2 inserts or go with an outdoor boiler?

[CUCV]

Wood heat has been the primary heat source for my whole life.

My parents heat their house with a home made wood furnace that also heats the DHW in the winter months, a basement wood stove and a living room wood stove.
My parents home is 45 years old but have done alot of insulation upgrades and they have a drive in basement making it easy to get wood to the furnace. The system works but many pro's and cons... it doesn't need electricity but you have 3 stoves to feed, smoke and dirt in the home, hot and cold rooms, temperature fluctuates, hot at night cold in the morning, limited burn time. They burn 4 cords of pine per year.

My house is 20 years old and I installed a OWB integrated into the existing oil hydro-air system. It cost me a bit under $10k to self install. The OWB I purchased can be installed indoors and my father kept pushing me to do so but now he sees the benefits of having it outdoors. I can't think of many cons except it requires electricity and that I have to go outside to fill it (it doesn't bother my wife or I to do so) We find the boiler performs better and requires less maintenance if we load it twice a day with smaller loads instead of stuffing it full for 24 hour burns. I load at 6am and my wife loads at 6pm. There are so many pros like constant settable room temperature, oil backup is seamless while maintaining a constant indoor temperature, no smoke or dirt in the house, OWB heats hot water, additional outbuilding can be heated off one OWB, wood storage near boiler etc. I burn 6 cord of pine per year and my house is over twice the size of my parents.

 

[muddstopper]

Dead heaters aint that hard to find. The one I am using I got at the dump. I guess people dont know you can replace the heating elements when they burn out so instead of spending $8 or $10 they buy a new water heater. It would be easy to connect another tank, but what I really need is just a bigger one than I already have. With the wifey wanting to build another house, a bigger tank probably wont happen. You can be sure in the new house things will be different.
When you coming back this way to see your uncle. We will have to get together. I can get around a little better now than the last time you where here.

 

[svk]

I am hoping to be down that way in the fall....wanted to get there this spring, but nothing has gone according to plan this year.

 

[Mustang71]

I have a wood furnace and have never considered an OWB. The amount of wood I would have to cut would be crazy. I stack about 3 and a third cord for my wood furnace and get through the winter just fine. I went 2 winters on one tank of propane recently. I would do 2 inserts first and see how it works and if you can produce enough wood for that then think about a OWB. An indoor wood boiler would be a thought too. If I had the time and money to design my system i would do an indoor wood boiler with a storage tank and water coil in my duct work.

 

[Del_]

Year 15 on our Jotul F600CB. Lots of heat and the flames light up the room. I would like to add a freestanding heat collector like Mudstopper has done for DHW. I sit 15ft. from our Jotul and we have a very open layout on our first floor or 1,500 square feet. We burn low grade wood such as pine, cedar, leyland cypress, paulownia, etc. I realize this is a sidetrack, just pointing out another way to skin the cat.

I like all types of wood heaters.

Here is some secondary combustion for you all. It's alive.

 

[moresnow]

Considering that the odb's that pass new EPA regs are rather few and far between right now and have ungodly price tags ( domestic mfg any way), not including install, I do not find them to be a good purchase - like solar about the time you break even it needs replacing. 10K would be a very cheap install more like 15 - 20k (because you really need storage for hot fluid to make them sort of efficient) everything included unless you are providing a lot of muscle. Indoor wood hot air units like the Kuma and such about a 4 hr main heat geneation tapering down in the coaling stages. Very similar to wood stoves. Even heat generation for long periods the pellet stoves still rein as king. Course the cost of purchasing pellets kinda negates the purpose. Some of the European units are light years ahead of US mfg. Parts become a difficult commody.
Then we get down to nitty gritty of installing a flue from the basement up or any where else for that matter - going up through the home can be extremely challenging- up the out side pricy as you need fully insulated all the way up. I have a 1990 built house- there is no good way to run a flue from the basement up inside, conventional furnace HE type exhaust through side wall, so no provisions were ever made for that . just some insight.

?4 hr main heat generation tapering down in the coaling stages?

Um? Me thinks you may have gotten behind the times a wee bit on freestanding stove/insert tech. Take some time to research Woodstock Ideal steel and Absolute steel stove models as well as any of the Blaze King stoves/inserts. The old high heat to low heat swinging stoves are beginning to disappear and be replaced with seriously amazing long burning even heating designs. I have one. It changed my wood burning entirely. Waaay less fuel also.

