OWB's and lotsa wood.

[AIM]

Well I've read many times here and quite honestly I've even made the comment about OWB's and wood. They take a LOT... Yes they do.
But I've read time and time again about people tryin to make some dinky little half assed stove burn for a full day and then complainin about it.

Then they proclaim with all sorts of reasons that an OWB is just wasteful and nowhere near efficient enough.
Well fine. Drag yourself out of bed at 5 am to fix a fire while the house is at 50.
Split your wood into toothpicks just so it will fit in this stove.

I'm in no way sayin that a small stove is worthless. Neither are our wood eating boilers.
Yes we go through more wood than the stove owner does but we are also NOT up at 5 am fixing a fire. Nor are we #####in about hot spots in the house. Nor are we #####in about bugs, bark, and dirt in the house.
So if splitting toothpicks is your thing or wakin up to a cold house is what you like then by all means burn your little stove to your hearts content.

If you want to get serious about heating with wood. Get an OWB and cut lotsa wood!

Everyone talks about how much more wood a OWB takes. Yep it takes more.
I'm willing to bet though that I have no more time in a winters worth of wood than the stove owner does and I have half the headaches. I'm not talkin cords ricks or piles. I'm saying a winters worth.
I don't care wether you burn 6 cord to my 12. My 12 cord of bigger stuff cuts as fast as your 6 cord of kindling.

Yes I'm in a mood tonight!

 

[H-Ranch]

Bravo! Encore! Encore!!

 

[taskswap]

What about IWBs?

opcorn:

 

[Turkeyslayer]

They are hungry beasts, but I have never been happier heating with wood. We have a big old drafty farm house that is comfy all over now with the owb.

 

[FLHX Storm]

Well, I'll tell ya, you won't ever find me using an OWB. They may be fine for some, but they don't do a thing for me. First, if the power goes off for a week in mid winter, What are you going to do? It takes electricity to run those pumps that get the heat into the house. If y'all are like many folk, they use electricity to cook with. I know do. BUT no electricity, no use of the electric stove, microwave, coffee maker and so on.

You'll never hear me complain about those hot spots you mentioned or getting up in the morning to add toothpicks to the fire to get the house where it might be considered warm because chances are, I'm up in the middle of the night anyway. I might be composing email or reading here on AS.

And if I had to deal with an electrical outage for a week, or three, I would still have my morning coffee, I would still have hot satisfying meals, my bath or shower might be a bit on the cold side, but it's not like I've never taken a cold shower before, so it's really not a big deal. But I can take hot baths. (heat the water on the wood stove) And lights, I have flashlights to find my way around and to locate the oil lamps. My refrigerator or freezer? I'd just shove em outside.

Technically, I am only dependent on electricity just a little, but I can do without it and still be nice n warm n toasty as well as being well fed through the coldest of temperatures. And you with those fancy outdoor wood burners, well, your still in the same boat along with those who run natural gas, propane, or fuel oil. Those furnaces don't run without electricity. On my little wood stove, I'm not even running the blower. So given a choice, I'll stick with my wood stove and maybe burn 2 cord of wood a year vs your OWB burning what, 9 cord a year? N next year I intend on burning one cord after I put on a new roof and do some insulating.

AND when I get my electric bill for this month, I expect it to be below 450kwh used. No fuel oil, no propane! I'd give the price, but those I believe vary state to state and whatever erroneous charges the electric company decides to tack on. Last month I was at 509kwh

One of my reasons for going with a wood stove is so that I would not longer have to be concerned about those power outages especially during the winter. So far this winter we've only had one and the power was out about a day. No worries, n no complaints here.

Or did I missinterpret your post, that your actually complaining about your OWB? Ooops!

 

[Dogsout]

