Anyone have any experience w/ an outdoor wood furnace? With propane prices the way they are we could recoup in4 yrs. Free wood all over the place plus our 15 acres. I don’t think it would get to be a hassle ( i use the fireplace all the time. Location Mid Mich.
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Those things are geting pretty populart around here. Seven or eight that I know of in the last year. They burn junk wood that you wouldn't want to carry into the house, they save space inside, the wood can be much longer, saving labor to cut firewood.
But I hear they can be expensive to set up and install.
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OKWho has the picture of the homemade unit that is used an old van, I think that it was a VW bus.Thought that would be posted by now.
Found it...as usual Gunner was the villian
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The Mad Max co-generator!
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Hey, that's not a VW, looks like either a Dodge or a Chevy!
"Honey, can you through another log on the Chevy, thanks."
Mike
Good idea tho. You could go park it out of the way somewhere in the back during summer then move it up towards the house during the winter.
hmmm, Maybe I'll make one of them.
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I wonder if that guy fills the van with ice in the summer for AC?!And i guess he doesnt need his ladder much.
No experience. But I have heard they can leave a lot of smoke at ground level, as the water jacketing inside cools the smoke before it comes out. This may have been fixed in later models, and on 15 acres...who'd notice? I'd ask about this, though.
Brian has a good point, they smoke like a bugger. The guy I was talking to has a neighbor with one, the wind blowing just right ruins his day. He also said the neighbor was burning 3 cords a month, probably softwood.
There was also some rumor about a super spike in crude prices to $110 per barrel this year or next. personally I'm looking for an add on wood furnace to my existing hot air, oil burner.
Edited 4/3/2005 1:28 am ET by gordzco
There is also a rumor that oil will settle back to thirty dollarsActually neighther are rumours. they are studied opinions by people in the know.
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$30 sounds good to me. $110 would kill the economy (and put a serious dent in my pocketbook) but then have been paying double and triple in Europe and keep chugging along.
>studied opinions by people in the know
-SNORK!
And Reason alone can never explain
how the Heart behaves.
Snork all you want but these are people who make their money investing in the business and study information you and I will never see. The problem with these prices is that they are like any other commodity - speculation and rumours can drive prices up or down more easily then the supply/ demand formulae.So I'm just reporting that as many experts who work with their money expect just as drastic price swwings either way.IMOP, the most reasomnable is that they will settle at around 75. It is a price that is in line with the average over the last fifty years adjusted for inflation, and will not destroy the economy, but will provide fuinding for more drilling and exploration.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I have one and absolutely love it. Runs hot water through a heat exchanger (radiator) in the plenum, also have an exchanger for the hot water heater, when the blower cycles the air is always warm as water is always circulating, and we never run out of hot water, with 5 kids that is a miracle in itself.
I buy wood buy the semi load and cut it myself, heated a big 2 1/2 story 1920's house in northern lower mich for 450.00.
As far as smoke, it smokes very little, but I use fairly dry oak and common sense, if you chuck it full of green wood it will send out plumes and piss of the neighbors, I also live in town.
Sustained below zero I loaded three times a day, but usually every 12 hrs. I have always heated with wood so it serves me great, but if you want to load it and forget it, wood heat is probably not for you. The nice thing is the mess stays outside. they do require a lot of work to cut wood, but for me it's more than worth it.
cost approx 4500 and installed everything myself, this was last fall.
Alan
What did you use to run the supply and return pipes underground-the insulated pvc pipes, or did you run them in regular pvc? just curious.
Funny story-
I was talking to the guy we get radiant supplies from. He has a customer who was getting heat, sometimes, out of his outdoor wood furnace.
Customer said that the furnace would run, and he could feel the 1"pex getting hot, but after awhile the pex would just cool off, yet the furnace would still be running.
The radiant guy, who is very smart, asked his customer if he had remembered to leave room for an expansion loop in the tubing. Seems that his long lenght of 1" pex when heated would "grow" up to 10" in length!
The guy had forgotten to do this, and the tubing was pinching itself shut when it got hot!
I used 1" pex wrapped in foil type insulation, it is then ran inside flexible plastic pipe. The pex is rated for the heat, the insulation is good you can't feel heat through it. Keeps the water between 160-170. Mine is a Cozeburn, they are made in Canada as are most I looked at.
Alan
Thanks for the feedback, Bike. Off hand any idea how many hours per heating season you spend feeding cutting etc? This is not a major issue as I've always enjoyed cutting my own fire wood (tho not this quantity). Also do you shut it down in the summer?
heated for 25 years with essentially an indoor wood furnance, could take 1/2 pallet at a time or 5 ft logs, about 8-10 cords per year, no cost for any of it ever other than labor and tools wear and tear. Lotta old pallets (ashes are 3/4 nails). Seattle area. Had 'wood only' exemption for 'no-burn' days. Fan forced combustion air = little smoke. If not pallets, usually 2 yr dry alder or 3 yr dry cottonwood even.
DW 'insisted' on different heat source in 2002 when the circulating pump broke while I was in Scotland and she got cold (heat pump now). Also, it gets a lot harder to feed, cut, stack, etc when you get over 60, which DW did about the same time. Plan on the lifetime of woodburning only till about that age unless you are exceptional physical specimens.
BTW, look thru the archives, somebody once posted a pic of an old VW bus used as an outdoor wood furnance, with 30 ft of airduct into the house!
There are about 4 manufactures of outdoor units up here ( Manitoba) and they run from $3,500 - $6,000 CDN. plus cost of install. I have been thinking about on also. Down side : use a lot of wood , insurance co. says 50 ft. from buildings, usually use large logs ( 4' to 8' ) which takes lots of space and can be heavy, mess to clean up in spring. I am inclined to spend the extra and go Geo - Thermal (I can get grant / loan )
IF IT WAS EASY, EVERYONE COULD DO IT !
In upstate New York (Canadian border area, -40 degrees all the time in winter) they use them all the time and the popularity is growing...a friend of mine who still lives up there is considering one, he's an internet junkie and won't make a purchase without hours and hours researching...try to see what you can find, but I'd recommend them to you...all the ashes are outside, you don't have to cut the wood into 18 inch pieces, very little splitting of the wood....I think they're a good deal....
If you aren't one of the one's I'm talking about,you shouldn't have any complaints....