Tell me where to sign up for the free electricity your getting
OWB Purchase and Install Cost
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Tell me where to sign up for the free electricity your getting
olympyk_999
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The other downside is that an OWB is going to use about twice as much wood as an IWB so I need to scrounge more, again if I am eventually retired and still upright that wont be a problem.
czar800
ArboristSite Guru
I stayed about the same consumption with a much more even temperature in the house. Leading up to buying my outdoor wood burner I really keep a eye on consumption. It increased very slightly. All the other benefits far exceed the extra consumption if there even is any. I believe the extra consumption comes from using the thermostat set at 78 to 80° inside your house.
I put up a thread a while back and it seemed that most guys were burning 10-14 cords depending on location to heat a home of my size. If I burned oak with my inside stove I could get by with about 6 cords and about 8 if I was using maple/birch.
czar800
ArboristSite Guru
This is a picture not Long after I installed mine. The cart in front is what I used to use to Bring wood inside the house. I also measured my usage outside with the same exact cart.like I said before I used about the exact same amount of wood. When it's cold outside I burn a pick up truck load a week.
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
That is likely an indication that whatever you were heating with before was a very inefficient unit. There is no getting over the fact that some heat will be lost to the outdoors if the heating unit is outdoors. Some more or less than others.
What were you using before? I know some hot air furnaces will go through quite a bit of wood, and I also know from 17 years of living with it that my old wood-oil combo boiler was about as inefficient as you could design something to burn wood with.
czar800
ArboristSite Guru
Had a woodchuck with forced air heat. It was setup proper. The house I live in my grandfather built he used coal then wood. I grew up heating the same house with wood. it's always took about a pick up truck load a week. It's 3600 sq ft built in 1956, it's never been heated with anything other than coal or wood.
blakey
ArboristSite Operative
I would not want to own an owb without owning a loader tractor of some kind. Definitely a back saver when dealing with a larger volume and size of wood. Sometimes the first or second time I pick up a piece of wood is to put it in the owb.
That is pretty good "mileage" for a house that size. I am assuming it is insulated well and you are a couple of climates warmer than me. My indoor boiler idles at any outside temp above 20 and it will cook us out if we run it above 35 degrees. It really runs through the wood at -30 LOL.
I like how he has the pickup backed right up to the boiler to save steps too.
czar800
ArboristSite Guru
blakey
ArboristSite Operative
Yeah, those will do.
czar800
ArboristSite Guru
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NSMaple1,
I agree with some of your thinking but have some observations for you to consider. Most indoor stoves (whatever type you have) don't lose any heat to the exterior? Most indoor stoves use air to burn, where does that air come from? I'm talking most appliances and we know those draw air from inside the house and usually don't have a fresh air intake. This air comes from somewhere, around windows, doors, chimneys, sump pump tiles, bath fans and any other penetrations in the exterior. The fire acts like a huge vacuum and sucks cold air into the house from cracks wherever and into the fire. This air is freezing cold and has to be heated to whatever temperature. and a fair amount of it goes out the chimney. Since installing my OWB what I have noticed in my huge house is that there is no "drafts" in the house anymore. Before there was always cold spots near windows and doors etc. Now that there is no huge vacuum sucking cold air it I think the drafts are gone. The only air moving in our house is the interior air and whatever leaks there are seem pretty small without the vacuum. My thoughts are that this is a trade off for the heat I'm loosing outside with the OWB. Like I said before there is snow and ice hanging off my OWB, only spot that is warm is around the door and even it doesn't seem that hot. I could put foam board on it but think it's so small that it's not worth it. I usually build a temporary building around my OWB for the winter so it is sheltered and a nice spot to load even in a bad storm.
My house is much easy to control the heat now so I also think that cuts down consumption a lot.
I can burn crap wood that isn't worth all the work of getting inside the house to burn.
I get to play with bigger toys for wood, big grapple, big skids, big splitter, big wagons. Our old stove was in the basement so trips up and down the stairs were fun for my old legs. Now I get home from work, park my truck, walk 15 steps to OWB, throw a few sticks in and walk another 15 steps into the garage and house. And the best part is my wife likes to put wood in so I very seldom have to do it.
