I’ve been considering an alternate heat source for some time. Now may be the best time to do something, with the price of LP threatning to soar.
I’ve been leaning toward an outside wood furnace.
Has anyone on board had any experience with them?
Know the best people to contact with my Questions$$$.
Have any do it yourself experiences?
Know any horror stories?
Well, I would suggest you give us more information. What would you install and how? where would you get the wood? etc.
I am assuming you have a steady supply of free wood because if you have to buy it I doubt it would be worth it.
I am also assuming your home already has hydronic heating?
Although a side topic, perhaps it would be wise to do an energy and insulation audit of your home first, to make sure that you aren’t losing a lot of heat due to poor insulation and air leakage? If done in conjuction with finding an alternate heat source, you may see a large benefit.
Thanks anthricite and sailor
We have a n adequate wood supply and I would only be using it to supplement my 8 year old lp system.
An energy audit would suggest insulation but I would have to pay for it myself. Not a good investment since we don’t own the place. Landlord doesn’t care.
On a side note I used to work for Scientific Applications AKA the Homefoamers .Maybe you remember them Urea Formaldehyde was their main product.Amazingly this house was not foamed.
Sailor…I sent for the information from Wood Master.Thanks
Well , if you don’t own the place it don’t make much sense to install anything, much less something as permanent as one of those huge outdoor furnaces. In any case you would need the owner’s permission just as much as for insulation. Antracite is right that you should look at the whole picture. If you don’t own the place then I would see what I would like to have and get talk the owner into doing it, maybe in exchange for a small rent hike.
FWIW, in the winter I rig a stove in one room and take it down when the season is over. The stove cost me close to nothing, it is just a sheet metal drum. But this is the type of thing where you have to know what you are doing and not for a house with children or clumsy people. I keep the rest of the house at much lower temperature and heat up one room real good.
My thoughts were to make it non permanent. Maybe portable even. If it is just pipe connections to the house why not?
The one that I’ve seen is installed in a shed and has big insulated ducts running between it and the house. Must be forced air.Actually water pipes through the basement window wouldn’t be a big deal and the whole thing could be removed.
hmmm, I guess you could do it. That’s my kind of project! But I wonder if the landlord might object. And what will you do with it when you move to an apartment or across the country?
You seem to be doing what I do a lot: start considering crazy projects that (mostly) eventually go nowhere but they are fun while you are thinking about them.
I think an outdoor wood burning boiler would only make sense as a permanent, intensive-use installation. In your situation I am guessing putting the money into buying LPG would save you a lot of effort and trouble.
If you are really keen on the idea I’d get the landlord to do it. He probably won’t and that tells you something.
Anyway, keep studying it and let us know what you come up with.