I have a OWB and love it. To be fair I have never had an inside stove so am not 100% sure what is all involved to run and maintain one. I do know one thing and that is I enjoy the constant heat with no fluctuations. I have a friend at work who is always having a to hot or to cold house. Just last week he came in complaining that he stoked the stove a little to much and had the heat in the house at almost 80*. He claimed he opened a window before he went to bed and at 2:00AM got up because it was now cold in the house and had to stoke the stove again. Seems to me that it takes a lot more attention and time to want to heat with the indoor stove. I too am not knocking an inside stove just making an observation is all. I like having a thermostat and how easy it is to raise or lower the heat in my house as I see fit. As for the wood use we are having a somewhat normal winter for temps, and if we stay about average I should come in some where around 7 to 8 cords for and older 2000 sq ft house maintaining at least 70* or more all the time. Not terrible.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Hmmmm. Hesitant to wade in but here goes. I have burned in both. Not an inside boiler mind you but a Warner box stove that I had in Maine. I could get an 8 hour burn out of it. I only slept 8 hours at night so I had coals to wake up to in the morning and the house was not cold. Was it more efficient that my OWB that I use today? I had a smaller house, about 1200 square feet. I burned about 4 1/2 cords per winter. Heating degree days are different in Maine vs. Central PA so hard to compare the two. I now have an OWB and a 2400 square foot house. I also heat my domestic hot water in the winter and sometimes run a heater in the garage connected to that OWB. I go through about 8 cords a winter now. Yes more wood, less heating degree days, but twice the size of house and domestic hot water all winter. All the dirt and bugs are outside and I am not concerned about anything in the house catching on fire from the wood burner. For me it is a trade off. I prefer the OWB. Cutting 8 cord of wood is not a large amount in my book and I like cutting wood. I get at least a 12 hour burn time on a moderate sized charge in the OWB and could stretch it to 18 hours if I really loaded it, but why? Twice a day fits my schedule and is convenient for me. When I get home at night from work the house is warm and if I have loaded the unit right I have a nice large bed of coals to get the next charge going for the night. 6 AM and 6 PM works for our household. Only thing I miss at times is the direct radiant heat from an inside stove. But I won't go back anytime soon. My OWB is connected to my baseboard heat and I have nice even heat throughout the house. As far as efficiency, I suppose I lose a little heat in the transfer through the underground lines. 2 -3 degrees in water temperature by my observation. That's not much and the insulated underground lines make the difference. My OWB does not smoke but a wisp coming out the stack between cycles so I think it's not wasting my wood. Each to there own, and I will not knock the inside wood burner crowd, been there, done that and enjoyed that Warner Box stove. But for the present, I love our OWB. As far as power outage? I have a generator, not worried about an outage. Besides, sitting in a warm house with just heat and nothing else would not be my idea of fun.

 

[Encore]

I have both and I LOVE my OWB hands down. Best investment I ever made. Like the other said, the even boiler heat throughout the house is amazing.

As far as cutting more wood, I got used to it. I spent less than half the time I did before splitting stuff so by the time I get done running my saw more, I really don't care. It evens out to about the same. Most of the stuff I cut this year can go right in the door.

The burn times are another HUGE bonus. Going 24hrs between burn times is much more conducive to our lifestyle than a wood stove. While we love heating with the wood stove, the dry air was really tough on my wifes asthma (even with the humidifier) and that is never a problem any more.

If the power going out is your only worry about an OWB, get a generator. Seriously that's not a big deal. If I don't want to run the generator, I just fire up the wood stove. But if I'm losing power long enough for the house to get cold, I'm using the generator anyways because we all want to take showers, make some coffee, running water, whatever. I have one and have used it several times.

OWB's aren't for everyone though. It's not an insult if it comes across that way, they just aren't. You do have to keep more wood around. You have to get a friend to run it while you're gone if you leave for more than a day or two, but the benefits of keeping the mess outside, even moist and dust free heat inside, great burn times and much less time processing far outweighed those negatives for me.

To each their own though.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Del and Storm make good points, respect their opinions and as I said, I have been on both sides of it. For my present situation I went with the OWB and do not regret it. But it is not the do all and be all of heating systems. Never say never. Someday may downsize and go back to the inside stove. Who knows, there are advantages and disadvantages to both types of heating systems.

 

[FLHX Storm]

As with most things we tend to make choices based on our needs and environment. My needs are few and I live relatively simply. A wood stove fit's my needs. Plus I like the view!

I'm not really condemning those who run OWB or IWB's. They're just are not for me. The more complicated things are the more things that can go wrong at the most inopportune times.

Add to that I'm trying to make everything here more efficient. Once I have everything set, I figure on going off the grid entirely within the following year.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

Anyone else thinking this thread could get ugly? :msp_scared:

 

[FLHX Storm]

Nah, we're all fairly civilized. Anyway, differing opinions make the world go round. Wouldn't this be a boring world if everyone thought the same and did the same?

 

[taskswap]

I've got an IWB and love it. Even with no power I can get some heat with convection (my dump zone runs that way) but that doesn't matter to me. We have a camper and can always cook with propane on the grill or in the camper. And we have well water and need power anyway for the pump - we need our generator during an outage even if it wasn't for heat.

Besides, because so many people around here are on oil or natural gas (both of which need power for the circulators), at least around here, it's REALLY unusual to lose power for a week. Hurricane Sandy did that, but it's been a decade since the last 3+ day outage. Usually it's only a day or two, and we go plenty of seasons without losing power for more than a few hours at a time. I'm happy with a generator being my "backup" option. If society goes THAT bad THAT fast I don't think I'd stick around on my 2 wooded acres. This ain't no farm.

