I cant recall if I have stated this. But had a shed fire 1.5years ago so im a bit hesitant on anything fire haha. I figured ide be able to do it this way because of the way they set boilers outside. Its under a makeshift windbreak/lean-to. But there's ALOT of radiant heat given off around it. My thought was close it in minus a door and possibly try to blow that hot air into the building also? That or move the whole thing inside.
First post: fighting a wood furnace.
- Thread starter Driver4r
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Also not sure if you guys are getting the cold front we are this week. Currently its around -3 and they are saying -11 friday
Boilers are completely different. They heat the water in the boiler and then transfer the heat through a heat exchanger to the buildings hot water heat source. The lines are buried and insulated.
My basement/garage heat is all radiated from my wood furnace. My living floor is heated from the air from the furnace.
There are a couple members on here who have built a shed around their furnace and ducted it all into the house. The cost of doing that wouldn't be cheap and you still have an uninsulated building. I'd isultate the building and do a proper install on a furnace inside the building and you will be nice and warm and use a lot less wood.
See. My ducting in and out of the building is all insulated. My heatloss is from the front and rear side of the firebox since its not insulated, which neither is 70% of boilers. The other 30% has a second door to seal in the heat.
You are heating air as hot as you can nonstop to heat your building. When you furnace is sitting in 0 degree weather you are already losing that amount of heat from your wood and building.
A boiler heats water to a certain degree then "stops" burning and circulates the water until it has cooled off enough to start burning again. As long as that loop of water is hot the heat loss out the door and back doesn't really matter.
Also a wood furnace blows the indoor air past the fire box and out the top and even though your ducts are insulated the sides and top of the furnace are not. They are just sheet metal with an air gap around the fire box. You could glue 2 inch foam board to the sheet metal but there's a minimum clearance around the furnace to combustibles. That's why guys build a well insulated shed around the furnace.
I feel I should add also, this setup is extremely temporary, the end goal is to heat 2 houses and my shed off an outdoor boiler, 1 house will be radiant in the floor and radiators, while the other is just an additional source of a heat exchanger above the propane furnace, hoping to cut down on propane usage in the cold season. The shed is also going to be 100% radiant floor heat. But since the current state of the shed floor is dirt. I resorted to buying this wood furnace to get me by.
And I agree 200% any wall insulation would help 10-fold.
If its just for the rest of the year then idk burn more soft wood. It burns fast and hot and keep the thing loaded. If the building is your work shop then work harder. The heats in the tools lol.
