outdoor fire burning heater questions

[Columbia,SC.]

I am not sure what to call it, it is one of those free standing outdoor wood stoves. You hook into your duct work and it helps to heat the house. I 'see' prices around $1,300 but I wonder how much the extras will cost me. I have plenty of wood to burn. What other costs will I have to pay for in hooking it to the house? I know/think that it is not a job for a newbie but I am pretty sure I can do it.
What 'other' costs should I be aware of for the install?

[Country Lady]

Originally Posted by Columbia,SC.

I am not sure what to call it, it is one of those free standing outdoor wood stoves. You hook into your duct work and it helps to heat the house. I 'see' prices around $1,300 but I wonder how much the extras will cost me. I have plenty of wood to burn. What other costs will I have to pay for in hooking it to the house? I know/think that it is not a job for a newbie but I am pretty sure I can do it.
What 'other' costs should I be aware of for the install?

Melissa, over on the Countryside Families forum, has one of those. I think her husband installed theirs, so she might not know the cost, but might be able to tell you whats involved in installing it.

[Ross]

An outdoor boiler? The buried lines can be very expensive (almost as much as the boiler) . Depending on what distribution system you have there canbe quite a cost there too, if you're converting an old furnace into an air handler with a heater core you'll have the radiator, de-airation, valves, a pump, maybe zone valves ........ it can be fairly simple or as complex as your system needs! Our first boiler (including duct work in one building) cost $25000 (which would have been closer to 20k usd at the time) but we did 3 buildings for that! Every job is so different it'd be tricky to guess.

[Mutti]

Cost us approx. $8500 to install our Central Boiler system...lovely clean hot water heat instead of dirty wood stoves. Of course, that was 10 years ago prices. For $200 load of hollow logs a year we heat our two story farm house and all domestic water. No way to install conventional furnace in 120 year old house. If you are not handy plan for someone to help you install.... the forced air type have caused several house fires down here. DEE

[ceresone]

Is he speaking of a boiler system, or a outdoor wood furnace? big difference.

[MELOC]

with permission (and i hope the OP grants it), i would like to ask about adding extra circuits. i am seriously considering installing (or having installed) an outside boiler. i have a gravel driveway that is about 130-150 feet long with a little icy hill and several outbuildings that could benefit from occassional heat. i wanted thoughts on how to best utilize extra circuits for heating outbuildings and the driveway occassionally. could those circuits be used on occassion and drained when not in use? do they need to be left on always? the last system i saw used only water and no antifreeze, so there is a danger of freezing for the loops that are not always in use.

[Countrybumpkin]

I took one of those Tractor supply add-on wood furnaces, built a block room outside, right on the other side of the wall from my furnace, and ran the duct work through the attic to the furnace ductwork. all the smoke, ashes are outside, and it heats our old house great!

[Columbia,SC.]

I am talking about a wood burning outdoor stove. Only for hot ait circulatiing thru my existing duct work in my 8 year old house.

[Kevingr]

Like a kitchen wood burning stove? I guess we don't understand what you are talking about exactly.

[just_sawing]

First of all there are two different type of hat water heaters. One has a constant water flow to the house. This is good in areas that it is very cold so the heat keeps flowing especially in the ditch.
The other turns on a small pump on command which pumps 180 degree water to the coils. They are fairly easy to under stand and maintain.
I burn cutoffs from my sawmill and my bill went from 250 to 80 dollars for electricity.

[Stephen in SOKY]

Which make & model are you looking at? I'd looked at the Charmaster (charmaster.com) Embers model. Not a boiler, but rather an outside wood fired furnace. But, they're much more expensive than $1300.

[shaycool]

This is probably what you are looking for:
http://www.outsidewoodheater.com/

[matt_man]

Originally Posted by Mutti

Cost us approx. $8500 to install our Central Boiler system...lovely clean hot water heat instead of dirty wood stoves. Of course, that was 10 years ago prices. For $200 load of hollow logs a year we heat our two story farm house and all domestic water. No way to install conventional furnace in 120 year old house. If you are not handy plan for someone to help you install.... the forced air type have caused several house fires down here. DEE

We have a Central Boiler as well and it cost us about the same 3/4 years ago. We got next to the biggest model they had. We did all of the work ourselves except for the man coming out to dig the lines and flatten out the spot where we were going to put it. I would highly recommend one though, they are much more efficient than other models. We have several friends with Hardy's and they heat fine but the temp is not constant like with ours. There is a separate thermostat on the furnace that keep the water a constant 181 degrees. Then the thermostat in the house regulates when the blower kicks on and off. The pump on the furnace always pumps the water to the house, the blower shuts on and off as needed.

