Outside wood burning boiler

[junkyardjeff]

I am thinking about buying one to heat my house and garage and like the idea of no open flame so I would never have to turn the heat off when painting and can leave the garage at 75 all winter,I would like to be able to heat the floor but I dont feel like tearing up the floor and the extra expense for the concrete. I do live in a residentiual area but since most of my neighbors have fireplace inserts there is a constant wood smell in the area so it should not be a problem so whos got one and how do they like it.

 

[larry4406]

More information than you will care to read http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/21/

 

[junkyardjeff]

Will check it out later today after I get done dealing with the leaves.

 

[catmech]

One of my customers has one that heats six home in their camp. They used a Central Boiler, http://www.centralboiler.com , which has several makes and sizes. The Bunk house that I am staying is heated with it - it has a water to air exchanger that replaced the forced air unit and and domestic hot water hear exchanger. The owner told me that to but and have it installed in all six houses was about 50K but they have saved three times that in the four years that they have had it. I can not really tell any difference in the wood burning smell as compared to a fireplace but I do notice that it does not burn all the time so in my opinion there is less smoke - no facts to back that up though. I am here now so if you want I could snap some pics. I am planning on a remodel and new shop next year and I am sold on the idea. Talked to another guy that is just using it for his house - he says 6 - 7 cords of wood a year, and he has heat left over if he wanted to do side walks and such. Said that he only has to stoke it every twelve hours in the winter and once a day in the summer.

 

[junkyardjeff]

The place I looked at them had one in operation and it seems like its the way to go for me,there was not much smoke coming out but then it was not that cold and keeping the garage warm all winter would be great. I would shut it down in the spring and use my natural gas water heater for the warm months which is only about 17 dollars a month to use,my highest gas bill last winter was about 150.00 but it was keeping the house around 68 degress and if I were to get the boiler it would be alot warmer. A couple years ago I had a 95 percent efficient furnace and a/c installed and if my old furnace would of been a forced air system the boiler would have been installed then.

 

[walrus]

They smoke when you fill them up and Tstat doesn't call for anymore heat.The boiler closes the damper and it smoulders. There are lots o f them in Maine. Lots of towns made them illegal or put moratoriums on them as so many people complained about them. If you have a big enough load, like multiple buildings or huge area to heat they seem like a decent solution. I'd hate going out there in the snow to load it though. If I had one I'd build a woodshed around it so I'd be under cover when loading it and my wood would be handy. Another thing you can do is use a large tank and fire the thing full bore, store the heat in the tank until Tsat calls for heat. Here is a link to company that makes tanks for wood boilers

http://www.americansolartechnics.com/

 

[Mattlt]

I have a Central Boiler brand, and I really like it. Fire it up 2x/day even in the coldest weather. This time of year, could get by with 1x/day.

Could easily add a second building hookup to it. The insulated pex piping is the expensive part - $10+ / foot. By the time I had mine all hooked up, I was looking at about a $10K bill.

A nice side benefit is that it heats your domestic hot water.

They smoke a lot when the stove calls for heat. It normally keeps the water at 165-175°. When the temp drops below that, the damper in the door kicks open and the fire kicks up, until the temp reaches 175. When the damper is closed there is very little smoke. In the last couple of years they're being shipped with an extra 4' section of chimney - helps keep the smoke above the neighborhood. The tip of my chimney is probably 12' above ground.

 

[nate379]

Like Walrus said they are common in Maine.

Outside boiler vs inside boiler they use quite a bit more wood.

My Dad is looking into them and he is leaning toward going with coal instead. He's been cutting wood for over 40 years and is getting tired of it.

My brother's wife's uncle (yeah say that 3 times fast!) has one setup. He burns around 100 cords a year heating the house, machine shed, dairy barn and a swimming pool.

 

[APEowner]

Personally I have problem with any heating system that requires you to go outside when you want it to be warmer inside.