outdoor wood furnaces
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Goodlord:bash:1500 Sq ft in a well insulated house will use about 7 cord with a decent stove like fisher, those out door stoves eat wood like an old steam engine. My neighbor went from 9 cord to 22 cord as it has to burn all the time for the hot water, in fact they are being outlawed in many towns around here because the smoke goes in neighbors houses.
he now knows that he should have kept his stove and put in a propane water heater.
he now knows that he should have kept his stove and put in a propane water heater.
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We have two outdoor boilers heating 4 zones over 3 buildings. We use approximately 4 bush cords plus some pallets and some scrap wood (difficult to estimate but not that much) to heat the works. Instalation and sizing are very important. Set up of the heat exchanger is very important. Cheap unprofesional instals always cost you more in the end. I'll ask my brother who manages the smaller boiler what he's using as it'd be close to your sizing.
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I think that we need to define EXACTLY what everyone is referring to as "a cord" of wood. The correct definition is a tightly stacked unit of wood that measures 48" wide by 48" high by 96" long or 4'x 4' x 8' or even better, 128 cubic feet of wood. Face cords, ricks, etc. are ALL short versions of what a FULL CORD OF WOOD entails and are used by those who are selling wood to the unwary who may not know the difference. It may also be used by those who don't know any better.......so buyer beware.
Since I also reside in Michigan and also heat with an outdoor boiler, I'm inclined to think that 7thswan's buddy at work is using the term and basing it on a "face cord" .....which could be anything stacked up 4'x8'........with lengths ranging from a foot to 16"+......there's no way of really knowing unless we actually see it or measure it. In other words, they may ONLY be using 1/4 to 1/3 of a full cord and counting it as the same thing......when in reality, they are only using 10-13 full cords during a winter season. Which is about right for most of the state if they don't have adequate insulation. Even in the U.P. (upper penisula) I've never heard of ANYONE using 40 FULL CORDS of wood to heat their home!!!
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We're using probably 10-12 full cords to heat 2200 square feet but our winter is a lot longer and colder. Plus the wood I use is only the wood I can't sell, tops, dead or rotten wood or inferior species I have to cut to get at the good stuff.
$200/cord for good hardwood here, I don't think it would make sense to burn good wood particularly if you were buying it.
$200/cord for good hardwood here, I don't think it would make sense to burn good wood particularly if you were buying it.
The people that say they use to much wood usually do not own one. I use less wood in my boiler than my father with a wood stove. I have yet to see a outdoor wood stove belch a cloud of black smoke all day like you hear some people say.I do not measure my wood i just cut till i have a bigger pile than last year and if i have any left it gets burnt the next winter
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It amazes me on how people only complain. I burn more wood but
1. I don't have to burn the good stuff.
2 I stack my wood at the stove
3 My whole house is warm without the hot/cold spots.
I have heated ouses only with wood for years and people try to compare there assist with heater and think it's apples to apples.
1. I don't have to burn the good stuff.
2 I stack my wood at the stove
3 My whole house is warm without the hot/cold spots.
I have heated ouses only with wood for years and people try to compare there assist with heater and think it's apples to apples.
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Well shoot, feel free to come over and we'll spend the day watching my neighbors unit smoke away. If that doesn't satisfy you, we can take a ride and go look at a few others I know that smoke quite steadily.
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Hmmm our two don't belch smoke continuously either. No mountain of ash every season either.......... just to head off another comment. Sounds like they're either using very poor wood or the unit is undersized (poor lines, oversized uncontrolled heat exchanger)? Hard to tell but they should not belch smoke unless they are struggling to keep up with the demand or don't have the quality of wood to make heat.
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Some folks bought the outside furnaces because they were told they could burn green wood in it. Others, fill the thing right up and then shut it down, to give a longer burn time. Since they often take longer pieces, there is less split wood. Un-split wood takes a lot longer to dry out. Put a smoldering furnace with a load of "not quite dry" wood, add a chimney that terminates 12 feet above ground level and you'll get crabby neighbors every time.
Save some money, save some wood, install an inside furnace. IMHO.
Save some money, save some wood, install an inside furnace. IMHO.
We heated our studio last year with a small vermont casting heater and never turned on the propane heater. Used less than four cords. So this year we bought another vermont casting heater for the house. The Studio is 1600 square feet and the house is only 1200. We have 8 cords of dry oak ready. A friend of mine has a out door burner and uses about 10 just for his house. For the money buy a heater.
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Our Empyres use 1.5 amps for the draft fan and damper so a small solar system could supply it. Maybe bigger than a fence charger but not bigger than a small RV system. The rest of the system needs the circ pumps. and I'm not sure what they need, 10 amps comes to mind but its probably less. One per building using an air handler (although pump sizing is important) you might need more depending on the design. Taco 007 or a 008 are typical, similar to an Armstrong Astro 30 or 50 Not sure if you can get DC pumps I think I'd be tempted to use a small inverter if it's just for back up.
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Cons: they produce a lot of low lying smoke that chokes neighborhoods. I wouldn't want one around my home. This statement is based on observations of the outdoor wood furnaces I've seen. Those who love them can argue all day about better ones not doing that, fuel type, etc but the reality is that is what I'm seeing. I imagine it does bad things to have that level of smog around your house.
Pros: ...I'm thinking... okay, you can burn almost anything in them... uh, wait, you're not supposed to burn junk wood, trash, etc. Scratch that pro. Well, I can't think of much in the ways of pros. Certainly having to go outside when it is 40°F below zero to stoke the fire is not my idea of fun.
Me, I'll take our little cottage with its little wood stove that burns about 3/4 full cords a year to keep it toasty warm. 40 cords, 20 cords, 12 cords, 7 cords, eek! Too much work cutting, splitting, stacking, feeding the fire, hauling ash, etc. I've got too much else to do.
Tip: If you have a big house consider closing down most of it and heating just the core in the winter. That is what we used to do with our old farm house. It helped. It's a traditional way of getting through the winter in the north country back before petro was so cheap and plentiful. Hmm... Maybe with rising prices and petro shortages we'll see a comeback of that idea.
Cheers,
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
Pros: ...I'm thinking... okay, you can burn almost anything in them... uh, wait, you're not supposed to burn junk wood, trash, etc. Scratch that pro. Well, I can't think of much in the ways of pros. Certainly having to go outside when it is 40°F below zero to stoke the fire is not my idea of fun.
Me, I'll take our little cottage with its little wood stove that burns about 3/4 full cords a year to keep it toasty warm. 40 cords, 20 cords, 12 cords, 7 cords, eek! Too much work cutting, splitting, stacking, feeding the fire, hauling ash, etc. I've got too much else to do.
Tip: If you have a big house consider closing down most of it and heating just the core in the winter. That is what we used to do with our old farm house. It helped. It's a traditional way of getting through the winter in the north country back before petro was so cheap and plentiful. Hmm... Maybe with rising prices and petro shortages we'll see a comeback of that idea.
Cheers,
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
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