Wood stoves/furnace

[skeets]

Im thinking that I may be looking for a new one, the old USSC forced hot air furnace (20 + years) is in need of being replaced. I have noticed the burn times decreasing, and temp control is getting almost non-existent. Yes I have replaced the seals around both doors so that not the issue, and untill I take it all apart ( sheet metal) well then I think I might find a bad weld letting enough air in, so it run's away so to speak.

Anyway there are a lot of wood cutters and burners in here. So if you have a newer unit lets hear and see it, and the good and bad of it. I might even put in a boiler cause I have hot water heat so let me know about them too. And as much as an outdoor system might work better there just aint enough in the piggy bank.

 

[JimmyJazz]

Im thinking that I may be looking for a new one, the old USSC forced hot air furnace (20 + years) is in need of being replaced. I have noticed the burn times decreasing, and temp control is getting almost non-existent. Yes I have replaced the seals around both doors so that not the issue, and untill I take it all apart ( sheet metal) well then I think I might find a bad weld letting enough air in, so it run's away so to speak.

Anyway there are a lot of wood cutters and burners in here. So if you have a newer unit lets hear and see it, and the good and bad of it. I might even put in a boiler cause I have hot water heat so let me know about them too. And as much as an outdoor system might work better there just aint enough in the piggy bank.

Google Kuuma. I bought a wood fired sauna stove from them 8 years ago. I love it. They may offer something to fit your needs. They get good reviews.

 

[WFM]

Your looking for a wood furnace ? Not oil or propane. I know a couple people who have had the outdoor wood furance/hot water boiler and have sold them becouse of wood consumption. One guy told me he always heat his farm house with three cord of wood. He installed a outdoor wood boiler and burned twelve cord to heat the same farm house. After two winters of twelve cord consumption it was on the front lawn For Sale.
Myself , I use a Yodel Oslo. Made in Oslo Norway. I've had it 20 yrs now and still has the factory firebrick. Door gasket has been replaced twice. My home is small
1500 sf. but heats it fine. 20 yrs ago $1800. for that stove was alot of money to me. But I'm so glad I made the purchase.

 

[NCL4701]

I’ve had a Lopi (https://www.lopistoves.com/products/wood/) Liberty for about 23 years. A brief look at their current website; doesn’t look like much has changed. It uses a passive afterburner constructed from thick brass tubing in the top of the firebox to achieve EPA compliance. Since I heat 2000sf (half the house) with it I preferred to not have to deal with a catalytic converter as some stoves use. I’ve replaced the door seal once (I accidentally damaged it about 10 years ago. No telling how long it would have lasted otherwise.) Of course I’ve also replaced the stove pipe a few times. Stove itself has had zero problems otherwise. Still runs like the day I bought it. Max time on burns: 12 to 14 hours. That’s important to me as I usually feed it when I go to work, again when I return, and repeat next morning. Like any other stove, give it some air and it will pump out some serious heat.

 

[Old_Paint]

Don't think I'll ever try to heat my home with wood. Too messy. On the other hand, seems like the perfect solution to heating my tractor castle. I have an old (100+ year old) King Stove and Furnace two burner stove that I want to put in my shop. The biggest problem is the cost of chimney components. Geez that stuff is high.

 

[dirtydeed]

I had the same Lopi Liberty as NC above in my last house. Great stove. Got the Elk etched glass for it and it was a very nice stove. No complaints at all with it. It can take a sizeable log in it as well.

 

[Clementine21]

I have had a TurboBurn outdoor wood fired boiler since 1985. It is in one end of my 28 x 16 greenhouse, separated by a concrete block wall and is surrounded by 2-3' of batt fiberglass. Hot water for heat (at zero pressure) and copper coil for domestic (separate lines, insulated from one another) travels about 30' through a treated plywood box underground that has 12" of rigid foam around the pipes. Another copper coil running at 10 psi supplies heat to the greenhouse.

