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Tractor Talk Discussion Forum

OT....Who here heats with wood?

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MCL

03-18-2008 05:17:05




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I have a gas furnace in my basement. Was thinking of adding a wood burner to help out. I am talking about in the basement to work in tandem with the gas furnace. Anybody got a setup like this? How is it hooked up to make everything work? I am no expert on this but not totally ignorant either.

Thanks.




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rettchr

03-19-2008 07:34:35




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
We have electric baseboard and a woodburner in the basement as supplemental heating. One factor that has not been mentioned is your INSURANCE. Be sure that adding an inside woodburning unit does not void your fire insurance coverage. We have to pay an extra premium each year due to the presence of the wood buring unit.

A second point is that a fair amount of "dirt" comes in with the wood, both soil and bark as well as sawdust and even insects. The outside units avoid this problem and also reduce fire risk.

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Larry59

03-18-2008 15:47:56




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 Here's what I do with my furnace of wood. in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
I have the outside wood furnace I use in place of electric in house during winter months. Works great but found at times I did not get up in time to save the fire from going out. For at times the wood burns up and leaves very little hot ashes to start another fire. So what I do is buy those large fire place logs. Cut them in 1/4 pieces and tie each one up in plastic bag to keep them from drying out to much. Then when I find I have little to start the fire back up are I want it to start up faster. I put one of them quarter fire logs in and a little torch bottle I keep to start it quick. Works out great and I have fire quickly. For in the early mornings you may not want to get that ole tired body up and go stoke the fire. This really saves me time and gets my fire going good. A few friends have now change to doing as I do. They were throwing diesel on the logs and old oil trying to get it to fire quicker.

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Spritzer

03-18-2008 14:47:20




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
Have 1440 sq ft ranch house. Heat upstairs only w/wood, and basement w/baseboard heaters. Heat pump for back-up. In winter, firewood is hauled in small covered trailer from woodshed to near deck door. Wood is brought into the house as needed in a canvas carrier. One or two trips a day will do it!- - depending on the weather. Stove is airtight Pacific Energy.



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JTinNJ

03-18-2008 10:59:44




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
I have hot water baseboard heat.I heat the house and damestic hot water 100% with an outdoor wood burning boiler. The propane boiler in the basement is kept hot by the outdoor boiler though a heat exchanger.The indoor boiler don't know it's not burning propane,all it knows is that it's hot and happy. The best part is the over grown fense rows are getting cleaned up.



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Bill in IL

03-18-2008 08:51:19




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
I heat 95% plus with wood in my old farmhouse. Its only about 1600 sq feet. I have 2 separate systems the gas furnace and the wood furnace. I was able in my case to get away with only 2 registers in the house and airflow back down the basement stairwell to circulate air in the house and heat everything evenly. I also have a separate thermostat that runs the woodburner and the furnace is set about 62 for when I am gone.

Your biggest issue if you are going to heat with wood is saving labor and figuring out how to get the wood in the house. I suggest building a wood chute if you plan to heat a lot.

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buickanddeere

03-18-2008 08:17:45




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
I have a high efficiency airtight fireplace insert with a couple of oversize computer fans to push more air around the insert"s heat exchanger, with less noise. Being located in the basement convection up & down the two stairways heats the bulk of the house. I also extended the cold air return plenum to draw from the ceiling infront of the insert. And just leave the fan running to circulate warm air to the farthest rooms. If doing the job again from scratch. To avoid smoke, dirt, bugs, dirty floors and for increased fire safety. The system will be similar to jdemaris"s. In all likelyhood the next heating system will be ground source water geo-furnace. And keep the forced air electric/wood insert for backup heat. My parent"s and Brother all wish they had installed their systems years ago. Add a good sized windturbine and net metering. Heat,cooling & power for "free". A little more freedom from external sour$es of heat/power.

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gene bender

03-18-2008 07:38:12




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
You just hook them into the fan area of your furnace. They will come with blower that is controlled by a gadget in the stove that turn the blower on and off assording to the fire. I have one in my shop thats made for that but i just use it for shop heat. The brand is HOT BLAST look them up on your computer. How about a corn burner they can work the same.