I agree with some of your thinking but have some observations for you to consider. Most indoor stoves (whatever type you have) don't lose any heat to the exterior? Most indoor stoves use air to burn, where does that air come from? I'm talking most appliances and we know those draw air from inside the house and usually don't have a fresh air intake. This air comes from somewhere, around windows, doors, chimneys, sump pump tiles, bath fans and any other penetrations in the exterior. The fire acts like a huge vacuum and sucks cold air into the house from cracks wherever and into the fire. This air is freezing cold and has to be heated to whatever temperature. and a fair amount of it goes out the chimney. Since installing my OWB what I have noticed in my huge house is that there is no "drafts" in the house anymore. Before there was always cold spots near windows and doors etc. Now that there is no huge vacuum sucking cold air it I think the drafts are gone. The only air moving in our house is the interior air and whatever leaks there are seem pretty small without the vacuum. My thoughts are that this is a trade off for the heat I'm loosing outside with the OWB. Like I said before there is snow and ice hanging off my OWB, only spot that is warm is around the door and even it doesn't seem that hot. I could put foam board on it but think it's so small that it's not worth it. I usually build a temporary building around my OWB for the winter so it is sheltered and a nice spot to load even in a bad storm.
My house is much easy to control the heat now so I also think that cuts down consumption a lot.
I can burn crap wood that isn't worth all the work of getting inside the house to burn.
I get to play with bigger toys for wood, big grapple, big skids, big splitter, big wagons. Our old stove was in the basement so trips up and down the stairs were fun for my old legs. Now I get home from work, park my truck, walk 15 steps to OWB, throw a few sticks in and walk another 15 steps into the garage and house. And the best part is my wife likes to put wood in so I very seldom have to do it.
The fact is a properly operating wood stove uses less air than is recommended for healthy indoor air quality. This fact also shoots in the foot most of the mis information that is spread about the benefits of having a separate outdoor air supply for a wood stove.
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
That's interesting. Can't say I have experienced what you have, but it likely comes down to each house & situation being different.
My boiler is in my basement (of a two storey house), right in front of a basement window. I leave the window cracked open just a hair, and it has a piece of fiberglass pink in the crack. When I'm burning, combustion air gets sucked thru the fiberglass and it goes right to the boiler. Don't notice any drafts anywhere else in the house, and if the fire is out, don't notice any cold air coming in the window either.
Like I said, some would lose more or less heat than others. Plus there's the underground pipe potential losses - but again, some lose more or less than others. I used to think my electric hot water heater had no heat loss either - it always felt cool when I put my hand on the side of it. Then I put extra insulation all around it, 4" FG batts. Now I can pull a batt back & feel the warm tank underneath.
Bottom line is, there is no one right way & we all do what works for us. Which is just fine with me. And we all get to play with our toys.
I couldn't imagine burning half a pickup load in a week to heat my house that's roughly two cords every month. A large home I guess I understand but burning like 12 cords would be double what I use then again I'm only heating a couple thousand square foot house . There is a place for big boilers but you better love to cut wood
Whitty21
ArboristSite Operative
We have a CB 6800
Think it was around $12,000 8 or so years ago. But that is in Canuck bucks. Boiler is around 110 ft from the house and the insulated pex was 10 bucks a foot or so.
In Central Ontario Canada we use around 10 cord a year of almost entirely maple to heat a 2200 sq ft two story house with a basement
Think it was around $12,000 8 or so years ago. But that is in Canuck bucks. Boiler is around 110 ft from the house and the insulated pex was 10 bucks a foot or so.
In Central Ontario Canada we use around 10 cord a year of almost entirely maple to heat a 2200 sq ft two story house with a basement
I cant justify an OWB, just cant. Increased wood consumption and high initial cost is a deal breaker, I would absolutely consider getting a IWB first. One of those high end Frolings go for about 10K and would reduce the wood consumption and shorten your payback vs OWB. The down side is they dont have a large water jacket so thermal storage becomes an issue. You could make your own thermal storage tank in your basement though. It all depends on your goals, if keeping wood and the firebox outside of the home ranks very high then and IWB is likely not going to cut the mustard. If its something you would consider then a high end IWB with lambda control beats the snot out of a OWB hands down. Plus you dont need to bury any pex and worry about heat loss etc, just tie directly into your oil boiler.
