new heat source advice

[samtmc]

Ok so I am really torn hear and starting to second guess myself.
We recently had a chimney fire (only chimmney is wrecked) we've got a pretty good payout from our Ins company for this.As a result we are looking for something a little different than what we have. We have an old add-a-furnice. that is very ineficiant (I was filling it every 3-4 hrs and went thru alot of wood last year, 11 cord approx full cord not face cord)
So two of the options I was looking at are
1) Garn boiler--- I really like this alot but the cost is stagering, about 16,000.00 with me doing the install. Very nice but very expensive. My wife is actualy on board with this and likes the saftey of having it outdoors.We would need to finance a large portion of this.
Now after thining before taking the leap I found this furnace (fire chief)
Heating System Fire Chief Wood FC700 Indoor Wood or Coal Burning Furnace
It looks like a quality furnace and I could install the whole thing with new class A pipe with the ins money and nothing out of pocket.
- what kind of burn times do they get?(how long does a load of wood go for)
- does the hot water attachment work well.
- is it a pretty safe device over all?

any advice would be apriecated.

 

[randy41]

i have a wood furnace. I live in an area that is subject to power outages and my furnace would be unusable without power. so i use a regular wood stove now.

 

[MikeInEburg]

Wood fired located within the house is slightly more efficient, since any heat produced that doesn't go up the chimney stays in the house.

Wood fired outside is safer and cleaner. This is the route went - wood fired boiler that is located in the wood shed. No drips or critters carried in with the firewood. But it was certainly more expensive to install and probably uses more wood per BTU actually delivered to the house. I feed it twice a day in the coldest part of winter - temps generally get into the teens.
Mike

 

[hr3]

Looks like a nice unit,, I have much the same but without the forced induction part,,.. How is this safer than what you had tough??

 

[SpringHollow]

A standard outside wood boiler is a reasonable compromise with respect to the Garn. Just make sure to get a good one. We are really happy with what we have now. The previous brand we personally used required frequent cleanings and got a leak at 4 or 5 years. Because of the added cost, I would not put one in a shed but i like being outside in the winter, especially at night plus you are only out there for a few minutes.

Ken

 

[JRobyn]

My B-I-L has the FC700 and likes it pretty well, but it is the only wood furnace he has any experience with. He has had pretty bad issues with creosote. I think it's mostly because he has a huge outside wall masonry (cold) chimney, so any and all creosote quickly condenses in it. His house is also pretty tight, and I don't think he is getting enough combustion air for a good draft.

I looked at the FC 500, the Charmaster Chalet, US Stove Hotblast 1400, Yukon-Eagle SuperJack, and Valley Comfort VC-120. I am going with the Charmaster even though it is the most expensive for three main reasons; apparent excellent company reputation/customer service, 20 year firebox warranty, and a secondary heat exchanger bypass damper that will serve to keep flue temps up (and creosote down) when using only a small fire.

- Jay

 

[samtmc]

What kind of burn times does he get out of it

 

[dooleysm]

Sounds like a good opportunity to look into geothermal. I believe there are many new government incentives that may make the cost more bearable.

And no more cutting firewood.

 

[samtmc]

We have a rural electric company that is very expensive. above the cost of the install and unit (about 11,000 with a friend helping me) even with off peak (my neighbor has geo thermal) he says his bill is about $400.00 per month (with heated detqached garage).
I am hoping to put the fire chief into my garage and run the duct work thru the wall. kind of unsightly but keeps the smoke and mess outside in the garage. This "fire Chief" company claims that I will get 7-12 hr burn time depending on my house and wood used. (I called about three diferent dealers and this is and avarage of what they had to say) I hope it works out I just ordered it today and will hopefully have it in and running this weekend.
I will post an update.
thanks all for the input

 

[Pilot]

Probably not helpful for you, but maybe someone else:

We had a heat pump installed last year after propane prices went thru the roof. Man, I wish I had done that when we built the house (didn't because everyone I knew with a heat pump had had expensive repairs).

We now spend about $50 per month for maybe 8 months to heat the house, 1700 sq. ft. in NW Oregon, about 5700 heating degree days. (To compare your heating degree days go to World Climate: Weather rainfall and temperature data) On propane, we spent about twice that before the prices spiked. And that was with using a lot of wood; now I can be lazy about the wood.

Heat pump cost was just $3,600, but I shopped around a lot--had quotes up to $12K. Still have the propane for backup. If power fails, I fire up the generator & run the propane furnace.

Go to www.eia.doe.gov/neic/experts/heatcalc.xls to compare heating costs for various fuels.

Think about: What happens if you get disabled for a couple months in the winter? What's your time worth? Is your wood supply dependable? And you already know about the fire risk, but ask your insurance company if the wood furnace runs up the insurance cost.

 

[beenthere]

samtmc
How much wood do you have in the que now? Two to three years supply?

Might have an effect on your decision to continue burning, or not.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Just to send the discussion off in a completely different direction, I was told that these are popular in Alaska, sell for about $1000, run on kerosene/diesel/heating oil and are very economical.