From there the domestic goes to my electric hot water heater which is turned off during our 6 month heating season. The heating pipes first travel through 400' of PEX embedded in a 10' x 8' high concrete block wall filled with concrete which serves as a room divider between the living room and the hall to the bathroom and bedrooms. I did this to serve as a warmer heat source (I grew up with wood stoves) and to temper the water before it travels through the floors.

The bathrooms and bedrooms are all on separate circuits, the great room (kitchen, dining and living) are on one continuous loop. Upper level (main living area) is wood floor with a reflective layer under the circuitous pipes, lower level ,the pipe are in concrete that is over 8" of rigid foam placed onto drain rock (with several drain tiles—house is partially sunk into hillside) covered by 4" of packed and leveled sand. A six mil vapor barrier is between the rock and sand.

I heat 2200 square feet of a very well insulated (R40 walls, R70 cathedral ceilings in upper level) house. It takes 3-4 cord to heat the house in a "normal" north Idaho winter. (-9 the lowest so far, many nights in the teens)
It is semi-passive solar so on sunny days I get a lot of heat onto the tile floors. Outside insulated shutters cover most of the south facing windows at night, all other windows are low-e.

The greenhouse, which is also sunk into the ground on 3 sides and only has double glazing on the south wall and roof takes about 2 cord of wood during the growing season which starts in late March for seed starting. During the winter I keep it at about 40 degrees to hold over some much loved flowering plants in pots. I used to grow greens during the winter, but at 79, I am getting lazy.

Most days I get by with one 2-4 hour burn of local tamarack (harder to find now) and Douglas (red) fir. When the night temps go to the single digits, I do a second burn in the evening to bring water temps in the boiler to about 170 degrees. A forced air draft on a timer insures a clean burn, only need to clean out the ashes about 2-3 times per heating season.

Unfortunately the company (from Spokane WA) is out of business. One of the many instances where the second and third generation drinks away the hard work and honesty of founders.

 

[lynnmor]

I have my USSC 1557m for over 20 years as well, burning an average of 7 cords of wood per year. I have only replaced grates and a lot of fire bricks so far. The latest version is rated for coal only, to keep the EPA happy, and it appears to be unchanged. I would grab a new old stock furnace or use the new "coal" furnace.

You might want to do some testing to find any air leaks, one way is to use perfume to sniff out the fire box.

I wouldn't wait since production of much of these products is moving overseas and the EPA is disrupting the design and sale of such.

 

[Geezer3d]

So, are you looking for a wood fired furnace or a wood stove? What I use is about half way in between.

I heat my place with an RSF high efficiency fireplace, the Delta 2 model, which was the biggest one they had at the time. I have duct work coming off of it that goes under the floor to a couple of output vents on the other end of the house and it has an inline fan to send the heat. It can also be connected to existing hot air duct if you already have them. It heats my 3000 square foot log cabin most of the winter, but I do use my oil fired boiler to pick up the slack when the temperature drops below the mid-teens. It is not as efficient as a wood stove, but it uses less wood than an outdoor furnace. And it looks good.

 

[Millsertime]

Built a house 4 years ago. Approximately 2400 Sq ft finished. Went with a Quadrafire 7100. Very efficient and heats the whole house with the aid of numerous 5' ceiling fans to move the heat down the hallways.

I burn around 5-6 cords a year. Quad 7100 isn't cheap but it's a very nice looking zero clearance that acts like a wood stove. I paid around $7K which includes installation.

 

[RCW]

Skeets - - -

Not trying to sway you, but I've had a pellet stove 15 years. Harman XXV. I know several guys here have or had same stove.

Never thought I would take my woodstove out.

My pellet stove has taken my heating oil use from 1,000 gallons/year to about 20 gallons/year. Same temp in the morning as it was last night. Our living room temp is 76 degrees 24/7. Will be -3F tomorrow night....living room will be 76...

If I were to do it again, would also look at coal stoves. My folks have had a rice coal stove for about 12 years. I know you're in coal country.

