Wood furnace

[bannerd]

We currently are looking at a new property(not new because the house was built in the 1800's!). The furnace is destroyed.. before I make an offer on the home I was wondering what you guys recommend for a wood furnace that would fit in the basement.

I looked at newmacs, looked at daka and also looked at drolets. I love these furnaces;
http://www.lamppakuuma.com/

the house is old, single pan windows and about 3000 square feet of room. Winter up in canada gets about below zero but I'm hoping to keep this house at 60F so I can work and do some finishing work. Let me know what you all think, maybe an outdoor furnace will be more efficient?

 

[James-W]

A good friend of mine has an outdoor wood heating system that heats water and pipes take the hot water into the house. He really likes it and since he has a source for as much free oak firewood as he needs, the heating bills from his regular natural gas furnace are almost non-existent.

 

[bannerd]

wouldn't he have to burn wood all year round? I was thinking about using a propane hot water heater maybe some sort of on-demand. Of course the property comes with 200 acres so maybe wood would be the way to go. Also, we will have to see if we even like the house as we would need to move out of our old one. Bad idea with winter coming!

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm not sure I'd go for a wood furnace that used a computer. I'd think the reason to use wood is for cost savings and ease of use. Personally, I'd pass on using a computer operated wood furnace.

I'd prefer something like a Daka, United States Stove or Vogelzang, that has a proven track record.

 

[JCoggin]

Visit www.hearth.com forums. You will learn everything and then some on this site.

JC

 

[Chitown_hillbilly]

Yukon Big Jack

Proven track record and reliable.

But FWIW, I have a Drolet Pellet Stove that has worked as advertised.

 

[James-W]

Wouldn't he have to burn wood all year round?

No, he only uses the wood for heating the house. The hot water from the outdoor wood heating system is piped into a heat exchanger inside the furnace and the resulting hot air is circulated throughout the house.

For hot water to be used in the house he has a regular hot water heater. He says on really cold days it isn't much fun to have to go outside and remove ashes and put more wood in the furnace, but he does save quite a bit of money by doing it. Of course he is getting older now too, and his health isn't what it once was, so when he gets to the point where he can't cut wood and keep the fire going in the heating system, I am not sure what he will do other than pay for natural gas. But right now cost of natural gas is pretty reasonable so it wouldn't be terrible if he had to switch back to natural gos for heat.

 

[Highbeam]

Yukons are good but they are not EPA clean burners. Don't be afraid of computers, they are in everything from pellet stoves to refrigerators.

You will want an indoor wood furnace. There are now several modern, high efficiency, low emission, long burn time furnaces on the market now. You'll need more than a pellet stove or wood stove for that much space, that old, in that climate.

 

[Cjk]

Not sure how familiar you are with wood heat but if you are planning on heating the house this winter with wood you would need to have some cut, split and dried already. Like cut, split and stacked last fall.

Green wood burns like ****, wont give off many BTUs and will mess up your chimney.

 

[Chitown_hillbilly]

Not sure how familiar you are with wood heat but if you are planning on heating the house this winter with wood you would need to have some cut, split and dried already. Like cut, split and stacked last fall.

Green wood burns like ****, wont give off many BTUs and will mess up your chimney.

Good point. If you think you are going to heat it this year you need a serious wood pile that has been dried for a good amount of time. I imagine up there for that size house you're going to need 10-15 cords of wood. That's a large semi load...

 

[justin1795]

i had a wood stove at my old house I loved it but seemed like it was always a issue with the insurance companies. never had one deny me but made me think twice about putting one in my new house.

 

[jnkpile]

I think you'll have more success heating that 3000sq/ft house with a big outdoor boiler. Whereabouts in this vast nation are you? I'm just outside of ottawa and it can get pretty cold. January and February can be sustained -25C deep freezes. (Without the windchill factor)

 

[MScott]

Not sure how familiar you are with wood heat but if you are planning on heating the house this winter with wood you would need to have some cut, split and dried already. Like cut, split and stacked last fall.

Green wood burns like ****, wont give off many BTUs and will mess up your chimney.

This depends a lot on the type of wood you have available. Actually, White Ash and Hard Maple will burn very well when green or with minimal drying. If your wood of choice is Oak, Elm, Birch or Iron Wood (Larch,) you will certainly need to dry your wood for at least a year.
I considered an indoor furnace but opted for an outdoor boiler since it keeps the mess outside and, since it only requires fueling once or twice a day, the trips outside are not a big problem.
It would help greatly if you put your general location in your profile so we have a better idea of your climate and wood available.

 

[JTH]

Taylor WaterStove is what I had. Worked great but had access to cheap wood.

 

[bannerd]

I think you'll have more success heating that 3000sq/ft house with a big outdoor boiler. Whereabouts in this vast nation are you? I'm just outside of ottawa and it can get pretty cold. January and February can be sustained -25C deep freezes. (Without the windchill factor)

Hehe I'm 10 minutes away. Thanks for all the input. I have a dovre stove at my current home which is 2000sq ft and it heats the house well. It has built in soap stone that retains the heat and works really well on those -20c days. I know last year we went through three cord so this year I bought six cords seasoned. I'm thinking I might need to use oil and install a small wood stove and close off some rooms. The house does have a oil furnace but oil is crazy expensive. I love the kooma stoves so I might go that route and setup a combination thing. Wood/ oil.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yukons are good but they are not EPA clean burners. Don't be afraid of computers, they are in everything from pellet stoves to refrigerators.

