maybe a crazy idea , but....

[badcars2]

maybe this has been discussed here , but i have a question. work has me juming through hoops and i dont get here like i wish i could.
Has anyone used a wood furnace ( a hot air unit) and placed it outside in a shed of sorts. like maybe one of the storage buildings or something. and ducted the air into the house.
the run of duct in my house would only be outside for about 6 feet, and then another six feet in the basement to the central heat plenum.
The main reason i am asking that the wife has informed me the woodstove has to leave the house. she is on a huge homeinprovement kick and you know, if momma aint happy, aint nobody gonna be happy.
to me it seems feasible if i use solid duct and then insulate it.
but lets hear it. if its stupid lets hear it too.
thanks in advance.

 

[Firestarter]

Mines that way. The duck is in a box I built around it. the run is About 15 feet outside. It works good until about 10 or so then the big old gas eater kicks in. It uses more wood that way but no mess in the house.

 

[gink595]

I have never heard of that but it doesn't sound that crazy of a idea. I don't see why that wouldn't work, whats the difference of 6' coming up through a basement or 6' throught the side of a wall. I guess as long as the shed supplied enough primary air you'd be okay, and insulate the duct work real well. I think it could work. If you do it let us know

 

[gtstang462002]

The main reason i am asking that the wife has informed me the woodstove has to leave the house. she is on a huge homeinprovement kick and you know, if momma aint happy, aint nobody gonna be happy.
to me it seems feasible if i use solid duct and then insulate it.
but lets hear it. if its stupid lets hear it too.
thanks in advance.

Don't know if I would call the idea stupid per say but I would say that by putting the wood stove out seems kinda stupid. Heating oil and electric ain't getting any cheaper next year though. So in home improvement kicks the one thing that I will fight my wife tooth and nail for is the wood stove just to ease the burden on my wallet in the winter. That is the biggest thing that got my wife to feed the stove much less now she comes out and cuts with me.

 

[kennertree]

Just get her a big fancy designer stove.

 

[wdchuck]

Yes, it has been discussed, and heres the thread

.


http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=59450


. Pull up a chair and enjoy the reading.

 

[bassman]

I often wonder if I would burn 2 cords a month heating my greenhouse this way??
my OWB is a pig!!
I say do it and see what happens just insulate the ducting well and I think it will work.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I just built a new house and was originally going to pour a seperate room in the concrete basement and have a concrete roof on it - this was intended to seperate the wood furnace room from the rest of the house for both fire and smoke/ash/dirt reasons. I have been in lots of houses that installed wood furnaces years ago and no longer use them, as somebody in the house ended up being allergic to wood smoke and I felt I could avoid that by placing the woodburner in a seperate room. As it turned out my insurance would go up considerably (40%) if the house had anything except a fireplace - even putting it in a seperate concrete room would not keep my insurance at a normal rate.

I think it would work fine to install a furnace room near your house.....and the nearer the better. Air has very low heat capacity and the farther away you are from the house - the worse your system will work even with insulated ductwork. At some point it will be better/cheaper/more efficient to get an OWB and install a heat exchanger coil - and you have the added benefit of being able to heat your domestic water.

 

[Mr. Obvious]

As it turned out my insurance would go up considerably (40%) if the house had anything except a fireplace - even putting it in a seperate concrete room would not keep my insurance at a normal rate.

You got some bad info there. Not all insurance company's will do that. Some won't even give insurance and some won't charge any extra. Shop around.

Try Kentucky Farm Bur. Ins. and see what they say. I have an indoor freestanding wood stove and they didn't ask any questions or charge extra when I checked with them on it as long as the chimney was lined and the stove was installed properly.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

"You got some bad info there. Not all insurance company's will do that. Some won't even give insurance and some won't charge any extra. Shop around."



No need at this point.....my new house is already built and I have an OWB that sits behind the garage.....120 feet downwind from the house. It works very well and I love it.

 

[Zodiac45]

I'm not trying to hijack your thread BC,

But I've been thinking of a similar plan. In my case, my house is quite old 200+ yrs and has an oil/steam furnace in the basement. The basement was build under the "original" part of the house only and is not large enough to house the wood boiler (and wood) I'd need down there. I do have a large attached barn and garage though where I store my wood for the stoves anyway. I was thinking of a wood boiler in the barn (already have a pipe through the roof out there) in tandem with the oil furnace for steam too the radiators and domestic hot water (which is now electric). Possible? Or should I just put the thing outside?

 

[reaperman]

If you have an attached garage, you could consider putting your furnace out there. I have a friend who does it this way, and the benefit is getting your garage heated also.

