Lil'House outside wood heater?

6e · #1 08/22/08, 01:15 PM

For a long time it's been my dream to get an outdoor wood boiler, but with the price of them, I don't see it happening any time soon. But I ran across this website and wondering if anyone had one?

If so, what's your experience with it?

How long have you had it?

Does it work to heat your house?

How much wood do you go through?

Tell me all, the good, the bad, the ugly. I'm trying to decide if this is the way for us to go. We have central heat, but with the cost of propane going up all the time, we can't hardly afford it any more. We'd like a back up source of heat that will keep the furnace from coming on all the time. We live in Kansas and we do get below 0 temps, but not all that often, although we can get weeks of single digit lows and teens or twenties for highs, but our problem lies in that we're wide open on the north and we do get some hellacious winds that really bite. We'll be trying to heat about a 1500 sq ft home that is newer, but still gets cold. We have a wood burning stove in the living room, but I don't like leaving it burning at night with no one watching it and it's hard to get the heat to circulate down the hall way to the bedrooms.

Soo, tell me if this lil'house heater would be a good deal.

big rockpile · #2 08/22/08, 03:30 PM

My neighbor uses one and he likes his.

I talked with the Guy that makes these seemed liked an honest guy.Thats about all I can tell you.

big rockpile

beowoulf90 · #3 08/25/08, 08:07 AM

Just a word of caution....

Please check your local regs before you buy one..

I know in some areas they are starting to ban them from being used. The reasons I'm hearing are;

"They smoke too much" to "neighbor disputes" so just check you local ord. first...

I know I would like to also get one, but the costs are to high for me also..

Beeman · #4 08/25/08, 08:20 AM

sorry, just second hand info. my BIL lives up north and heating oil is killing him. He just priced an outdoor wood burner for his house. He said $12k and he does the whole installation and building of a shed himself.

plumcreekfarm · #5 08/25/08, 09:42 AM

We put ours in in Nov of 02 and it was the best financial decision we have made. We spent around $5000 - $3400 for a new previous years model woodmaster and the rest for plumbing, pumps, and heat exchangers. Works great. We keep our house at 73 all winter and in NE ohio that is nice. It also heats our hot water and we are about to hook it to the poultry processing part of our new barn. When we installed it, heating oil was still cheap and everyone thought we were crazy for spending so much money. We figured a 5 year payback and whith higher prices it was only two years. We would be shivering and in debt all winter without our woodmaster! My parents bought one two years ago too. They wish they had done it sooner.

beowoulf90 · #6 08/25/08, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plumcreekfarm

We put ours in in Nov of 02 and it was the best financial decision we have made. We spent around $5000 - $3400 for a new previous years model woodmaster and the rest for plumbing, pumps, and heat exchangers. Works great. We keep our house at 73 all winter and in NE ohio that is nice. It also heats our hot water and we are about to hook it to the poultry processing part of our new barn. When we installed it, heating oil was still cheap and everyone thought we were crazy for spending so much money. We figured a 5 year payback and whith higher prices it was only two years. We would be shivering and in debt all winter without our woodmaster! My parents bought one two years ago too. They wish they had done it sooner.

Great!

I wish we could afford it... Beside the cost of the unit and piping to the house I would have to install some type of system in the house and that is where the costs lay.... Our home has no type of heating system other then the coal/wood stoves we use... and since it is over 250 yo and built in 3 sections getting trough 20 inch thick stone walls can be a pain, at the least...

pheasantplucker · #7 08/25/08, 01:48 PM

I have two neighbors (father and daughter) who live across the road...and down the road...they each have one. I also know another fellow who has one (about seven miles from me) They all love theirs...The gal who lives across the road from me burns night and day during the winter and I am directly down wind from her (about .25 mile) and the smoke is not an issue for me. good luck.

haypoint · #8 08/25/08, 03:36 PM

As with most things there are good and bad outside wood burners.
However, they all share some things in common. Being outside they lose heat. Being away from the house, they lose heat. They burn all sorts of wood, long lengths and you can shut them down to keep a fire for a long time. Therefore, the not quite dry wood, the unsplit and therefore wet inside wood and unsplittable long pieces can be allowed to smolder for days, sending out an awful stench that everyone downwind will hate. Open it up and use well seasoned wood and you'll be running outside at least twice daily, but the hate mail from your neighbors will stop.

Cheaper than oil or natural gas. You won't have the messy wood in the house and you'll burn nearly twice as much wood as you would with an efficient wood furnace in your basement or garage.

Might be a good business to get into. Fairly easy to build and most (all?) outside wood furnaces aren't even tested to be safe. If they were, I'd suggest you put in in a garage, use that otherwise wasted heat to warm the garage.

If you like cutting wood and get it for free, don't have neighbors and don't mind the smoke, are willing to build a shed to keep the wood dry and snow off, you don't mind standing out in the cold while the fire gets going, go for it.

Hard to get honest testimonials from folks that spent a fortune on one of those wood hogs. Better to talk to someone that "usta have one".

glenn amolenaar · #9 08/25/08, 05:16 PM

The neighbor has a nice unit, heats water and home. Most of the wind comes out of S/W this is right in line with our home the smoke and smell is not any different than any other wood heaters in our area. We are going to install one also.
Glenn

6e · #10 08/25/08, 08:02 PM

Well, we don't have to worry about zoning laws or neighbors as we have neither, so that's not a problem.