Serious questions.

How much does the computer control ? What happens if the power goes out during a winter storm ? Will you be able to use your wood furnace ?

 

[jnkpile]

Any pics of the place?

 

[bannerd]

Any pics of the place?

Sure.. we're still deciding.


Lots of nice wood working, I have a feeling it will go up for auction.

http://anexit.net/oldhouse

They're asking 149K on a short sale through the bank. there is no kitchen, the foundation is tweaked but fixable and needs a ton of windows. I'm still trying to seriously decide if this thing is going to be more of a money pit than the house I own now. I'm thinking about offering 40K but the wife really likes this piece so she wants to ask 60k. It's up to the bank to decide if the offer is worth it.

 

[bannerd]

Serious questions.

How much does the computer control ? What happens if the power goes out during a winter storm ? Will you be able to use your wood furnace ?

My buddy runs a pellet stove that is computer controlled. He has a UPS system that will run the furnace for 30 minutes but typically his generator kicks on at full throttle by then. If there is no generator or UPS then no, the stove shuts down. Bring out the burn barrel.

 

[Highbeam]

Serious questions.

How much does the computer control ? What happens if the power goes out during a winter storm ? Will you be able to use your wood furnace ?

http://www.lamppakuuma.com/24voltco...igh-efficiency-wood-gasification-furnace.html

On this furnace, just the draft. You set the output level and the computer opens and shuts the draft to maintain that output. Not unlike the bimettalic thermostat control on my blaze king wood stove.

The normal "power off" position for most of these things is low so if power goes out, the draft gets shut to a safe level.

 

[jnkpile]

WOW! That's a lot of work. Gonna take a wild guess that's all original lathe and plaster with no insulation behind it. So it'll be a full gutting of at least all exterior walls.....
I wonder also about the wiring, nob and tube, two wire, or has it been updated? Does it have a dirt floor basement and a sistern? But a very cool home you would have when your done! That's gotta be west of Ottawa, or maybe Quebec?

 

[bannerd]

WOW! That's a lot of work. Gonna take a wild guess that's all original lathe and plaster with no insulation behind it. So it'll be a full gutting of at least all exterior walls.....
I wonder also about the wiring, nob and tube, two wire, or has it been updated? Does it have a dirt floor basement and a sistern? But a very cool home you would have when your done! That's gotta be west of Ottawa, or maybe Quebec?

Yes sir, the entire house has no insulation, single pane windows and the cellar is a dirt pile. The good news is someone dug it all out so it wouldn't take much to lay some square PVC around the foundation for a water way and then fill the basement with concrete. You can stand up down there which is a nice feature. The wiring is new which was a huge plus, the main is 200amps. I think the cistern they buried. the large concrete makes me wonder if that was what that was. It's surprising to see the oak floors are in such great shape. Hopefully the beams under it all are still okay, I didn't really look at those. A lot of work which I'm not entirely worried about. More so the amount of money it will cost to fix it up.

 

[NUTTSGT]

http://www.lamppakuuma.com/24voltco...igh-efficiency-wood-gasification-furnace.html

On this furnace, just the draft. You set the output level and the computer opens and shuts the draft to maintain that output. Not unlike the bimettalic thermostat control on my blaze king wood stove.

The normal "power off" position for most of these things is low so if power goes out, the draft gets shut to a safe level.

Not doubting you, I did email them and ask about it, to get an answer straight from the "horse's mouth."

What I sent; . . .in red from their FAQ page

"Will the furnace heat during power outages?"

"Yes, when the power stops the blower and computer both shut down. The computer closes to its pilot air opening, causing the fire to slowly die down. You should open all heat ducts, remove the air filters, and rely on gravity air flow then. The front lift off hood can also be removed easily to allow additional heat to escape from the air jacket during power outages. A back-up generator or a 24 volt ac source would be handy."


I found the above in your FAQ page. I'm curious to the part that says "causing the fire to slowly die down".

Does this mean that the stove will basically smother the flame out and the stove can't be used during a power outage ?


Their reply.

Thank you very much for your inquiry. That doesn't mean that it smolders the wood. There is just a minimal pilot air opening so the fire slowly slows down. You can manually open the air shutter a little bit and have a small amount of wood burning for gravity heat.




I just figured since I asked about it, I would pass on the information.

 

[Highbeam]

Eric, just to be sure, my statement that the draft is just shut down to a low safe level is the same thing that they said.

 

[Carl_WI]

Just found this thread. Here is what I did. I purchased a wood, Indoor Greenwood 200K BTU boiler and installed in my workshop. I ran underground pex pipe to the house. I have a heat exchanger in the central air furnace and a heat exchanger on the water heater. My water heater is propane and I have a Carrier propane furnace. When I am on wood I do not burn any propane. It’s a great backup. In summer I heat my hot water with propane. The shop right now is at 70 deg and I usually open up the big garage door to cool it off some as 70 deg is too hot for me. I store 7 cord of wood inside the shop.
I have a Farm & Ranch policy and had no problems with insurance. Just have to pay more. There big issue was that I do not store gas in the shop.
My big issue is the smoke in the shop. Looking at installing an exhaust fan.