outdoor wood furnace anyone?

“anybody got one?

advice?

like it? love it? hate it?”

“I think the Trees got one, but maple is too busy getting goose poo on her to answer right now.”

“They're all the rage here, although there are pollution issues.

Make sure you get a good system - particularly the insulated piping.

I ahve a friend who sells and installs them and he helping my on my house and so I'll get back to you.”

“Also, quadruple check with your city or county ordinances. The town I'm in is banning them, mostly due to pollution issues.”

“If you have the room, get a stove or furnace. That ensures that all the heat produced goes in your house. That will mean less wood burned, less wood carried, split, harested/bought, etc. My father has a furnace, never keeps his house as warm as my stove, but then his wood furnace is 20+ years old.

Modern wood burning stoves/furnaces have catalytic converters, producing almost zero pollution.”

“I used to heat with wood when I had lots of property.Lots of work cutting & splitting. Pain tending the fire & dusty cleaning. Had a stove in my basement here too but "tightened" up my house so much I'd get smoke (carbon monoxide) as the fire was going out.

Got a couple computer operated vented kerosene heaters and it's pretty sweet. Cheaper than buying wood & easy to care for. Have one in my Living Rm & another in my basement.

Of course it goes out when you lose power. (I have a generator & back-up stove in the basement)”

“Are you talking about wood-burning backpacking stoves? If so then I have built several. I thought that the "ultimate" stove would be one which you wouldn't have to carry fuel for. So I played with wood-burning stoves that would boil water easily with some sticks and twigs. The goal was 2 cups of water with a minimal amount of fuss.

I'll have to dig up what I made. It's been a while. That said, I have never had a reason to actually use it. Under a week with no resupply, which is most of my trips, I think the Pepsi can stove is the way to go. I think over this and the wood stove would be cool to play with.

That said, these stoves burned hot and their performance was close to the petroleum stoves but not better (if I recall).

My stoves were bulky but not heavy which was a minor problem. The big problem was that it made a lot of soot. I don't like getting this all over the place or having to clean it off my pots.

I have played with a Sierra Stove and I like them a lot. I don't own one. My "designs" were in many ways copies of this. Here is a link to the Sierra stove:

http://www.zzstove.com/sierra.html

The stove weighs 2 lbs. Now that's a lot, I admit, but there are some liquid fuel stoves that, with their bottle empty, weight more than this easily. However when you consider that you don't have to pack any fuel for it I think it's a potential good deal. I am not willing to shell out 40-50 bucks just to experiment.

There is a good FAQ that I have bookmarked in my browser:

http://yahi.csustan.edu/~gcrawfor/zip/sierraFAQ.html

If someone owns one and has experience with it I would appreciate a post on the topic as it is very interesting to me.

Wish Stove Stomper was here…
last edited: 9/07/05 7:27:23 PM”

“I think he's talking about the sort of thing where the furnace sits outside and it uses wood to heat water running through pipes and the water is used to heat some sort of radiator.”

“Many areas are making catalytic converters, mandatory on new stoves. During Winter it get pretty bad in some community's in the North State...lots of smoke.

Hey Pitts, check this out....
http://www.kifaru.net/stovspex.htm”

“Oh wow, that is cool as hell. The flattened view is amazing. Thanks for posting this mtnsteve. The ParaTipi is wild!”

“I've been staring at other alternatives to heat the home, more or less something to off set the natural gas cost for years. I have a chimney that vents both the furance and water heater, I don't know if both of those could be combined into one and then line the other stack to take a wood burning dual fuel furnace.

You should research dual fuel furnace. There are some interesting things out that also heat water.
BUTT
I'm actually dreaming about putting in a fireplace w/a blower that I could tie into my cold air return that is right next to where fireplace would be.

Wood burners aren't to popular here but they might be if the cost of gas keeps creeping up.

Just a few links from my bookmarks,,

http://www.yukon-eagle.com/
http://www.woodheat.org/index.htm
http://www.charmaster.com/”

“from what i've been reading, the main problem with the pollution comes from the fact that many people burn garbage, wet, live wood, softwood, ect. in them.”

“That computer operated direct vent furnace is EXTREMELY efficient. I burn like a gallon & a half on the REALLY cold days. Spring & Fall a gallon lasts a week.

It direct vents. You have to drill a 3" hole. (no chimney needed)It draws combustion air from the outside (so no drafts) & vents combustables to the outside. Easy installation.

http://www.comtec.net/

http://www.monitorheat.com/

I have a monitor & a Toyatomi. Love Em for many years now. I use about 1/4 of the fuel I used to use.”

“"I don't know if both of those could be combined into one and then line the other stack to take a wood burning dual fuel furnace."

Possible, but most likely not. My father has his oil water heater and oil furnace on one stack, and his wood furnace on the other. Has for years w/o a problem. But he was told recently that it isn't code and should really be on 3 seperate stacks. So you really would need to consider a new stack for the wood furnace.

"I'm actually dreaming about putting in a fireplace w/a blower..." You don't want an open-face fireplace. Even with blower pipes the efficiency is nil (like 10%). Get a wood stove with cat. That will get you above 70%. That's a $hitload less wood you need to buy/harvest/haul/stack/burn.”

“the amount of wood is really not much of an issue for me.”

“Then let me rephrase - that's 60% less particulate, CO, and CO2 production, for the same amount of heat. Granted, wood heat is ecologically friendly - you are only accelerating the natural rotting process that happens in the forests - but cutting down on that accelerated process is better for the environment overall.

Not to mention that with a cat you cut down on your visible (and smellable) emissions, so that makes your non-burning neighbors much happier.”

“So they found a use for cats after all? I guess that's good.”

“Dogs do a better job, but cats are cheaper.”