Alternative heat, I took the plunge! $$ I have been looking at outdoor wood furnaces for awhile but the initial cost had me hanging on the back burner. Well a buddy called me up the other day with an off I couldnt turn down. He has a Hardy wood furnace that he was heating a 4,000 plus sq ft home that he is selling. He is selling the house so he could pursue a new career and didnt want to sell the wood furnace with the house for some reason. Its 2 seasons old, stainless steel, comes with a portable steel carport 18' X 20' and a brand new wood splitter plus all his wood As soon as the ground dries up ill be hauling it home. Im tired of paying $900 bills twice a year for propane any one else heating with one or something similar?
Sounds like a good deal Blood, I have a wood furnace here in Kansas with eletric back up and love it, Just a indoor wood burner at my place in northern Michigan for the last 7 years, I like alot but it's messy , I will end up putting an outdoor wood furnace in up there in the near future. The wife laughs at me when I put wood in them, I make a humping motion and yell, "STICKING IT TO THE MAN'
I never saw one of those until I moved to Wisconsin. The first one I saw up close was one a good friend put in at his new home. He loves it. Good luck with it.
I'd love to have one, but the $5-10K pricetags have stopped me. I'm considering geothermal when its time to upgrade.
I helped install one more than ten years ago for my second father. It heats his huge home without problems. If I ever move and have the extra cash, I will be buying one. Right now for my ranch home, my woodstove is doing the job great. I have paid out no cash other than truck and chainsaw fuel for three years now. We literally couldn't heat with oil and have a comfortable lifestyle. Congrats Crick.
I have a wood stove in my house, but will have one of those if I ever move. Much easier to regulate the heat with that unit. I know a few guys near my farm with those and they love em.
We've got an indoor wood stove in our basement. Like jm said, the heat can be fairly hard to regulate, and sometimes our house gets a bit warmer than we'd like it to. However, it still works great, and saves us a ton of money.
I think we go through at least 3 tanks of propane a year. It's a tiny house but the wind blows right through it. I want a corn burner. Well, really... I want to knock this house down and build a more insulated one.. and have a corn burner. ....actually, now that I really think about it. I just really want to move to someplace much warmer. good luck with your outdoor furnace.
Wood love one. Might consider one in my next house. I have a woodstove now, and given it's setup and my house floorplan, it's not doing enough to heat the entire house and so I have to supplement it. I would love to just go 100% on wood.
Haven't bought a gallon of heating oil in three years. I love it. I might've had to give up buying a toy or two if we had. (Heaven forbid.)
Sounds like i made the right decision then Plan for now is to get the house hooked up then buy some more pecs tube and another heat exchanger for the pole barn later
Ever since I bought my 1st house.. an old drafty farmhouse, I knew I wanted to do a few things to be more self-reliant, and shrink my utility bills. The 1st thing I looked into was an outdoor woodstove. I started off with a homebuilt stove, and all it seemed to do was fill the house with smoke and didn't produce enough heat for my house. So I upgraded and bought a Bryan Wood Funace. I bought it used for $1,200, but in almost in new condition as it was only used 2-3 times by the previous owner. I've been using it the past couple winters and am really happy with it. I usually fill it up twice a day and depending on the wood, it last 6-14hrs per fill-up. I built a galvanized frame for it to sit on, so it's out of the way & setting over my well dugout. Right now I have it blowing into from one vent in the middle of the house, and intaking air from the north side. Eventually, I'd like to have 3 outlets to help distribute the air. On most winter days, the wood furnace is enough to heat the whole house. If it's real cold though, my central gas furnace will kick on. A few of the features I like about it, is the ash box at the bottom. It makes removing ash about a 3 second process. The dampener on the front is easy to use as well to control the burn and burn time. Plus having an insulation smoke stack is well worth it, as it really helps to create a natural draft and gain better control on how you want the fire to burn. I wish I had a little bigger model though. This one takes 30" logs at about 12-15" wide, but I'd love to use 36" long X 18-20" as it would be ideal. The bigger the better as I could really get a long burn time then. Someday when I get more time, I'll weld one myself. I've seen some stoves, guys have used which will accept 5ft logs. It'd be nice to heat the house, garage, and barn all at the same time...
I've got one Dan, I hate mine!! There's good and bad ones out there. It really comes down to your set up and how much area your heating and how well the job was done In burying the water lines, etc. My outdoor stove Is the biggest they make, It's a Woodmaster. The firebox on mine Is stainless steel. So far the fire box has held up great the last 12 years but stainless steel Is knowing to crack so I've always kept a close eye on It. I can put In 4.5 foot logs In mine. It's about 4 feet deep by about 4 feet wide. I'm heating a total of 300 gallons of water. The shed where I park the milk truck Is floor heated so that eats allot of heat up. I also heat another shop and my garage. This stove Is also plumbed In to my house as Is LP but I only use the wood stove for heat In the house when temps outside are +15 degree's and up. With my set up It would be pointless to use It when It's colder then +15, I'd be filling It every 4 hours so I just use my LP set up for the house 90% of the time In the winter. When It's cold here I'm filling my wood stove 3 and sometimes 4 times a day. That's way too much If you ask me so this summer I'm putting In an electric boiler In my shed where I park my milk truck so my wood stove can keep up with my house. That way my stove can heat the house all winter and save me about $3,000 In LP costs a year and save me a ton of work In cutting and splitting wood every year. 2 years ago In the spring I cut down 240 tree's. I burned damn near every tree this last winter. That's how much wood I go through almost every year. The electric boiler Is going to run me right around $6,000 but after a few years of using no LP that will pay for Itself and then some. Just the Initial cost Is going to suck but less wear and tare on my body cutting and splitting wood makes up for It. If I was ever to buy another outdoor wood stove boiler It would be a Classic. To me they have the best design there Is. Make damn sure you do everything right and you'll love your set up. They work good when things are done right. Good luck with It Dan!! Your going to have to like cutting wood too.
Steve, if you have flaws in your set up and then fixed them, would your stove be more efficient than it is now? That certainly is a lot of wood to use!!