Rachel

[Kevingr]

As long as you can connect your cold air return to the stove it really shouldn't be a big deal to install it. It doesn't say if it requires your furnace blower to be on or not, it may just operate off the blower in the stove. Compared to an outside wood "boiler" which has many variables and added costs this seems pretty simple. My concern would be the room that the vent is installed in could be pretty warm compared to the rest of the house. But, it's certainly cheap enough compared to a boiler.

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by Columbia,SC.

I am talking about a wood burning outdoor stove. Only for hot ait circulatiing thru my existing duct work in my 8 year old house.

The outdoor wood burning stoves/furnaces that are set away from the house use an underground system to transfer heat to your existing duct work. They heat a liquid that circulates to a heat exchanger in your ductwork. Is this the system you mean? Or are you thinking of a stove like Shaycool linked to?

[Columbia,SC.]

the link that Shaycool shows is more what I am talking about. Not a boiler or any hot water heating going on. This is just to add to my exsiting duct work and heat the house instead of the propane gas heater,, kinda by pass that and heat with wood.

[collegeboundgal]

this is what we use, http://outsidewoodheater.com/
we've had it for going on 3 yrs now and LOVE it. true, it can be cold in the morning when you have to build up the fire again, but that's part of wood heat. the only thing we did was buy an extra moter for it to blow the hot air in with incase of damage, and every year we replace the insulation that covers the duct that brings air from house back to box. we some times get a new stove pipe. we sometimes get it too hot in the house and have to open a window! in the middle of winter!

-Melissa

[farmerscotty]

looks to me like you did not read over the site very well, he states on this page "heater pricing and shipping"

Usually the extras will run 75 to 175 dollars more than stove. Give him a call he won't bite!



Whats included with the heater?



1) The heater itself

2) Standard length heat duct.(4 foot)

3) Blower

4) Blower box

5) Heat sensor in electrical box to go inside heat duct adn metal cover.

6) Romex conduit connectors (2)

7) High heat wire to go from sensor to blower via electrical conduit.

8) Screws to put it all together.

9) 6 inch beauty ring and top collar for chimney pipe to go into.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



What's not included with the heater but you will probably need.

I am finding (9-20-07) that Lowe's and Home Depot in many areas have quit carrying 8 inch pipe. You will need to look in your phone book for a "heating and ac supplier" to get the 8 inch pipe and flex ductwork. A good heating and air shop can tell you where to purchase 8 inch products also. It is not some off size product!

I do have almost all of the cold air return parts available. If you have a hard time finding any items I can ship them out to you. Shipping will be actual shipping costs, I would ship with US mail. Contact me for more information on cost and availability.

1) 6 inch galv. pipe to use as chimney. Check local fire code to make sure you get it tall enough from eve.


2) 6 inch metal rain cap


3) 10ft of ½ metal conduit for chimney braces and electric wire to run thru.


4) 2 tubes silicon to seal up your heater.


5) 1 roll new duct tape (small one)


6) Electrical wire to get power to the heater and conduit if needed to shield it.(Must be wired to your local electrical code)


7) Some concrete blocks to set the heater on to get it off the ground.


8) Optional prestress concrete pad to set the heater on instead of ground.


9) Optional angle iron frame to set heater in instead of ground.


10) 8 inch “starter” collar to attach to blower box for a “start” for your cold air return.


11) 8 inch elbows to get the return line down and under your foundation


12) Either a 2ft or 5ft 8 inch galv. pipe to get you thru foundation.


13) 8 inch flexible duct work to run for your cold air returns (comes in 25 ft boxes).


14) 8 inch tee if having more than one cold air return vent.


15) 4x12x8 floor boot for the cold air return


16) 4x12 cover for the floor boot.


Remember the cold air return must be no less than 8 inch!

17) Some kind of metal tape (plumbers tape) to go around the chimney pipe for the braces to bolt up with. It bolts to the ends of the chimney braces.

These items are not expensive and won't add a real large amount your to your overall cost of a heater.



Call Scott if you have questions about what you need to hook up your heater.

417-581-7755 Ozark, Missouri


PS Yes this is my site, yes I plugging myself on here, yes it works and works well! Come see mine hooked to the house....yes you can webcam on the website!

Scott