Outdoor wood furnace revisit

JD Tim · Jan 5, 2012

I guess I should of add more information to my previous post. House and garage are both new construction and very well insulated. I"m in southwest PA and do currently heat with wood using a woodburner. The garage is unheated at this time. Both the house and garage have radiant heat in the floors(neither is hooked up yet). What I was looking at was how much wood you guys use approximately to heat the same square footage(8000 sq. ft.) I use about 7 cord now. I have a chance to pick up a Heat Source 1 model 2000 for a steal. The furnace is brand new sitting in a wharehouse. Although heat source in now out of business if I can get it for the right price it should be worth it. Let me know what you guys think.

gtractorfan · Jan 5, 2012

My son-in-law installed an outdoor woodstove water heater several seasons ago. He has a large outbuilding with in-floor heat and a wall heater in the house. I think he's starting to regret the investment. It takes a _LOT_ of wood, and he says it gets tiresome feeding it 3 times every 24 hours in all kinds of weather.

Brian G. NY · Jan 5, 2012

I bet he"d find buying fuel at today"s prices "tiresome" too!

2150puller · Jan 5, 2012

I heat my shop with an outdoor woodburner and radiant tubes in the floor. The building is 4800 sf with 16 ft ceilings. I keep the temp. set at 70. It is well insulated, 6" in side walls 14"in the ceiling.I use about 1 wheelbarrow load of wood per 24 hours at 0 degrees.

2150puller · Jan 5, 2012

Sorry forgot to say I live in southeast Ohio.

gtractorfan · Jan 5, 2012

I think you're right. There "ain't" no easy (or cheap) way.

JDseller · Jan 5, 2012

Tell him to try using bigger chunks of wood. My son put one in several years ago. He always split his wood too small. He said some one told him it would burn better with the more surface area. He was not getting 3-4 hours out of a fill with the small split wood. What it does is not hold fire. IF you put in a big chunk it will burn the outside and last twice as long. These furnaces have forced draft and they will burn different than a natural draft stove. So he now just splits it into small enough pieces to lift. 12-20 inch chunks. The stove now used about half the wood and will hold fire 12-14 hours with no problems.

MattE · Jan 6, 2012

In NW PA I heat 6000 sqft with 10-12 cord. This is forced air.

I have to stoke my furnace twice a day unless it is below zero then it will take three times a day unless I really load it full which I don't like to do b/c you end up with too much of an ash bed. Bigger pieces are definitely better which is less work cutting/splitting. If I can pick them up they go in right like they are.

My father has radiant floor in his house/shop of around the same square footage and burns less wood than me. It is all about getting your lines insulated well so you're not trying to heat the ground.

Outdoor wood furnace revisit

JD Tim

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gtractorfan

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Brian G. NY

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2150puller

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2150puller

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gtractorfan

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JDseller

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MattE

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