Toyotomi U.S.A. - Laser Vented Heaters

 

[schmism]

propane furnace with a wood burning stove (a good one like a vermont casting) to supplement heat during the coldest spells.

you didnt say were you were but for a less than harsh climate you can go air to air heat pump.

 

[samtmc]

I live in MN, and yes we are looking into a air source heat pump for the milder weather it makes sense for the cost, except for coldest of weather they are supposed to be pretty efficiant.I did end up ordering the "Fire chief" and it was shipped to me in one day. It appears to be very well built and weighs a ton (about 600lbs). I am hoping to install it in the garage (I have a split level home) and plum in the duct work to the furnace room and into the plentum of my oil burner ( I was told by the dealer that the "radient" heat off of the chief plentume should heat my garage. by doing this it will eliminate loading all of the wood into a basement window,it will remove two 90 deg elbows in my Flue (this was a cause of many of my problems) and keep the mess outside and last but not least keep any smoke from reloading outside and not in my home.I am hopefull that the "chief" is alot more effieciant than my old "monarch" from every review/rating/people I talked to it should cut my wood consumption by close to half.(I am keeping my fingers crossed)
I have about 18 cord cut so far (about 11 of it is fully dried) I hope to get a couple more cut this weekend for next winter.
Thanks all

 

[dooleysm]

I hope it works out well for you, it sounds like you've made a nice upgrade.

When I'm outside cutting wood on a nice fall day (I have a woodburner in my barn that I use occassionally on weekends) I kick myself for not installing a woodstove when we built our house 5 years ago. When it's 25 degrees and spitting ice and snow I pat myself on the back for installing our geothermal system.

 

[tommu56]

I drive by 3 out door wood boilers on the way to work and if i was their neighbors i'd be up in arms with the smoke from the 2 the 3rd dosen't smoke at all maybe its not even lit.

I have asthma and I start coughing and gauging and get tight when I drive past the smokey ones. It sets me off bad so consider the health effects on what you buy.


tom

 

[bjr]

The cost driven thing (Absolutely No Money) was what I dealt with when I put heat in my basement. I finally found a old Whitfield pellet stove for a couple hundred dollars and thought, "Okay". Well to shorten the story, 'bout $400 more, later I got the flue piping and a few sacks of pellets. I found out watch out for whatever kind of flue piping you may need as that'll bit you big time. Just my experience with to try to stay warm it the great PNW. bjr

 

[dmccarty]

I am with ya Tom.

There is a group of out door burners on my drive to work. When those things are fired up in the morning it is like driving in fog. Very nasty. I do not know how they live with it.

Then there is the latest out door burner that was put in last year. The guy built a single car sized barn for the stove. I think he has doors at each end so he can easily move wood into the barn. It is a very nice setup.

I have never seen his stove smoke very much. I can see just a bare amount of smoke not much more than we get from our inside wood stove. If you did not look for the smoke you would not see it at all.

This guy is doing something right with his stove and/or the stove is really good at not smoking.

Later,
Dan

 

[beenthere]

When the outdoor wood burners were hitting the market, many salesmen touted them as being able to burn large pieces of green wood. So many people right now are, and have been, throwing wet wood in them, and they smoke a lot. Sure, the green wood will burn. But the heat from burning is used up to convert the moisture to steam.
The other problem with the large outdoor burners, is they are filled once or twice a day with a full charge of wood. That is another source of smoke from a smouldering fire.
Not long, and they will find themselves banned from use. Which is unfortunate, but likely to happen.
There are expensive outdoor wood burners that have elaborate internal combustion design, that cut down on smoke. However, they are needing cleaning about once a week to maintain their efficiency. These are the only type that apparently can be installed in the Northeast states.
Now, the sales people are saying to only burn dry, well-seasoned wood. Might be a bit late for that advice.
Burning wood that has been split for less than a year and air drying is likely not dry, well-seasoned wood. There lies many problems that will belie the wood burning game.

My opinion, anyway.

 

[SpringHollow]

The brand/design (and operator as mentioned earlier) of a wood boiler makes a huge difference. My Wood Doctor smokes less than my neighbors' wood burning stoves/fireplaces and i do not have the new fancy model. Then there are the bad boilers i see every day on my way to work that are belching out dark gray or black smoke.

I do get a little more smoke on days like today when i was home burning evergreen branches that had been trimmed off the tree about two months ago. But those would have been burned outside anyways with more smoke and this way i get heat from them. And a little more smoke was still less than most of the wood stoves around me.

As far as what can be installed, banning depends upon the town. Many towns do it because they have heard other towns did it. I was talking to one town board member and he said if this other town did it, there must be a good reason. And some towns have complaints from neighbors of the bad boilers which i can definitely understand. The town next to us did it smarter - if within a certain distance of a neighbor's house, your stack has to be higher than their house by 3'. Their code enforcement person said the same thing i said above - it is only the bad boilers or operators that are a problem. It is probably too difficult/variable to use emissions data.

Ken