Toying with making a change...

[CaseyForrest]

Ive been thinking about an OWB for awhile. Our situation has changed a little and need for the Wolfe Ridge, the conveyor and some of the other processing equipment can be replaced with the ease of an OWB. Keeping the mess out of the house will be a nice side benefit.

Time spent processing should also ease and more of the "junk" or stuff that normally goes in the firepit can be utilized for heating.

Anyone gone from an indoor 1-2 stove setup to an OWB and regretted it?

 

[sean donato]

I toyed with the idea when I started looking at new wood furnaces. Tall to a few people locally that had similar heating needs and decided against it. They all burn more wood then me and I'm at 8-10 cords a normal heating season to begin with. Few of them were quite a bit more as the heated their hot water with it year round. Most of them said they liked it better save the wood consumption.

 

[Ikeholt]

OWB is the way to go, especially if you don't have close neighbors. Hardest part is deciding which one to buy. I had a Central Boiler for about 18 years, now 3 or 4 years with a Crown Royal. Both have their advantages, lots of good brands around. With an OWB your time messing with the chimney, clean-up and wood hauling is cut way down. No smoke in the house, easier to sleep with the fire outside. I would switch to gas rather than burning indoors again. Good luck.

 

[sean donato]

OWB is the way to go, especially if you don't have close neighbors. Hardest part is deciding which one to buy. I had a Central Boiler for about 18 years, now 3 or 4 years with a Crown Royal. Both have their advantages, lots of good brands around. With an OWB your time messing with the chimney, clean-up and wood hauling is cut way down. No smoke in the house, easier to sleep with the fire outside. I would switch to gas rather than burning indoors again. Good luck.

How many square feet are you heating? What's your wood consumption like?
Guess I should have mentioned I heat 2400 Sq feet, sole heat for the house.

 

[Ikeholt]

I'm around 2000 sq. ft. Wood heat only. A pickup load of decent dry wood lasts me around to two weeks. So around 12 cords a year I'd guess, I don't really measure it. I burn a lot of fence row trash trees, so it takes more volume. I use baseboard heaters, no forced air.

 

[CaseyForrest]

We heat 2600 with mainly a blaze king. Last year I think we went through about 4 full cords, I didn’t keep a close count.

It’s still just a lingering thought. I can appreciate the mess being outside and not having to process pieces down to stove size. Fully recognizing that the loading will be outside, no matter the weather. I have several spots to put one that will make loading somewhat convenient.


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[brenndatomu]

Time spent processing should also ease and more of the "junk" or stuff that normally goes in the firepit can be utilized for heating.

So reading between the lines here, sounds like you would be looking to buy an "old school" boiler?
Modern (read: efficient) boilers still need cut/split wood that is ~20% dry and don't like "junk" too well...if this is the case, be prepared to make a lot more wood than you are now. Plus I don't think you can "legally" buy a new "old school" boiler anymore...(not saying there aren't dealers out there selling the crap outta 'em though)

 

[rancher2]

If your only burning four cord a season I would forget the idea. I have a Garn I put in 2009 and ended up with around thirty grand in the project. I do heat my shop with it also. We run year around as I heat my domestic water with it.I burn around fifteen full cord a year in it. In the past three years I have had factory welds fail and have spent another four grand on repairs and more chemical for the water that leaked out. Last year it went down during the coldest part of winter so I had to buy $2.50 gallon propane to get me by till spring. If I knew what I know now I would haven't spent the money. If your insurance is good with wood stoves that's what I would keep using. Around here you can't hardly get insurance on a house with a wood stove.

We heat 2600 with mainly a blaze king. Last year I think we went through about 4 full cords, I didn’t keep a close count.

It’s still just a lingering thought. I can appreciate the mess being outside and not having to process pieces down to stove size. Fully recognizing that the loading will be outside, no matter the weather. I have several spots to put one that will make loading somewhat convenient.


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[sean donato]

If your only burning four cord a season I would forget the idea. I have a Garn I put in 2009 and ended up with around thirty grand in the project. I do heat my shop with it also. We run year around as I heat my domestic water with it.I burn around fifteen full cord a year in it. In the past three years I have had factory welds fail and have spent another four grand on repairs and more chemical for the water that leaked out. Last year it went down during the coldest part of winter so I had to buy $2.50 gallon propane to get me by till spring. If I knew what I know now I would haven't spent the money. If your insurance is good with wood stoves that's what I would keep using. Around here you can't hardly get insurance on a house with a wood stove.

Did they specify wood stove or wood furnace? I thought u
I would have had issues, but it's a UL listed solid fuel furnace, and the insurance company didn't seem to care. Sent a guy out to inspect it and make sure all the minimum measurements were correct, had me test fire it, checked the blower cut in and cut out temps and left. Now they said they would have preferred an outdoor furnace, but if it was UL listed and met the manufacturers space specs they wouldn't deny insurance.

 

[CaseyForrest]

So reading between the lines here, sounds like you would be looking to buy an "old school" boiler?
Modern (read: efficient) boilers still need cut/split wood that is ~20% dry and don't like "junk" too well...if this is the case, be prepared to make a lot more wood than you are now. Plus I don't think you can "legally" buy a new "old school" boiler anymore...(not saying there aren't dealers out there selling the crap outta 'em though)

When I say junk I’m referring to the bits that are difficult to process like crotches and knotty chunks. Things that would normally get tossed into the “ill deal with it later pile. Tree service wood tends to hold a fair bit of that type of wood.

