Wood furance.

[Thomas]

I did back SEARCH got couple good ideas,but what do you think a good indoors wood furance today?
2500 square feet.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the square footage of your house isn't very useful in predicting how much energy it takes to heat it. There is too much variation in insulation and air-tightness. What is your climate? The best measure is how much you spend currently (dollars) and what fuel you use. The second best measure is what is the btu rating of your current equipment, and how good a job does it do in keeping you warm?

 

[dmccarty]

Besides square footage, insulation and airtightness, the volume of the house, square footage of windows and doors, and the efficiency of the windows/doors impacts BTU requirements.

Our house has 10 foot ceilings which means we have 20% more volume to heat/cool vs a house with 8 foot ceilings. The tall ceiling help us in warmer weather since heat rises but that hurts us in the cooling season. Looking at hold houses in the UK, many of them seem to have low ceilings and I don't think this was because people were shorter but a way to cheaply warm a space.

We have a wood stove, not a furnace and it is supposed to heat a 1800-2000 sf house. Our house is 2400ish sf but with the extra 20% volume mentioned earlier. The stove works well for most of OUR normal winter temperatures but if we have a longer period of cold, meaning high temps in the 30s and lows to the 20s, the wood stove is really not enough. It also matters what one considers warm. We want the living room to be 73 with the rest of the house will be lower.

We have though about putting in a second wood stove for when the temperatures really drop but we have not done so. I do wonder if we ever did, if we would get a stove that could burn coal and wood...

Later,
Dan

 

[JRobyn]

I have been happy with my Charmaster "Chalet", but as has been noted, my 2800ft2 house has a giant 28ft ceiling great room that is difficult to heat, even with great insulation. I probably should have gotten their larger size. I installed 3 2000W baseboard heaters under some of our large/tall glass areas to help it keep up when it gets much below freezing for longer periods. We also have it integrated with our central heat pump/air, but to avoid starving one or the other of airflow, never actually operate both at the same time. A couple of automatic (gravity) dampers were required to do that well. I use/like the domestic hot water loop.

My B-I-L uses a Fire Chief (FC700 IIRC) in his approx. 3000ft2 log home. As far as I know, he likes it. At least he doesn't have any complaints EXCEPT the first season he was using it, he had a completely stopped-up flue several times, despite using decently seasoned wood. He has a very tall masonry flue, and I believe that the problem was that he wasn't getting/keeping the flue warm enough to prevent condensation and creosote buildup. We use a triple-wall stainless flue, also very tall and have had great experience and little creosoting. Stainless warms much faster and is easier to KEEP warm than masonry in my experience. The lesson is that your FLUE is one of the most important considerations, and will likely be one of the largest costs of a wood furnace installation. USE A GOOD FLUE THERMOMETER and monitor it closely, at least while you are learning the idiosyncrasies of the furnace's operation.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Thomas,

This is my wood furnace made by US Stove. I have 9' ceilings and a cathedral ceiling in the great room. House is 1950 sqft upstairs and same in the basement. I have it duct into my system and return with dampers to open and close when not in use. Heats great, and the "T" section on the top is for when it gets too hot upstairs I can remove the cap to blow downstairs.

If you want more info just let me know. My internet access is limited right now but I will do my best to answer any questions if interested.

David

 

[roadhunter]

I have a Norseman 2500 wood furnace.
Norseman Add-On Furnace (VG2500)

I have about 2500 Sq ft on the main floor and the same in the basement. I just blow the hot air in the basement and let the heat rise through the house. This removes the restriction that duct causes and allows the most air/heat to be exchanged through the unit The unit sits in the basement and is quite noisy when operating. It is also quite dusty but I just use the basic filters to keep the flow at a maximum level. That's another reason I just blow the heat in the basement and let it rise to the main floor. I run a couple of air purifiers down there to keep the dust in the house to a minimum.

Since I installed in 3 years ago I have not bought propane. Still About 300 gallons in the tank. So it works to heat lots of space but it uses lots of wood (not terribly efficient), is messy, and noisy. That being said if mine got stolen I'd buy another the next day.

IF you have any questions let me know and I'll be happy to help.

 

[TnAndy]

Thomas,

This is my wood furnace made by US Stove.

I have that same furnace in my shop. The previous one (small model, same company) burned out the back and side walls after about 12 years, so I replaced it with the one you have.

BUT.....Before I ever built the first fire in it, I added a piece of 1/4" thick, 1.5x1.5" angle right above the existing fire brick (which lay in there at about a 45 degree angle), then another piece a fire brick high (both sides) so I could line each side with more brick.... raising the brick coverage in the firebox. (takes about 8-10 brick on each side if I recall). I think that is a vast improvement to that furnace, and it should last the rest of my life now.

 

[Thomas]

Thanks all for your imput.

 

[Zerk]

What is your intent for this furnace? Do you plan on solely heating with it, or just use it once inawhile to save some money?

Are you looking for iron stove which tend to look nicer then a furnace? A boiler heats water, furnace air. A boiler can heat a coil that a furnace blows over, sorta like an air conditionor.

Boilers can go indors or outdoors. Outdoor boilers have become popular. Pricey, but you can burn anything. Load up long logs, burn for hours.


Indoor stove furnaces need to be double walled as they pass through walls and roof. I ran black single wall to the ceiling and then double wall the rest of the way.

I am not sure if I am telling a bunch of stuff you know already or not. If you are just looking for a brand, I have A Droolet made in Canada, sold by Menards. I am not buying a Chinese stove.

 

[Bull Of The Woods]

I have an outdoor wood burner(boiler) "Nature's Comfort" been using it just a little over 5 years. I like it much better than the small indoor stove I had before which had to be filled in the middle of the night. It had a really small fire box and when the temps got down to around 10 and below that for sure, i'd have to get up at around 3 am to load it up again. The dirt and bark falling off the wood was always a PITA. But that's all in the past now. I also use it to heat my water, I burn it year round.