Hot air wood Furnace

[Dunham Farm]

Can any on tell what they think is the best hot air wood furnace out there. I'm thinking about adding one next year.
Thanks Brian

 

[schmism]

why wouldnt you go with an outside wood boiler and water to air heat exchanger inside?

 

[RedDirt]

I hear some remote furnaces are great but I did not go that way.

We have a standard airtight wood stove in the living room of a single level spread out ranch style home about 1500 sqft. Problem was hot living room and cold back rooms.

When renovating I ran a duct system in the attic for a heat circulation system. I use a good quality (quiet) in-line duct fan. This is attached to a collection plenum in the attic near the stove and directs heat to the other rooms. I now have about a 2 to 4 degree temp drop between the living room and the furthest supplied room. The fan is on a rheostat and we run it at about 1/3 speed. I am very pleased with the system and reasonable cost. Duct joints are sealed and duct is insulated.

A 20 ft long 12in dia insulated flex duct (a length of flex duct is important to keep fan noise quiet) connects the plenum and 10" dia fan (duct reduced just in front of fan). 10" dia rigid insulated duct is run downstream of the fan as main supply which is then "Y'd" and reduced to smaller ducts depending on room sizes (similar to conventional duct supply system). Flex duct again connects the rigid supply to the ceiling registers. I used operable louver ceiling registers so I can throttle back or shout off unused rooms.

 

[moeh1]

I've been very pleased with my Clayton for the past 25 years, still going strong. The TSC stores around me sell them now.

 

[arrow]

A hot air furnace fired by wood is the most efficient use of that wood as possible,. More so than a boiler whether outdoors or not as there is no energy lost during a heat exchange. It is more efficient than a free standing wood stove as one cannot disperse the heat as evenly with one of those. The only thing you do not have is storage of btu's which can be compensated for with such things as a mid-house chimney as opposed to an outside end placement one. Thickness of metal and firebrick lining will designate quality and will also reflect in the price. Yukon is one company that uses thick metal in its firebox (3/16ths) and firbrick lined. I have a wood stove in the cellar and if I had to do it over again, I would go with a wood furnace with room ducting in a heart beat. I know of a local business man who's 40x60x20 uninsulated building is kept nice and toasty with 7 cords of wood for the entire season from Oct to mid April. If you would like I can get the name of that unit for you. Just let me know.


Lou

 

[Highbeam]

I disagree. The hot air furnace can only get as much energy out of wood as a wood stove. Same efficiency. Actually, the standard wood furnace is not even EPA certified and allowed to be a very inefficient device but lets just assume that they are equal. Then you must consider heat delivery. The stove in a room delivers all of the heat to the room, that's right, 100%. The wood furnace suffers from a thing called duct loss. Meaning that while moving that air through the ducts to the rooms it is loosing heat to the surroundings. Duct losses usually account for 15-30% of the energy. Also consider the electrical demands of that wood furnace like blowers and controls.

While it may be true that a wood furnace is more efficient than a wood boiler, I don't know, it is not true that a wood furnace is more efficient than a woodstove. Not even close.

Efficiency is one thing. Capability and comfort is another. While consuming massive quantities of wood, the wood furnace will do a superior job of distributing the heat to the entire house. Anyone trying to heat a house from a woodstove in the basement will be well served by a wood furnace. Woodstoves are area heaters.

 

[heehaw]

i can't think of the name right now, but they are made in Harrison, Arkansas: a really good furnace system: my inlaws had one installed in their new house in 79, replaced it a couple years ago, because they couldn't handle the wood any more and the ac went out: i would recommend the company, an will think of the name later an post it..having one of those memory lapses right now.
heehaw

 

[heehaw]

finally got it: Lynndale: company info below: also google lynndale wood furnaces.
heehaw

P.O. Box 1154
E-mail Directory

Harrison, AR 72602
Sales & Ordering
lynndale@alltel.net

Phone
(800) 468-1312
Technical Questions
lynndale@arkweb.com

Fax
(870) 741-2948
Dealer Inquiries
rdd@arkweb.com

 

[RayMunising]

I've used a woodstove for the past 18 years but for our next house I'm going with a wood furnace. The Hotblast 1950 EPA stove looks interesting: United States Stove Company

 

[arrow]

While duct loss will steal some of the heat warming capability, I'd rather channel available heat in a confined space such as a duct rather than disperse it to high heaven and be subject to thermal loss as a result of air leaks within the building itself as one is subject with a wood stove. In that way to me it is more efficient. This factor will certainly rob way more heat than stated for a duct while it is trying to get to the place you want warm. As far as burn confines, they make wood fired furnaces now adays that are comensurate with burn efficiencies of wood stoves including the latest technology of secondary burn air tubes. To me your statement parallells the information of what type of heating appliance is the most efficient. That would be the electric coil. Its almost 100% efficient in its heat transfer. Not too many people would want to heat their homes in cold climates with electric heat as efficient as it is, it comes at a dear price. I do agree with some of what you said as a wood stove in a way acts very much like that electric coil in that it is transfering it btu's directly to the surrounding air so yes it is more efficient. Maybe what I should of said is that a wood furnace is the most efficient way to get warm air dispersed to where you want it if indeed it is placed in the cellar. I'm not big on semantics so I suppose it is a weakness of myself. In the real world, if I had to advise someone about what to place in the cellar as an alternative heat source, hands down the wood fired furnace would be my first recommendation for its efficient way of getting heat where yo want it for equality of dispersion.