 

[gink595]

I'm not trying to hijack your thread BC,

But I've been thinking of a similar plan. In my case, my house is quite old 200+ yrs and has an oil/steam furnace in the basement. The basement was build under the "original" part of the house only and is not large enough to house the wood boiler (and wood) I'd need down there. I do have a large attached barn and garage though where I store my wood for the stoves anyway. I was thinking of a wood boiler in the barn (already have a pipe through the roof out there) in tandem with the oil furnace for steam too the radiators and domestic hot water (which is now electric). Possible? Or should I just put the thing outside?

A good friend of mine did it that way, except his barn is around 100' from the house. He has no problems at all. His wood is stacked in there nice and neatly, it doesn't see any elements. If you'd like some pics of it, I can arrange that I have to go down there today.

 

[Zodiac45]

Yep thanks Guys,

Love to see the pix Gink. My Barn is accessed though a "summer" kitchen where they would move the big cookstove into for the summer too keep heat out of the house. There's a chimney access there and also another in the barn that a large heater is hooked too up in an apartment we built over the barn. seems like it would be allot easier than trying for the basement and running the plumbing wouldn't be all that far or hard.

 

[doubletodd]

I just built a new house and was originally going to pour a seperate room in the concrete basement and have a concrete roof on it - this was intended to seperate the wood furnace room from the rest of the house for both fire and smoke/ash/dirt reasons. I have been in lots of houses that installed wood furnaces years ago and no longer use them, as somebody in the house ended up being allergic to wood smoke and I felt I could avoid that by placing the woodburner in a seperate room. As it turned out my insurance would go up considerably (40%) if the house had anything except a fireplace - even putting it in a seperate concrete room would not keep my insurance at a normal rate.

I think it would work fine to install a furnace room near your house.....and the nearer the better. Air has very low heat capacity and the farther away you are from the house - the worse your system will work even with insulated ductwork. At some point it will be better/cheaper/more efficient to get an OWB and install a heat exchanger coil - and you have the added benefit of being able to heat your domestic water.

I used one this year about 15 feet from house 8"insulated ductwork with cold air return from house piped into my ductwork I also had bad performance in cold weather but I think my fan was too small, wood was not overly dry,and did not get the thermostat hooked up so I had to try to regulate the heat manually. if I keep it for next year will put on bigger blower and hook up stat and have better wood.But currently looking at ways to convert to boiler.Plus side was I scored a cheap furnace so my total cost was under $500 paid for itself and then some just helping to heat my house this winter. is working better for these warmer fall and spring months,easier to regulate and can divert heat to my shop good luck and will help anyway I can,
Todd

 

[Cowboy Billy]

My next door neighbor has one set up like that. If I am rembering right he has a 12"x24" square duct coming in on the bottom and a the same going back into the house. He has it in a insulated shed about six feet from the house. He has been using it without problems for over eight years.

Billy

 

[jeepstrapped]

I've done what you are talking about.
I insulated the duct coming form the furnace to the house.
I still need to insulate the shed, a 10 x 12 metal shed.

I ran it to the duct in the house, and go the furnace because I did not want to pay for propane this winter, last winter was around $3,000.

It does not blow very hard through the vents, but when the furnace kicks on, I can turn the blower, squirrel cage, on the furnace in the house, with the propane turned off, and it does shove the warm air through the vents very well.
I did duct the outside woodburning furnace into the duct with a T so that when the inside furnace fan was on it would suck the air from the outside furnace inside.
Also, my house is about 1500 square feet.

Depending on how this works this winter, I may modify the fans on the outside furnace from 2 550 cfm blowers and build an adapter to use a larger cfm squirrel cage fan.

But with it getting into the 30's and 40's here it keeps the house nice and warm.

 

[mga]

maybe this has been discussed here , but i have a question. work has me juming through hoops and i dont get here like i wish i could.
Has anyone used a wood furnace ( a hot air unit) and placed it outside in a shed of sorts. like maybe one of the storage buildings or something. and ducted the air into the house.
the run of duct in my house would only be outside for about 6 feet, and then another six feet in the basement to the central heat plenum.
The main reason i am asking that the wife has informed me the woodstove has to leave the house. she is on a huge homeinprovement kick and you know, if momma aint happy, aint nobody gonna be happy.
to me it seems feasible if i use solid duct and then insulate it.
but lets hear it. if its stupid lets hear it too.
thanks in advance.

there is a commercial product already made that does that. we had a thread here a while ago about that.

 

[Paso One]

I have my boiler etc... all housed in a 48 foot semi trailer the trailer sits beside my 5000 sq foot shop that I am heating. I pump the hot water into the shop. I also store my WMO in the trailer that I eventually plan to inject into the OWB. Sort of on topic works good I'm out of the cold when filling etc... allows the next stove fill to be inside trailer. I'll post some photos if anyone is interested.