need to bring down costs

[mlinnane]

I want to install a outdoor wood furnace. I know what I want to do. I am sure everything is possible but would like people's comments. I have included a aerial of my place. I am going to have the barn as an indoor boarding kennel. I will have radiant heat in the floor. More then likely will install a standard oil hot water burner as backup. I am going to have a garage right next to the house with income apratment(not built yet) above it. I will used the the outdoor furnace to heat this also. I also thinking of raising phesants in portable sheds close to my barn as a brooding house. I am more then like going to heat my domestic hot water with the outdoor stove. But it will all be feed throw existing heating source now. Oil and eletric hot water. To fill three oil tanks could be as much as $1800 in a month and the wood seems like the best solution to me as I will get my money back twice as quickly as the average home owner. The house is forced hot air. The barn will be raidant heat, the garage yet to be determined maybe radiant heat or force hot air. The barn will be 3720 with the possiblitly of being 5540. The house is a little less then 1500 sq ft. The apartment will be maybe 700 sq feet. the brood house 120 sq feet. I want to place the wood furnace between the barn and the house as I will have two runs to the house and garage and only one to the barn. I also want to build a one side shed and to pull trees in and cut up out of the weather to feed the wood furnace. Also it would be handy to have more then one light out there. I would also like to have to place wood in once a day and if I can get away with it only once every 2 days depends on the cold of course. I have a great deal of wood and that is not a problem. I was even thinking of running my hot tub throw this. I really do not want to buy oil if I can help it! I am going to size the furnace for the max and then add on another 700 sq feet. so to size this thing I am looking at 8660 sq ft. Does this seem reasonable? At current my barn has a over hang but if I decide to enclose that someday it will add on another 1800 sq feet.

 

[Cowboyjg]

Michelle....Noticed your post here as well as in the projects section...would like to suggest a few things....consolidate the two posts, and fill out the rest of your profile. Folks here will offer tons of info but they need some help from you.

BTW.......lots going in this post to think about.... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[dmccarty]

milinnane,

Depending on your location consider active and passive solar both for water generation as well as heating. We designed passive solar heating into our 2400 sf house. We have not run the AC or heater since mid September. We use our wood stove to provide heat and so far this season the heater has not turned on.

I have been in a solar house in January with temps outside in the low 20's. The house was 90 degrees from the heat gain. Your state might give credits for solar. The Feds do. If you run a business the credits seem to be much better than for a home owner. For new construction you can put in the passive solar for next to no cost. For new construction, INSULATE INSULATE INSULATE. Its cheap and saves money. Also use foam to stop air infiltration.

Since you already have radiant flooring you can hook up active solar panels. The problem with out door wood boilers is that they seem to operate at less than efficient burning temperatures. This means you burn more wood and make lots of smoke. Tarn makes an efficient indoor wood boiler that burns hot and fast. The heat is stored in an insulated water tank. You might be able to couple this with active solar as well.

We looked at both options but in our climate I could not justify the expense. We get cold but not cold enough to spend an extra $7,000- $10,000. If we had to have a gas or oil boiler then it would be a different story but for our climate its just not worth it.

We moved into the house in January. If we don't use AC or heat our electric bills, we only have electric no gas/oil, have been $80-85 for a 2400 sf house. The most we had was last January at $175 which I'm hopping was due to some window issues that have been resolved. We have R25 walls and R40 in the ceiling. We also have LOT of windows which with the exeception of the south facing ones, don't help keep the house warm. But I'm willing to pay for the view. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Later,
Dan