I'm interested mostly in the brand, "Lil'House Outside heater". It's not a boiler and sells for about $1,500. The man seems real honest and it doesn't work like a boiler, but keeps the danger of the fire outside and not inside the house. We have an indoor wood stove too, but I don't like to leave it burning at night when no one is watching it. I've seen too many families burnt out of their house at best by unwatched wood stoves and fireplaces during the night while they slept. So, to me, it would help save on propane perhaps and keep the danger outside.

We also don't have to worry about wood either. Have plenty of that around.

Thank you for the answers.

free-2-b-me · #11 08/26/08, 05:14 AM

We just purchased one of these units . Haven't hooked it up yet .

kyfiddle · #12 08/26/08, 05:57 AM

We have had a Lil' House woodburner for three winters now. We didn't use it at all last winter though because we were busy building our new house- luckily it was a fairly mild winter. I plan on moving it to the new place before winter and will definitely be putting it into service as soon as it's needed. We were very happy with it's performance, and the only drawbacks I could see with it were that the chimney seemed to clog up about every 3 to 4 weeks forcing us to take it down to clean it out or replace it, (I finally bought a spare so that we could swap the dirty one out with the already cleaned spare.) and it WILL get the side of your house NASTY in the vicinity of the heater from flue-pipe condensation that gets wind blown onto the siding, which may or may not be a big thing for you. I could live with it, but know some people are very particular about such things.
Another thing to think about is to be sure and ask about the life of the firebox-which I was told is replaceable. The factory told me that 5 years was probably the upper end of it's life- if taken care of, and at the time was about a $200 replacement cost. (plus shipping round trip back to the factory)
All in all though I think it does a great job.
kyfiddle.

michiganfarmer · #13 08/26/08, 06:33 AM

consider building one instead of buying one. I built my own.

Lil'House outside wood heater? - Homesteading Questions

adpond · #14 08/26/08, 06:39 AM

We live in SE kansas and a few years ago we bought our outdoor stove from Central boiler in Burlington....I think. It was 7,000, but it's an attractive looking unit with a shed looking housing. We didn't want to go too cheap on account of safety and quality. It has made such a difference in our winter heating, we used to go broke trying to keep our 100 year old two story house at 60 degrees in the winter. Now we keep it at at least 70 degrees easily and could keep it warmer. I think with the gas prices rising it will have itself paid for this winter. The only downfall is having to cut the wood, and making sure it stays going on a long work day, but that's just user error. You can also get it rigged up to heat your water, we have yet to do so. I wish I could give an accurate estimate of how much wood it goes through, that's my husbands part of the deal.

adpond · #15 08/26/08, 06:48 AM

I read that some heaters leave soot in the house. We haven't had anything like that. Besides having to load a fire box it's been no different than using central heat and air. We have a thermostat and everything. We also have not had to clean out the duct work or anything like that in two winters use.

cfabe · #16 08/26/08, 08:09 AM

If you have an inside wood stove already honestly I would advise you to have it inspected by a good chimney or stove company and make sure it is safe to use, and then use it. Run the furnace on fan only setting to distribute the heat. If the stove is older upgrading to a newer airtight stove will make it easier to control the fire and be more efficient. A stove in good condition, with a good chimney, burning seasoned wood is completely safe. Obviously this option does not rely on grid power.

Another option would be an indoor wood burning furnace. These run in the $1000-1500 range and are hooked up in parallel with your existing propane furnace and use the existing duct work. You may need to install a new metal chimney depending on your house layout, or you may be able to use the current chimney that was used for the wood stove. This will be more efficient than an outside wood boiler (OWB) and can be convenient if you have a good way to get wood into the house (dump thru basement window, pull pickup into garage, etc). Some but not all indoor wood furnaces can be run without electricy in a power outage to provide a reduced ammount of heat.

An Outside Wood Boiler is the most expensive option. Probably the safest, the fire is completely outside the house. Will need to trench to house to run the hot water pipes and power. They are least efficient and will burn 50% more to double the wood a normal wood stove would. They do burn larger pieces of wood so you won't need to split as much. If you have lots of free wood this could be a good option. They can be used to heat your hot water and to heat more than one building. Some of them are reported to smoke terribly, it really depends on what you are burning and how you are burnign it. Green wood on a warm day will smoke a lot. Dry wood will not smoke any more than a normal wood stove. You must provide backup electricy to have heat in a power outage since the heat is pumped to the house via water. Some areas are banning/restricting usage due to smoke complaints.

scorpian5 · #17 08/26/08, 08:18 AM

Some brands such as aquatherm and a few others sell there boilers without the enclosure at a pretty good savings that will work in a garage or small shed

Beeman · #18 08/29/08, 07:37 AM

http://www.outsidewoodheater.com/id3.html

Is this the wood heater you're talking about? I remember a thread about this in the past. This does look interesting but it doesn't sound as well made as it could or should be. Sounds like thin steel and no firebrick lining. Could be an issue as tho where it needs to be located to get maximum heat into the right room.

I would have to go with the make sure your wood stove setup now is in excellent working order and go with it. I don't see the problem of burning your stove with no one watching it. I would look at using ceiling fans to move the heat from your current stove and spend the money tightening up your house.

scorpian5 · #19 08/29/08, 02:33 PM

I wonder how long the drums take to burn through and fill your house with smoke and fire?

hiddenriverhr3 · #20 09/03/08, 02:33 PM

I forget the site to which has plans to build your own. I actually bought them and was planning on building one with friends help but it is quite extensive better be a really good welder and fabricator. I decided to sell my hosue instead. Let me know if interested in the plans.