The OWB industry is kinda in modernization mode if I have understood it correctly. Hardly any selection of stoves available right now that will meet the next generation EPA regulations. I have nothing against the OWB at all. However I would possibly consider waiting on what will surely be much more efficient designs coming soon.

Just food for thought.

 

[blades]

active burn vs coaling or to go a bit further about 2 hrs of secondary burn plus the active and then coaling. they still taper off as the fuel is consumed. my stoves nc30 and a small stove like the nc13. Nc 30 about 8 hours of usable heat depending fuel. still putting some heat out at 12 hours with top shelf hardwoods . not behind fully aware of what is out there. Kuma in their literature even spec 4 hr for max generation and then tapering down nature of a wood fire appliance. We stretch our times by limiting the available combustion air on our stoves and hence reducing heat rise - smoothing out the cycle high to low. There are some newer designs in OWB that have much greater efficiency than what was around just a few years back

 

[moresnow]

The NC30 is a top notch tube stove for a reasonable price. The Drolet HT2000 is a super performer also. Those 2 have a bunch of satisfied users.
Is Kuma the only OWB to offer a model that will meet 2020 regs right now?

 

[NSMaple1]

Kuma owb?

 

[moresnow]

Kuma owb?

Apparently I am incorrect as Kuma does not appear to offer a OWB. Got my wires crossed on brand names.

 

[blades]

if you want it outside - just build a shed around it but the Kuma is a hot air unit and not a boiler. That can be gotten around also. There used to be a couple of outdoor hot air units
OWB outdoor wood burner/ boiler your choice definition wise.

 

[Mustang71]

I guess I like the enjoyment of an indoor wood fired heating element in the winter. It feels real nice on a cold winter night. If I had to heat only with wood it might be different. I have a raised ranch so my garage is half of my basement which makes it real easy with a wood furnace. I carry wood into the basement not down to the basement through the house.

 

[blades]

Yep that carry down stairs routine gets real thin might fast.

 

[jrider]

I have an owb and a fireplace for ambiance and couldn't be happier. However, I sell firewood and everything I burn outside is a by product of selling - ugglies, big knots, cut offs, etc. I also burn pine which people pay you to remove stacks of cut pine around here.

 

[Cody]

I have an owb and a fireplace for ambiance and couldn't be happier. However, I sell firewood and everything I burn outside is a by product of selling - ugglies, big knots, cut offs, etc. I also burn pine which people pay you to remove stacks of cut pine around here.

As I've been getting further ahead on firewood, I'm getting pickier on what I stack in the shed. Cleaner, straighter pieces of wood. I cut the knots, uglies, sharp twists and all that stuff and if I can split it I do. It all goes into a crate I built with a fence panel, can't wait for that stuff to dry for me to burn. Straight pieces are pretty to watch burn, but man those uglies have a lot of btu's it seems.

 

[sawjunky23]

Wood heat has been the primary heat source for my whole life.

My parents heat their house with a home made wood furnace that also heats the DHW in the winter months, a basement wood stove and a living room wood stove.
My parents home is 45 years old but have done alot of insulation upgrades and they have a drive in basement making it easy to get wood to the furnace. The system works but many pro's and cons... it doesn't need electricity but you have 3 stoves to feed, smoke and dirt in the home, hot and cold rooms, temperature fluctuates, hot at night cold in the morning, limited burn time. They burn 4 cords of pine per year.

My house is 20 years old and I installed a OWB integrated into the existing oil hydro-air system. It cost me a bit under $10k to self install. The OWB I purchased can be installed indoors and my father kept pushing me to do so but now he sees the benefits of having it outdoors. I can't think of many cons except it requires electricity and that I have to go outside to fill it (it doesn't bother my wife or I to do so) We find the boiler performs better and requires less maintenance if we load it twice a day with smaller loads instead of stuffing it full for 24 hour burns. I load at 6am and my wife loads at 6pm. There are so many pros like constant settable room temperature, oil backup is seamless while maintaining a constant indoor temperature, no smoke or dirt in the house, OWB heats hot water, additional outbuilding can be heated off one OWB, wood storage near boiler etc. I burn 6 cord of pine per year and my house is over twice the size of my parents.

What model is the boiler you are running?