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D19allisowner 
Orange Level Access
Joined: 12 Dec 2011
Location: NE IA
Points: 2731
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 Topic: heat
Posted: 17 Oct 2022 at 10:55pm |
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Any of you have an outdoor wood boiler? If so, your input.
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If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.
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klinemar
Orange Level
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Michigan
Points: 7993
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 5:13am |
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I have a Hardy Outdoor Wood Water Stove. I know of no Outdoor Wood Boiler as that would be a job for a licensed Boiler Installer. I like mine and have only had 1 problem when a coil went bad because of a power surge during a storm that knocked out our electricity. They do use a lot of wood but remember your heating the whole house and it can be as warm as you like to cut wood! I filled mine with antifreeze as sometimes we go away during the winter and then I don't have to find someone to fill the stove. The best part is the ashes and wood scraps are outside. The bad part is going out to fill.
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plummerscarin
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Joined: 22 Jun 2015
Location: ia
Points: 3422
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 6:22am |
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IIRC didn't Iowa have a moratorium on outdoor wood boilers? Don't know if they lifted that.
That said, have a friend with one. He loves it. But he also likes cutting wood. Has a heat exchanger in the furnace plenum and one serving the water heater
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Tbone95
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Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Location: Michigan
Points: 11589
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 7:06am |
Haha klinemar, for sure, "boiler", one of those misnomers too popular to go away. Even the installers of my propane unit call their thing a boiler, though all it does is heat water.
Any-hoo. . .
I have a Woodmaster 4400, and heat my home and hot water with it. BIG house, so it's about all it wants. I've been using it 14 years. Probably have put on 5 blowers, one door and 2 water pumps.
It is wonderful to have the mess OUTSIDE and for us, insurance is much cheaper, the cheaper insurance about pays for the extra wood. Filling it twice a day is a task, as is cutting all that wood. The 10:00 pm top off when it's below 0 is my least favorite. I would not put a stove indoors though. Too much mess, too much insurance, too much wear and tear on the house in the area of the wood and the stove.
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Steve A
Silver Level
Joined: 12 Apr 2012
Location: NLP Mi
Points: 215
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 8:20am |
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I have had a central boiler since 2005. Ditto what Tbone said about keeping the mess outside and filling it. 2400 sq ft ranch style house. Heat exchanger with forced air, then several years ago I added pex hot water lines under the floors. That's the cats pajamas on a cold morning. I keep the house at 70 in the day, 65 at night. Fill it twice a day on most days, three if it is single digits. Goes through about a wheelbarrow load of wood on a day in the 30's. One and a half to two wheelbarrow loads when the temp is below that. So about 12 to 16 pulp cord (4 X 4 X 8 ft) of ash/maple/oak November to April. It heats the domestic hot water as well.
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Steve A
Silver Level
Joined: 12 Apr 2012
Location: NLP Mi
Points: 215
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 10:24am |
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My 2 cents: Insulation and drainage around the lines between the stove and the house make a huge difference in the amount of wood you will go through. Even if the manufacturer says "insulated, our lines don't lose significant heat" I'd still add more and make sure you backfill it so that it drains as much as possible. I think I could cut my wood use by 15 to 20 percent if I redid my lines.
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ac fleet
Orange Level
Joined: 12 Jan 2014
Location: Arrowsmith, ILL
Points: 2316
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 11:00am |
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I dont have one but several guys around me have them and love them. I would like to have one but they are way too costly for me to get one.
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http://machinebuildersnetwork.com/
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JC-WI
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: wisconsin
Points: 33805
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Posted: 18 Oct 2022 at 8:43pm |
Have an old Aquatherm wood stove that was put in about 1987. Burnt
a lot of wood through it, 2-3 wheelbarrow loads a day at when temps
went below zero and colder. The stove was set up on a slab that had water lines under it with a
framed building built over it. Then that got insulated and lines under
the concrete heated the shop with the idea to stack wood in there and
dry the green wood which the thought never happened cuzz it was the
warmest place to crawl into. Smoke was the major bad issue in the
building. and bringing in all the wood through a service door ain't fun
either. Had an opening for a bigger garage door but that got covered
over and the ability to wheel through the big door didn't materialize
either. maybe someday...
But we cut back from burning
lots of propane to maybe half a tank a year. and got the house hotter in
living room than the kitchen.
If I were to do it again,
I would set the dang stove out in a shed with the door open to the
outdoors and have another attached shed to pile wood in so not dealing
with snow all the time... and put in a stove with flues instead of a
fire-pot dome and a straight pipe up. Maybe it would save a third more
wood.
Had to weld the stove up in the bottom and back wall of the pot in about 2014. Called up
Aqua-therm back then and found out the stove was made out of plain old
cold rolled steel, thought it would have been made out of some other
better quality of steel but it wasn't.
3 years ago the
'under-floor-heat' pipe decided to leak and that ended the warm floor
inside. sure miss that, but now the stove uses 1/3 less wood and if I
shut the blower off after it gets up to running heat and open the draft,
it uses even less wood when it gets down towards the end because the
fan doesn't kick on and blow the rest of the heat out of the stove. Now
can make one good loading last till the next day.
It is more work intensive to have the stove but if you have the time, it can save some serious cash these days.
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He who says there is no evil has already deceived himself
The truth is the truth, sugar coated or not. Trawler II says, "Remember that."
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DMiller
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Hermann, Mo
Points: 30971
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Posted: 19 Oct 2022 at 8:46am |
Always thought with our small woodlot a Wood fired hot water unit would be great. Did not do it, MAY end up with a Wood air to air at some point or actually add a wood stove downstairs just for dire needs, power failures and so on.
Had a wood stove in a previous house, kept it warm, did the math did not make much difference in total expenses, wood cutting gas, oil, time, saw repairs. Did save on electric and propane but was a wash. Heat was wonderful as did not have to worry of keeping the temps cooler in the house to save money. Stove only lasted twelve years, heat buckles, corrosion and so on got to it as well the inside mess.
As noted the moratorium on wood water heaters has backed off some, are a few that have decent catalyst units and flue controls to reduce smoke the EPA deems Pollutant, no less severe than a brushfire or burning brush piles. With a newer stove inside use less wood make better heat, 12v blower systems can be adapted into them to use a solar array and charge a battery or pack to keep that running again during power outages. My concern on a outdoor water heat plant is freezing if we are away and cannot keep it fired.
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