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Nancy Howell

03-18-2008 07:25:48




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
Can't help much. My dad lived in Gosport, Indiana. He tied a wood burning furnace into their central heat unit. He had a good sized, two story house and he said the wood stove did 99% of the heating - the oil burning furnace rarely, if ever, kicked in. That's about all I know.



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jdemaris

03-18-2008 06:29:51




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 Diagram and photos in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
You didn't mention if you have forced hot-air, or hot-water? Big difference.

I heat a large farmhouse and a three story barn and workshop 100% with wood.

In regard to what you're proposing, I had that setup once. A hot-air wood furnace coupled to an existing hot-air oil furnace down the basement.
To make it work correctly, you will probably need to fabricate a specical "back-flow preventer" in the plenum on what is called a "parallel" installation. That depends on your particular furnace and plenum setup. Some MUST have the back-flow preventer, and some can get buy with something simpler. With many, if you don't have it, when the wood furnace kicks on, it will suck air from the oil-furnace cold ducts - backwards - and wind up sucking air from the existing hot-air ducts - which does't not work.

I redid my system and built an addition onto the house at 1st floor level - with a stand-alone wood-furnace. It has it's own hot-air ducts and also heats all our hot-water with thermo-siphon to an 80 gallon storage tank. The chimney meets Canadian burn-out standards that are much better then USA standards. Also the room will hold three full cords of wood at at time, and keeps it nice and dry. As a side-benefit, we hang all our winter clothes in there - and even when sopping wet -they are bone dry in an hour. This system is virtually fire-proof. If the chimney ever caught fire - it would still be safe. Also, I can clean it in 15 minutes, from inside - no need to go on the roof. Keep in mind that you can't turn down a wood furnace like you can with a gas or oil furnace. And, even when it IS run low because the house is hot - it will smolder a bit and soot up the chimney. The chimney is going to get dirty no matter how good and dry your wood is - especially in early fall or early spring if when temps are not super cold yet. If I build another house, I will install exactly the same setup. A big plus is loading wood without having to go outside. And, if you bring in wet wood, it will be dry in a week or two -long before you have to burn it. When temps are at zero or below, the room holds more than a month's worth of wood. Biggest hurdle of my installation was installing hot-air ducts that go underground. I used flexible insulated heat-duct with corrugated plastic culvert pipe on the outside of it where buried. If you ever decide to buy stainless chimney pipe, try to get Canadian versions and NOT USA versions.

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oldmax

03-18-2008 05:54:02




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
I heat with Wood. But I use a wood stove in Kitchen Also have Fire place in Livivg Room & Package unit "Gas furnace With A/C For Back up .
We set to kick on at about 65 deg . We have a Englander Wood stove with a cramic Disk that means you have to burn Dry wood . I will have my wood cut and stacked by first of June for next year. Let it set in sun until the first of Aug then cover with Tarp until I use it . My House is 3000 Sq Ft the higest gas bill we had last winter was $73 Not bad .

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cj in wisconsin

03-18-2008 05:46:38




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
If you have a furnace that is vented thru the chimney you cannot run them thru the same chimney. If you have a high efficiency that is vented with plastic you can hook the air plenums together, they make a sort of louvered check valve so that the air is not forced backward thru the furnace not being used. Be sure to check with your insurance man, around here it is very hard to get insurance if you have an indoor wood furnace or heater.

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phillip d

03-18-2008 05:44:26




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
We have just like you are refering to in our home and it works well.It is right beside our oil fired one,there is a big rectangular pipe coming from the top of the oil one blowing to the side of the wood one.The air goes around the fire box and on up to the plenium ontop of the wood one then feeds into the duct work.This setup needs only requires one fan.We have a two story home with 1200 squear feet and heat it solely with wood.The wood portion is about 150 000 btu capacity.We use anywhere from 8-12 cords of wood depending on how cold the winters are,and being in Canada,they can be very long and cold.We burn no oil.Costs us no more than 1200 a year,as we usually cut our own,but last year bought it in 8 foot lengths.pd.

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onefarmer

03-18-2008 05:36:34




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 Re: OT....Who here heats with wood? in reply to MCL, 03-18-2008 05:17:05  
I heat with 99%+ wood. The hot air pipe from the wood stove is hooked to the hot air run of the gas furnace so it is basicly in parallel with the gas furnace.



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