Outdoor woodfired boilers?

[tulenutn2o]

Mr captain

I'm sure the work gets old - but look at the bright side, at 2.50 a gallon for propane you are making over $200/hr when you cut wood!

Amen, Nobody ever looks at the positive side of cutting wood. Saves on the gym membership!:laughing:

 

[MNBobcat]

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.

Uh...they quoted me $60k to put in geothermal for my house. My boiler cost $16k for everything including a building around it and it will heat my pole barn, too. It's saving me $4,000 a year!

 

[tulenutn2o]

Uh...they quoted me $60k to put in geothermal for my house. My boiler cost $16k for everything including a building around it and it will heat my pole barn, too. It's saving me $4,000 a year!

The price scared me away years ago when we built our house. Trouble is, back in 2001 I was looking at adding outdoor boilers to my business and backed out because energy was cheap, I didn't think anyone would choose wood over a new high efficiency furnace that would save them on average 40-50% a year over their old units. Then energy explodes, economy tanks, and wood is king again. Still kickin my butt over that. So I have ordered my OWB this last month. For $60K I'd build a cabin off the grid completely and screw the utility companies, and every politician they have in their pocket.

 

[LD1]

60k seems a bit steep for geo, at least around here. 12k-20k seems to be about the norm around here and the biggest differences are the size of the unit needed, and the type of loop they install, wether horizontal, vertical, pond, etc.
I have never heard anyone pay more than the 20s' for residential geo. Did you shop around???