Post pictures of your OWB!

Why let the woodstove guys have all the fun?

Here is my Central Boiler 4436, I installed it in January of 2005 using the foam insulated lines laying on top of the ground, I had very little heat loss. The wind could get under the boiler and I'm sure that didn't help. The next year I buried the lines down one foot. This summer I had a wood shed built and put the boiler in it as well as 8 cord of wood. I also installed a 80gal electric hot water tank to act as a water storage tank and as a electric back up if I ran out of wood and I was not at home to stoke the fire. Also put a "wrap around" pump on the boiler to move hot water from the top of the boiler back to the bottom. (the red B&G is for the water storage tank and the shop heater; the taco 007 is the wrap around pump). I only use the 007 for short times when I am out side as I don't know how much (if any) it helps.

I heat my house (1300sf) hot water, (50gal) and my 24x38 (only when I'm working) shop with it. My longest burn time was 24hrs (low was 22* high was 32* no wind) boiler was stuffed with dry cherry. Total cost: Boiler: $5200 Lines, fittings, pumps, heat exchangers: $1500 Woodshed: $3000 Splitter: $2000 Saws: $400 (and counting) Still having the original fuel oil in the tank from when I bought the house: priceless.

Post you pictures (and stories)

Nice pics. As soon as I figure out to post I will post some of my old girl.

This is our Woodmaster 4400 taken just after we started it up in the fall of 2006. It now has a 20 x12 shed over it and wood storage. We are heating our smallish but not well insulated 1945 Cape Cod and my work shop plus domestic water. The house is forced air with a factory made heat exchanger in the plenum but we heat the shop with a used radiator from a small car, a fan from a discarded dehumidifier and a line voltage thermostat, about $30 outlay. The domestic water heater is a side arm. Before the Woodmaster we heated with a wood/coal add-on plus a hi-ef gas furnace (and $1000 worth of Natural gas per year) or $3000 per year with gas alone. The shop was heated with an 80s production Arrow wood stove. I estimate that we are now burning the same amount of wood as when we had the add-on running ful time, 9-10 cord, but using no gas plus heating water, If the house was kept the same temp as before and not heating water I am sure we would be using less wood than with our prior units. Any increase in our electric bill has been undetectable. I have no efficiency issues with my Woodmaster as has been the case with others with OWBs. Given a few bucks for repairs, some gas for saws and a new Stihl of my choice each year I still figured a 3 year pay back when it was purchased and we are on course to achieve that.

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Do you have any problems with avalanching wood piled that high? Thats next on my list for next year.

rx7145 said:

Why let the woodstove guys have all the fun?

Here is my Central Boiler 4436, I installed it in January of 2005 using the foam insulated lines laying on top of the ground, I had very little heat loss. The wind could get under the boiler and I'm sure that didn't help. The next year I buried the lines down one foot. This summer I had a wood shed built and put the boiler in it as well as 8 cord of wood. I also installed a 80gal electric hot water tank to act as a water storage tank and as a electric back up if I ran out of wood and I was not at home to stoke the fire. Also put a "wrap around" pump on the boiler to move hot water from the top of the boiler back to the bottom. (the red B&G is for the water storage tank and the shop heater; the taco 007 is the wrap around pump). I only use the 007 for short times when I am out side as I don't know how much (if any) it helps.

I heat my house (1300sf) hot water, (50gal) and my 24x38 (only when I'm working) shop with it. My longest burn time was 24hrs (low was 22* high was 32* no wind) boiler was stuffed with dry cherry. Total cost: Boiler: $5200 Lines, fittings, pumps, heat exchangers: $1500 Woodshed: $3000 Splitter: $2000 Saws: $400 (and counting) Still having the original fuel oil in the tank from when I bought the house: priceless.

Post you pictures (and stories)

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So I was looking at a pic and seen you have a PL-30 booster pump (I think so) in the house. Why do you need such a large pump for?

It's not an outdoor wood burner, but it is a nice indoor wood burner. It's made by Alternate Heating Systems. I can put pretty good sized stuff in it. Nice that you don't have to split it small to fit it through the door. Also heats my domestic hot water and has a oil back up buit into it with automatic switch over.

Here is the link to my photos

http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/solar&page=4
I am not smart enough to figure out how to make em show on here.. LOL

Not the best pic but the only one I got before my camera battery went dead. I have some finish work to do on the shed but that's as far as I got before the snow flew so I guess the rest can wait until spring.
That's a Johnson 'Little John' boiler that I just got up and running this fall. It heats my 2000 sq. ft. house plus heats my water.
It normally doesn't smoke like that but I had just fired it up and had a bunch of cardboard in it.
The shed holds 6 cords as it stands now. I built it for eight but after talking to a neighbor about the fire in his (similar) shed, I put in the partition wall (and fire extinguishers, lol). Sparks from the door on his OWB flew back into his woodpile and burned it down before the volunteer fire department could get out there.
Actually the wall works out well because it gives me a handy place to hang cleanout tools, extinguishers, etc.
Besides the six cords in the shed, I have five more stacked elsewhere, plus I am still cutting for next year.

jer427 said:

It's not an outdoor wood burner, but it is a nice indoor wood burner. It's made by Alternate Heating Systems. I can put pretty good sized stuff in it. Nice that you don't have to split it small to fit it through the door. Also heats my domestic hot water and has a oil back up buit into it with automatic switch over.