 

[skeets]

RCW yes I have kicked around the pellet stove idea and I hear they work very well. The kicker again is buying pellets and then what happens when the power goes out. So yes that is another direction and burning coal is too, though around here we have soft coal ( bituminous) , and thats pretty dirty, the hard coal ( anthracite ) comes from out in the east part of the state. That burns much hotter and cleaner but is kind of hard to find since the gubermint and the epa passed all kinds of regs on coal fired stuff, thank you tree huggers. Anyways I went all over the stove and I cant find anything wrong no cracks, no bad welds that I can find. Only thing I can figure is the door mounted thermostat got hung up some how and didnt close, I checked the door seals with a piece of paper and they both sealed up . So I dont knowI will just have to keep and eye on it and look for anything I missed this time

 

[ACDII]

I debated wood stove or pellet stove and went with the pellet for a few reasons. One, if there is a power outage, I have a generator, so non issue since I will most likely fire the generator up regardless. Second, it is a lot easier to store bags of pellets than cords of wood. Takes up less space, both for the load, and inside by the stove. Third, more efficient. Doesn't need a fat chimney to exhaust the smoke, only a 3" is needed, unless you have a tall exit, then a 4" for better draft. Fourth, cost of wood. A ton of pellets, thats 50 40lb bags, is $240. A cord of wood is around $300. Fifth, wood needs to be well seasoned, if not, it can smoke, smoulder and not burn well, pellets are uniform and always burn well. Sixth, Pellet stoves have really good thermostat control, auto ignite, and use less wood overall.

So I installed it mid November, and on really cold days such as we have had this past week with single digits and under 0 at night, the most it has used was a bag a day. The room is an enclosed former garage that is next to the kitchen with only an interior door connecting them. It used to get rather cold in the kitchen, and now with the pellet stove it helps heat the kitchen and adjoining rooms. Since we heat the house with 2 Propane furnaces, this will also cut down on Propane use. We have already saved on electricity, our bill was down 21% from last year for December. The verdict is out until spring on Propane use, also depends on how cold and windy this winter is compared to last winter.

I bought a ton of pellets, and used about 20 bags so far, but may need another pallet, wont know since it is our first time using it. Overall, really like the pellet stove. Easy to clean, easy to load, and pretty much set and forget as it turns itself on and off as needed. I set it to 63*, warms up to 65*, the thermostat is in the back near the floor, so in reality the room is 70* above the waist, which is perfect for that room. On a really cold day I can crank the temp up to 70, open the kitchen door and it will heat the other rooms by convection. It is rated for 2500 SQFt heating a 500 SQFT room.

 

[mikester]

A wood chip boiler has my interest

Fully Automated Wood Chip & Biomass Boilers

German engineered automated heating with Canadian Support. Wood Chip, Biomass & Alternative Heating Systems that Save you Time and Money.

www.heizomat.ca

Basically you chip all your waste wood and feed it in by hoppers. I'm making tons of chips these days and there's only so much mulch I can use.

 

[NCL4701]

A wood chip boiler has my interest

Fully Automated Wood Chip & Biomass Boilers

German engineered automated heating with Canadian Support. Wood Chip, Biomass & Alternative Heating Systems that Save you Time and Money.

www.heizomat.ca

Basically you chip all your waste wood and feed it in by hoppers. I'm making tons of chips these days and there's only so much mulch I can use.

That looks pretty interesting. Maybe it’s covered on the link and I missed it but I’m curious how do you store your wood chips to keep them from naturally composting? I’m sure there are ways to do it just don’t know from a practical standpoint how that works.

 

[mikester]

That looks pretty interesting. Maybe it’s covered on the link and I missed it but I’m curious how do you store your wood chips to keep them from naturally composting? I’m sure there are ways to do it just don’t know from a practical standpoint how that works.

I've seen some manufacturer videos, sounds like a lot of farmers are constructing buildings with the equivalent of garages with basements they can back their dump trailers to for unloading. They use auger conveyors to feed the chips to their furnaces.

My bulk piles generate a lot of heat, I'm guessing maybe they only chip during the winter season to minimize the amount of greens going into the bins. From what I've read they burn the green wood too.

I have tons of poplar "weeds" growing from the fence lines into my fields, I'm getting overwhelmed by wood chips and finding ways to efficiently grinding up and composting the wood.