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Originally Posted by celticfalcon
can anyone give advice on this?i use fuel oil but to much money. wood is not a problem
thanx
tom
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I've had an outdoor wood burning furnace for about 10 years now. If you have a wood source cheap enough to get on your own woodlot, or able to buy 8 ft. log lenghts of hardood to saw yourself, that's the way to go to save money. In my case, if I buy 12 cord lots delivered, it saves about half from using the oil fired backup furnace. 12 cords delivered here is about $1000, compared to filling the oil tank about 4 times during winter at about $600 a whack (4 X $600 = $2400). The savings is substantial by using wood heat in the country where they allow. If you cut your own, then it's only the cost of your time hauling, gas for the transport, and your chain saw (sweat equity!).
The benefits of wood boiler outside furnace is this:
1. safety concerns addressed. Creosote fires in the house would be eliminated.
2. smoke and mess in the house are gone
3. you can burn green wood
4. you can burn logs of wood up to 4' in my firebox, without splitting wood
5. it is a warm and even heat that is best for the coldes days, especially if you have beneath the basement floor radiant circulation connected directly to your furnace ciruclating pump
6. you get FREE hot water with a simple installation kit to your existing hot water tank. if it's an electric hot water tank, the wood heat circulating fluid heats through the copper pipe 'exchanger' and your electric only kicks in if your wood furnace isn't heating. Water is Hot...the same temp as the boiler about 170 F, or whatever you set it at.
7. your wood boiler should have an automatic damper shut down to regulate the temperature.
8. a load of wood in the heater on a generally 'average' cold winter day of 0 degrees Farhenheit should last most of the day. Generally, feed the furnace 2 times a day.
9. antifreeze mixed with water in the boiler jacket assures that it won't freeze outside if you can't attend the furnace for a few days as long as you keep circulating the fluid through the pump.
10. Cost up front can be a few thousand...about $5K as a 'rough' figure. You can place it at a distance from the house. Mine is 150 ft below. Closer and the water lines with digging will cost less. Payback for the setup should be about 3 or 4 years at most, from the savings over fossil fuels. It would be probably 2 years or so if you heated electrically.
Mine is 10 years going and still working. Even if I had to replace the unit, the water lines are intact to hook up, but I don't envision that for several or many years to come.
