Does anyone have any input on outside wood-fired boilers? My husband and I are designing a new addition for our northern NE home. Our current 1400 sf home is super insulated, passive solar and is heated primarily by a wood stove. With the addition of another 800 or so sf we are looking into doing Radiant Floor Heating and ultimately retrofitting the existing house w/RFH. I am interested in input on both inside wood boilers and exterior housed wood boilers. I have read that they both are exempt form epa standards for emissions and can be quite the smoke-belchers. Is this still true? Are there suppliers found to be more efficient/environmentally friendly? We don’t have outbuildings to heat and have plenty of exterior space. We have pretty hefty winters here and are not interested in any cooling systems. Would an outside boiler make sense in this application?
Thanks for your input….
Replies
These stoves are really good, if and only if, you have access to firewood and lots of it. They do make smoke but only a little more than a woodstove or fireplace. The "Hardy" stove is the one I'm familiar with. It will provide as much hot water as you need for forced air, domestic hot water, or radiant systems and comes in various BTU capacities.
They can burn almost any type of wood and doesn't need seasoned (dried) firewood. The stack is only about 4-5 ft. so location is important. The furnace relies on a forced draft blower and a circulation pump so backup power (generator)is needed if you want it to work when the power is out. I know that ice storms never ever take out power in Ohio <g> but make some provision anyway.
They only need wood added twice a day in the worst of weather and less in the other times but they have a huge firebox and will go through a woodpile in a hurry.
Not to be long winded but, in some cases, the best thing since pop top beer cans, in other situations, not a feasible option. It depends on your location, firewood access, sweat equity opinion, and tastes. Good luck and ask away. Others here a lot smarter than me can chime in but I'll start the ball rolling.
You should also be very leary of the smoke issue. Place the furnace far away from the house or you (or a neighbor) could be in a smokey haze. Firewood is not getting cheaper,and its alot of work. So unless your up to the challenge and have a long time source for your wood I'd reconsider."The purpose of life is rapture. Here and now"
In Northern Michigan they are very common. They work great however the biggest complaint is the amount of wood they consume as related to an in house unit. Almost everyone I know claims they use 20 t0 30% more wood, I guess the line loss and the fact this unit sits out in the sub zero weather adds up to loss of Btu's. The other negative is the smoke. Since the chimney is lower than the house it services, the windows, eves and siding get really dirty. The only way to really make it pay is if you have your own so called "free" source of wood. If you are going to buy firewood you may as well as buy gas. That is unless you have nothing better to do than cut, split, stack, haul wood in and haul ashes out.