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Its a newer eshland boiler....we just bought an e-500 for the shop 2 weeks ago just got fire in it yesterday..... autofeed its sweet

Nice boiler

Geez said:

It normally doesn't smoke like that but I had just fired it up and ha

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Mine smokes more than that when its out.:greenchainsaw:

MS-310 said:

So I was looking at a pic and seen you have a PL-30 booster pump (I think so) in the house. Why do you need such a large pump for?

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It is overkill a little. I do have two loops that it needs to pump; I also have some 3/4 lines. It is a PL-36 which is 20gpm@22ft of head. Nice pump.

ktm250rider said:

Do you have any problems with avalanching wood piled that high? Thats next on my list for next year.

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Haha Good point. I was trying to put my whole wood pile in the shed so I kept going up and up. Still didn't fit it all in...

My OWB Project

All -
Here are a few pictures and prices of our Hardy H2 Outdoor Wood Burner : ) project so far. We are doing everything ourselves, so it is taking a few weeks, but we will only have about $800 in the install, as we are using some items left over when we built our home a few years ago, and the stove was free from a family member. We cut our own wood on the family farmland, and we enjoy the outdoors so Fall/Winter wood cutting on weekends is no huge deal.







The plan is to heat our 2500 sq ft home and domestic water to offset the cost of propane. My inlaws have been heating this way for over 15 years with Hardy Stoves. The Hardy stoves have a seperate water coil to heat domestic water, but to eliminate two additional water pipe runs to the stove I am going to use an AIC water to water heat exchanger and sit it close to the water heater tank. This water exchanger will be the first inlet of hot water from the stove, with cold water going to the other inlet, then one hot out to the water heater tank, the other hot to the water to air exchanger that will be inserted in the furnance duct work above the fan.





We decided to set the stove about 55 ft from the house, and have about a 35 ft run inside the house through two garages to the utility room where the Lennox propane forced air furnace sits. We dug the trench about 3 1/2 feet deep and drilled a 5" hole into the basement garage wall. Then dropped in the 4" pipe to serve as a conduit between the stove and house. We then pulled 2 insulated pex and 1 blue water line through the conduit to the stove, pex for hot water loop and the blue line for water filling the stove when water level gets low. We used 12-2 wire for power to the pump and blower, a three wire thermostat wire, and an extra 14-3 for maybe a future light close to the stove.







Still working on hooking things up, electric and pipe fitings, exchangers etc.
Hope to be done soon.

60" 4" pipe as house to stove conduit $85
1 ea 4" long sweep 90 $25
200' 3/4" PEX tubing from Lowes $90
200' 5/8" pipe insulation from Lowes $40
100' 3/4" Blue pipe for water $40
15 bags of Concrete Mix $45
120' thermostat wire free
100' 12-2 Electric wire free
100' 14-3 Electric wire (future) free
Misc. brass/copper fittings $50

18"x18" water to air heat exchanger $250
AIC water to water heat exchanger $150

Rent Concrete Core drill and bit $45
Hardy H2 Stove (used) free, brother in law
HVAC work free, other brother in law
Backhoe / Concrete work free, father in law

ps. those boilers scare me a little, remind me of going to the old steam engine shows.. amazed at the size, power and heat, but kind of scares me.

TreeCo said:

Got pics of your power backup system so all of that pretty work doesn't freeze and bust up in a prolonged power outage?

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Sure do. 15kw diesel wired into the fuse box. Enough fuel to run for days.

Icreek

You set up looks very nice. And less than $800 in the install. Very nice.

Geez said:

Not the best pic but the only one I got before my camera battery went dead. I have some finish work to do on the shed but that's as far as I got before the snow flew so I guess the rest can wait until spring.
That's a Johnson 'Little John' boiler that I just got up and running this fall. It heats my 2000 sq. ft. house plus heats my water.
It normally doesn't smoke like that but I had just fired it up and had a bunch of cardboard in it.
The shed holds 6 cords as it stands now. I built it for eight but after talking to a neighbor about the fire in his (similar) shed, I put in the partition wall (and fire extinguishers, lol). Sparks from the door on his OWB flew back into his woodpile and burned it down before the volunteer fire department could get out there.
Actually the wall works out well because it gives me a handy place to hang cleanout tools, extinguishers, etc.
Besides the six cords in the shed, I have five more stacked elsewhere, plus I am still cutting for next year.

Click to expand...

Nice wood shed. Don't you like loading it when its raining now? Having the boiler inside also helps with heat loss; keeps the wind from blowing right on the boiler.

looks great

Recent pic of mine. Pacific Western, big boy.

A couple pics of my taylor 750. It is a used one but works great!! I had just got it end of last year and started it up on last week of Dec 2014. I heat a 2200sf farm house and a 36x36 shop with it.

Here's where my boiler is. It's in a 60x40 3 sided shed with a low single sloped roof. Unfortunately it's sitting dead center of the building causing usage/storage issues but the plan is to move it to the right and inclose it in it's own room so all the dust and smoke is in there, no lines to deal with....

Sorry bout the quality but I just snapped off a few as I walked through to the bush today.