propane. A geothermal would probabally make your electric bill go up by 100-150 per month, wich is about 600-1000 per heating season. At an inital cost of only about 5k more than the boiler. and if you still wanted to cut the wood each winter, 8-9cords a winter would easily sell for enough to heat your house for the entire winter. And without having to ever worry about about fixing a fire again. But if you want to heat another building that would be another issue.

 

[dodge85rc]

Dodge, 16-18 full cord? That's a lot of wood.

If my math is correct. Which it isn't a lot of times

 

[dodge85rc]

. But if you want to heat another building that would be another issue.

Eventually I will be heating both house and shop + either my brother in laws house next door or a garage here.

 

[LD1]

Multiple buildings is probabally the only case in whick I'd consider a boiler. But I'd probabally still opt to place the boiler in the shop and use the radiant heat for it and the water for the house. that way, instead of having to go outside fo fix the fire, it would be in the shop, where I spend most of my time anyway.

 

[dodge85rc]

Multiple buildings is probabally the only case in whick I'd consider a boiler. But I'd probabally still opt to place the boiler in the shop and use the radiant heat for it and the water for the house.

That was my original plan, however my insurance company said they were going to drop my policy all together if I did that, since it isn't rated for indoor use. I wanted to keep it indoors to help with heat loss. Only thing is though, its so well insulated it isn't an issue. The thing has a 400 gallon water capacity and in the dead of winter, -20 below snow will sit and accumulate on top of the roof of the unit.

Wood is messy, I wouldn't want to have to deal with all that mess inside anywhere, especially at the volume I go through. Size wise, it is way overkill for what I am using, or even plan to use, but they had them on sale and I figured bigger is always better.

 

[arrow]

Guys, Thanks for the information. I suspected they would use more wood than what I have available. I do not have an abundant supply of free firewood, I have to buy mine and at $280/cord for dry stuff kinda hurts the wallet a bit. I may just stick with what I have and have log length wood delivered to my house where I can buck it up, split it and stack it to dry. My younger bro gets a log truck and an attached trailer full and he said it delievered nearly 14 cord of logs at $1,200.00. Granted he has to buck it up and split and stack it but thats not even a hundred buck a cord. Perhaps this is the lesser of all evils...

Around RI, a logging truck full of 7 to 8 cords cost $800-$1000 or just about twice as much more than you're paying

 

[arrow]

As somebody who has one, here is my experience. I have a central boiler 6048, 500,000 BTU. I do not need to split anything. Depending on the diameter of the wood, and type, I cut in 3-3.5 ft lengths and heave it in. It helps that I am 25. This unit will take a bigger piece of wood in the firebox than I can physically lift. I fill twice a day because I am **** about it and it seems to burn less wood that way. If I filled it plumb full I could go a full day easily. Best investment I ever made. This is my second winter with it and it is already about 1/2 paid for by what we are not using from propane. I currently only heat my home with it and eventually will be heating my shop with it, if I ever get in insulated. I have about $10k into it, pipe, pumps and everything. I also have 400+ acres to get wood off of, for free. I went through about 16-18 cord last winter and expect to go through about the same, although I haven't quite figured out a system to keep track of it acurately. I am also currently using my 4wheeler and a home made trailer to haul everything and it takes a long time to haul that much wood when you are maybe taking 1/4 cord at a time! Working on building some bigger equipment to be more efficient.

If I can give one piece of advice here as I am sorry I did not heed what I am about to tell you. You are young and at the beginning of life. If you enjoy working wood as I have for the last 45 years buy everything you need now in one shot. The sooner you get it, the sooner it will be paid for. When I was your age, a logging winch was under a thousand dollars. Now they are $2000-2500 depending on the winch. It was stupid of me not to buy what I needed in order to save a buck. You are burning a great deal of wood and if you continue, you are going to get tired of "piece mealing" it in short order if you already haven't done so.. Buy at least a 40 to 50 hp tractor or more that has a fel and 4wd. Get yourself a logging winch such as a Farmi or Norseman, put chains on your tractor. Get something to pick up logs with for the fel, (grapple or fork) and this labor will be a joy.