out side wood burners

[amberg]

Ok, I ran across this the other day. I think it is called the Lil'house heater. it sits beside your house and blows heat in as it takes air out with a cold air return,. like a small out side furnace. any body know any thing about them?
outsidewoodheater.com

might be nice, might not be nice. not to sure!

 

[flotek]

If you do a search in here you'll find some reviews and opinions . I would avoid it , the idea sounds great but when you look what you get and compare it to a wood furnace you start to realize it's just a thin steel box with a jacket around it and a cheap blower . No technology no control of the fire no ash drawer .lot of disadvantages IMHO . A design like that will have temperature swings and eat wood like candy ..Yes I'm sure if you feed it often and watch after it you could heat a house but for the same money you could buy a EPA tundra indoor wood furnace which would likely give much better results. Everyone wants to keep the mess and danger outside but When it comes to forced air your going to be keeping a lot of your heat outside too !

 

[H-Ranch]

This unit would not work for *my* heating needs, just as an indoor wood furnace does not suit my purposes. Both have their place. I would read the reviews of people who actually have some experience with them and look what they are using them for. A local guy I know does supplement his heat with a modified wood furnace similar to this one.

By the way, there is no way you can install an EPA indoor wood furnace for anywhere near the same money. But they are different options that have different uses.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My brother has had this one for a number of years, (he bought his local)

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...m_content=13599&ci_src=328768002&ci_sku=13599

It doesn't eat wood and has been totally reliable, he's so happy with it, he's talking about buying another one for his shop.

SR

 

[flotek]

This unit would not work for *my* heating needs, just as an indoor wood furnace does not suit my purposes. Both have their place. I would read the reviews of people who actually have some experience with them and look what they are using them for. A local guy I know does supplement his heat with a modified wood furnace similar to this one.

By the way, there is no way you can install an EPA indoor wood furnace for anywhere near the same money. But they are different options that have different uses.

Well You can buy a drolet EPA tundra for 1500$ .sometimes even cheaper on sale or from somebody on Craigslist ..also more high tech models are coming out this year due to the new EPA regulations that require all smoke dragons to be illegal to sell including a lil house heater . You will need flue pipe for both regardless so yeah it can be done.new regulations this year require outdoor units to have a decent stack height like in an indoor unit . Also even some rural areas are cracking down on outdoor units like this that are not up to code especially if a neighbor complains to the township

 

[dave_dj1]

I have a DIY outdoor hot air wood furnace and no complaints what so ever. We absolutely love it. I will say the only real drawback is that when the outside temps rise so does the inside temp. Right now it's 28 degrees f outside and it's 79.9 deg f inside, that is in the kitchen at the top of the stairs, rest of house is cozy. We do have the sliding glass door open right next to the thermometer where I just took those readings. I enjoy sitting around in a tee shirt
My build is floating around somewhere if your interested.
I'm sure the one you asked about could be made more efficient with a few tweaks.

 

[amberg]

Well I have been doing a lot more studying on outside wood furnaces, ( wood only ) and it seems that will not work to good with my old house, it was built in 1890 and the foundation is flat rocks stacked on the ground with no crawl space. two inside flues with 2 thimbles down stairs and 2 upstairs, the other one has 1 thimble down stairs and 1 upstairs which has been bad for over 65 years, the other one I had to get the chimney company to put a bag in and pour a new liner in about 1994 so I could continue to use the wood stove down stairs, but with the reduced diameter of the new poured liner I had to clean it every 14 days or it would stop up. So I changed that stove out for a 40000 btu propane stove with blowers, also replaced the downstairs fire place wood burning insert with a non vented 30000 btu propane insert with blowers. and a 10000 btu propane wall heater in the bath room. they put in two 350 gallon tanks to run them, BUT back then propane was cheap $0.87 a gallon which is not the case any more. So two years ago I also put in 2 pellet stoves also which I use every day 24 hours a day which I love. ( plus I can turn on the propane when it gets real cold to help the pellet stoves keep up.) which is one of the problems, the best place to put a outside wood furnace is right where one pellet stove is vented out the house. So I don't see any good place to hook up a cold air return line. So I am thinking it is going to be way more trouble than it is worth for me.

Sawyer Rob, I did check out that heater, that is about what I was thinking about. might check on trying to make one work on my front porch with a cement floor and a roof over it.

( We used to cut wood for 2 fire places and 3 stoves, it was a full time job in the winter to keep warm.)