Looking for advice on Indoor Wood Furnaces

[802climber]

Looking to put an indoor wood furnace in my basement. Do all the units REQUIRE electricity? I was hoping for something I could still run in a power outage. (We have lots)

I have read the forced air wood furnaces can actually be dangerous in a power outage... The Fire Chief site says you need a generator in an outage or else shut the fire down ASAP and the Kuuma is 100% computer operated................

I was hoping for a more traditional wood burner and planned to just put in some floor vents and maybe 1 central duct hooked to the blower. I didn't know you HAD to use the blower to safely run these units.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[Marshy]

AFAIK all of the forced air furnace units require power or you risk damaging the firebox. I'm not sure you'll find a forced air furnace where that is not true. Sounds like what your looking for is a standard stove. There are stove with blowers on them that you can continue to run without power to the blowers. The difference is the stove and blowers are not ducted or work with thermostats whereas the furnace requires that and power...
If you want or need ducting to distribute the heat then you could get creative and build your own system. I heat my 1800 sq ft home with my wood stove down in the basement with nothing more than a box fan to move air, no register in the floor or ducting...

 

[stihly dan]

I have the kuuma, obviously it runs best with power. On a power outage it will run fine, you just have to run half loads and manually open the damper a little bit. I oversized my ductwork to make sure this worked. I have had 3, 4 plus day outages since I purchased the Kuuma. I can keep the house at 70 with no power If its above 5 * Little less below that.

 

[802climber]

Thanks for the info!

What are some standard basement stoves to look at?

I don't know how much ducting I would even need. It's our first winter in our poorly insulated 100 y.o. central staircase cape, so even with a indoor wood furnace, I was thinking of a trying lot of floor vents in the first floor and just one duct run to the staircase area. For being an old house I am thinking that it shouldn't be too hard to heat with any kind of large wood stove in the basement.

We do have functioning central heat but it is steam radiators with an old oil boiler...... (Turned out to be way too expensive to retrofit house to baseboard hot water, replace inside boiler and get OWB.)

What about getting an indoor wood *boiler* and just not hooking up the water lines until we have retrofitted the house with hot water baseboard? (will not happen before this winter)

I am starting to wonder if have already banged my head on the steam pipes a few too many times.

 

[flotek]

You say it's poorly insulated .. I would start there .. Spend money on blowing cellulose in the attic and eleminiating drafts replacing old leaky windows- huge comfort difference with minimal investment .. Then get a large woodstove like the Englander nc30

 

[alleyyooper]

I bought this England 28 - 3500 last year from Home Depot and got a 10% Veterans discount too. You can get the same furnace with a different name and color from Lowe's as well. I ran it 99% of the time last year with the blower fan shut off. It is a great stove and the England company has a good customer service record from what I have seen. We burnt less wood during a record breaking winter than we did with our old (30 plus year) furnace. It is all we heat our home with. It has a window in the door so a quick glance will let you know if it needs refilling. it also has a 8" outlet so you can hook it up to a heat duct. I burn well seasoned ash and never had a need to clean the chimney all winter. I was getting 12 hour burns during the night and the house still kept a 75F temp.

I recommend you first fire it up out side so you burn off the MFG oils and heat the paint before you install it so it doesn't stink up the house .







Al

 

[802climber]

You say it's poorly insulated .. I would start there .. Spend money on blowing cellulose in the attic and eleminiating drafts replacing old leaky windows- huge comfort difference with minimal investment .. Then get a large woodstove like the Englander nc30

Thanks. We do have new doors and windows. I also have far more firewood than money.

 

[802climber]

I bought this England 28 - 3500 last year from Home Depot and got a 10% Veterans discount too. You can get the same furnace with a different name and color from Lowe's as well. I ran it 99% of the time last year with the blower fan shut off. It is a great stove and the England company has a good customer service record from what I have seen. We burnt less wood during a record breaking winter than we did with our old (30 plus year) furnace. It is all we heat our home with. It has a window in the door so a quick glance will let you know if it needs refilling. it also has a 8" outlet so you can hook it up to a heat duct. I burn well seasoned ash and never had a need to clean the chimney all winter. I was getting 12 hour burns during the night and the house still kept a 75F temp.

I recommend you first fire it up out side so you burn off the MFG oils and heat the paint before you install it so it doesn't stink up the house .

Al

Nice! So how come you can run that furnace with the blower off all winter, but Fire Chief (etc) treats it like an emergency if the power goes out? I am confused.

 

[cantoo]

alleyyopper, that looks a lot like the Hotblast units that TSC sells. I have one and have used it for years. Now I have an OWB though, kept it as back up.
802 climber, the Hotblast will work as long as you have a way to get the heat away from the unit. I have a 24x24 opening right above mine to get the heat away quick if the power goes off and I have a big load in it. I can shut the air right off to kill it quick but I have to be there to do it. PS the TSC Hotblast unit here are around $1500. That's a lot less than 3500, must be some differences in the England 28.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yukon has wood furnaces that are listed as power outage safe. http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...36&url=http://www.yukon-eagle.com/&skipZone=0
But I would have to agree with stihly dan, oversize your duct work, make sure you have good clearances on the duct work and some rise on your runs, you should be OK with most any wood furnace.
I have a Yukon Husky wood/oil combo furnace and a 75 YO cape cod that originally had coal heat and large ducts that would have been very difficult and expensive to replace. So although the ducts were overall well designed and suited for wood heat, I wanted a lil insurance/safety margin for the day that I'm sure is coming when I load the firebox full and the power promptly goes out. Yukon offers a great solution, a safety heat dump door, basically a fusible link that allows a 12" x 12" door to open in the side of your supply plenum dumping the heat to the basement. http://www.yukon-eagle.com/FURNACEACCESSORIES/SAFETYHEATDUMP/tabid/200/Default.aspx

 

[802climber]

Are there any standard wood stoves to look at? Something readily available. Just a big basement wood burner rather than a forced air wood furnace? Thanks.

 

[802climber]

Please no glass doors

 

[Ronaldo]

Please no glass doors

Why?

 

[flotek]

The nc30 Englander is a large stove that would fit the bill and requires no electric but it has a large viewing window . Why on earth would you not want that ?? That's like going to your local chevrolet dealer and requesting a new corvette with out power steering , anti lock brakes ,or air conditioning.

 

[802climber]

Haha. Lets just say I've had a bad experience.

 

[802climber]

I am looking seriously at the Englander 3500 Furnace at Home Depot... Pretty attractive for $1200.

Since it is a 3000 sq ft furnace in a 2100 sq ft house, I want to try running it w/o ductwork and just put floor vents in my first floor. (I might add on a duct run to the center of my first floor in the future.)

Talked to Englander on the phone and they said I could run w/o ductwork and also in a power outage if I take it easy..

Any thoughts? Thanks!

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Englander-3-000-sq-ft-Wood-Burning-Add-On-Furnace-28-3500/100185844

 

[802climber]

alleyyopper, good tip on running the unit outside before bringing in the house, I will be sure to remember that!

 

[flotek]

I ran one for many years . Good furnace lots of heat but not what id call a very efficient burner .. Do a search on here there's much info on the 28-3500 furnace

 

[Highbeam]

The 28-3500 is not a secondary burn type reburner as their modern stoves are. It is more like a smoke dragon. Good design but just know that it is the old tech.

 

[flotek]

When I switched out my Englander furnace to a drolet heatmax I used about 30% less wood and got longer burns heating the same building however the Englander did burn hotter . It released it's energy much quicker and burned hotter .. where the EPA furnace kept it lower but very even and for more length of time , very much like a convention lp or ng furnace does