So I get the best of both worlds. We have a 2800 sq. ft. house, and it would be really hard for a wood stove to move the heat around - it's a spread-out colonial. This way we have no cold spots - the entire house is heated evenly. The basement stays warm without having to add separate heat for that (and helps heat the first floor too). I don't have to go outside to fill it, and the "mess" stays in the basement. All of the people we know who have houses our size have at least two stoves to heat it. What a pain to manage.

All the same, we have two wood stoves as well, we just don't use them. One is a pot-belly beastie that came with the house (it's the one I replaced with the boiler). And one is a decorative little box stove that I could throw into the fireplace in an emergency, and even cook on I suppose. "Just in case."

I don't know that I'd call my boiler installation complicated. There's an oil boiler already. All I did was put an aquastat on the wood boiler, run a pair of lines to the oil boiler ("parallel installation"), and off I went. I will admit I'm planning to add more "stuff" to it (like a heat storage tank and solar panels) but that was a choice, not a necessity.

Everybody marches to the beat of a different drum!

 

[John R]

I have an inside wood stove at deer camp, it heats well, we stay warm.
At home I have an OWB an it's great, I load it once a day for heating the house (2200 sq feet) and hot water.
If I work out in my barn (1500 sq feet) and keep it up to 70° for the day, I have to load the OWB twice for that day, but it's a lot cheaper than propane, and it heats just the same as the furnace would running on gas.
As far as electricity, I have an automatic standby generator that powers the whole house.

I burn more wood at home than I do a camp, but at camp I'm only heating 600 Sq feet.

 

[Como]

No electricity = no pump = no water.

They have just about finished a new electrical sub station, no idea why, nobody does, The Transformer alone was $2m and there are just 20 residents year round.

You do not have to use an inefficient Boiler, the best are much more efficient than the best Stoves.

 

[AdamG]

I have an OWB, never ran a stove or fireplace- so I'm fairly ignorant/biased.
That being said, I love it. I've split before- and I didn't enjoy it too much. I don't mind cutting more wood to feed the boiler- I love running the saw.
That being said- I can respect people who Love to split-- just not me!
The biggest reason I chose owb is I have no direct to the outside from the basement or the other two rooms that a stove/ burner would have to go in. I really didn't want to cart the mess through several rooms. I most definitely took the most expensive route- but for me- I couldn't be happier.
Later on down the road, I may put in a fireplace- just for the occasional ambiance. But that's a while down the road.
I also have a whole house propane generator that came with the purchase of the house- so I'm good when the power goes out!

 

[tld400]

Nothing beats the nice warm heat of a woodstove. I have a 2000 sq foot ranch and dont have hot or cold spots. The house stays about 74 all the time and if I want it warmer I just crank the stove up. Only burned a cord and a third so far and everything else in my house is electric but since I use stove now my electric bill are about 100 to 120 dollars a month. Eventually going solar so then no bills. Im not knocking owb but it just seams like a lot of waisted wood and most of the people that are after people burning wood are after people that smog out neighbor hood with owb. But everyone has their preference. Oh and I dont have to keep feeding the stove all the time,I can go 8 to 10 hrs with ease and only drop 1 to 2 degrees on a real cold night.So 74 degrees when I load it at 10:30 pm and 72 when I get up at 7 am. If most owb use 8 to 10 cords of wood you would need at least 20 cords on property if you burn correct and use seasoned wood. That much wood on my property would be about a decades worth and owb get 2 years out of it. So my vote goes to using wood stoves.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

No need for anything to get ugly. Bottom line, we all burn wood. Just in checking the posts on this it appears that most of the OWB crowd that have posted have larger square footages to heat, at least from what they are posting. Many of the inside unit owners have not said how many square feet they are trying to heat. I think that may make a difference. If you have a large home or one that is spread out the OWB may make more sense to be able to still use wood as a fuel source. My home in Maine was smaller and easy to heat fairly evenly with the inside unit, but the house I have now might have me scratching my head to try and heat with one unit inside, unless it was a boiler unit. My brother has a moderate sized home and he runs two indoor wood stoves. His reasoning is that due to the layout of the home one unit just does not evenly heat the whole house. Any indoor wood burners that heat large homes with one radiant heat unit?

 

[mizzou]

It would be nice to have the fire and the mess outside, but I have limited access to wood and if I had an owb it would be used with forced air instead of baseboard heaters so I would miss wood heat feel that we enjoy. I only load the stove twice a day too, by the way. I also don't think I want to deal with all the pumps and plumbing involved with an owb but I think there are some real positives to an owb also. I heat 3000 sq. ft.

 

[Dogsout]

Do you think it would be a fair statement that if you burn wood for heat regardless weather it is indoor stove or an OWB that a bigger percentage of people on this board have a back up generator then not? (I have one for the record) I believe that most of the people on this board you would be hard pressed to catch them with their pants down regardless of the situation thrown at them. Again just an observation on my part.