By less processing, the idea is that wood doesn’t need to be processed to be loaded into a wood stove. So larger/longer splits and they can be stacked right next to the boiler. That should equal less handling.

I like the design of the new central boiler units with the stainless firebox.

I’m still in the mulling it over phase. I have enough cut/split wood that fits the stoves for at least 3 more seasons. So there’s no rush other than sizing existing unprocessed wood for whatever it’s going to go into. I’ll still maintain my 2 year cut/split seasoning cycle as best as I can.


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[rancher2]

Did they specify wood stove or wood furnace? I thought u
I would have had issues, but it's a UL listed solid fuel furnace, and the insurance company didn't seem to care. Sent a guy out to inspect it and make sure all the minimum measurements were correct, had me test fire it, checked the blower cut in and cut out temps and left. Now they said they would have preferred an outdoor furnace, but if it was UL listed and met the manufacturers space specs they wouldn't deny insurance.

We had heated with two wood stoves in our other house for almost twenty years. When we remodeled our current house in 2003 we looked at putting a wood stove or a indoor wood furnace in and the insurance company's all said no not even if it is UL listed and a pro does the install. I put 90 percent furnaces in and we used them until 2009 when I put the Garn in my pole shed. I do a fair amount of side HVAC work and in the last five years i have installed a fair amount of 90 percent LP furnaces in on acreages where the insurance company's have said no more wood stoves or furnaces in the house or the premium was so high to have wood heat the folks took it out. One I did last summer the guy said the saving on the insurance would buy about half his LP. There isn't a lot of wood burning going on in my area.

 

[Ronaldo]

We had heated with two wood stoves in our other house for almost twenty years. When we remodeled our current house in 2003 we looked at putting a wood stove or a indoor wood furnace in and the insurance company's all said no not even if it is UL listed and a pro does the install. I put 90 percent furnaces in and we used them until 2009 when I put the Garn in my pole shed. I do a fair amount of side HVAC work and in the last five years i have installed a fair amount of 90 percent LP furnaces in on acreages where the insurance company's have said no more wood stoves or furnaces in the house or the premium was so high to have wood heat the folks took it out. One I did last summer the guy said the saving on the insurance would buy about half his LP. There isn't a lot of wood burning going on in my area.

Isn't that sad, that insurance companies have so much power and leave us with few options and no real way to fight their rules and regulations. A guy can't even afford to be self-sufficient..

 

[bkvp]

Looking back at the preamble of the 2015 NSPS, EPA mentions the idea of requiring a minimum efficiency for OWB's (Hydronic heaters). Their goal being to reduce PM2.5, the OWB's can burn quite a bit of fuel, but to be fair, each installation has to be reviewed upon it's own merits. If a home has a tremendous heat loss factor and the owner isn't willing to upgrade things like windows, doors, siding, insulation, then a larger amount of heat production will be required.

Often in forum folks ask about age of house, types or number of windows, doors, r-value etc. One factor we should all remember is the human factor! My wife wants it 72 in the summer and 82 in the winter....go figure.

Our home was built in 1895. But is has received (thanks to Covid knocking back my travels last year) a vast upgrade. All walls were 2 x 4 are now 2 x 6, R34 (versus the nothing! that was in the walls), 5/8" OSB, Tyvek House wrap and then new concrete siding. We reduced our wood consumption from 4.5 cords to 3 cords and that really was noticeable.

If EPA were to implement a minimum efficiency, it certainly would scale back the number of available units for consumers. The pellet models seem to do quite well in the eyes of regulators are seem to produce less PM2.5 You might look at a pellet furnace.

You have two stoves doing the job for you. You have lots of seasoned wood which means you have lots of time to evaluate your options. These forums are great for those that have the time and dedication to learning. You're on the right path!

Oh, I also built a new hearth and put a King 40 in the corner. P.S. The boards on the wall are NOT wood, but concrete, so do not worry about my clearances.

 

[CaseyForrest]

If your only burning four cord a season I would forget the idea. I have a Garn I put in 2009 and ended up with around thirty grand in the project. I do heat my shop with it also. We run year around as I heat my domestic water with it.I burn around fifteen full cord a year in it. In the past three years I have had factory welds fail and have spent another four grand on repairs and more chemical for the water that leaked out. Last year it went down during the coldest part of winter so I had to buy $2.50 gallon propane to get me by till spring. If I knew what I know now I would haven't spent the money. If your insurance is good with wood stoves that's what I would keep using. Around here you can't hardly get insurance on a house with a wood stove.

Im not so much worried about quantity... Wood is a commodity I have avenues to acquire.

The hardest part of an intsallation will be running the lines to the house. The best place to put a boiler is right next to the barn where there is power. But Id have to cross the drain field and siphon chamber to get the lines where they need to come into the house.

 

[sean donato]

We had heated with two wood stoves in our other house for almost twenty years. When we remodeled our current house in 2003 we looked at putting a wood stove or a indoor wood furnace in and the insurance company's all said no not even if it is UL listed and a pro does the install. I put 90 percent furnaces in and we used them until 2009 when I put the Garn in my pole shed. I do a fair amount of side HVAC work and in the last five years i have installed a fair amount of 90 percent LP furnaces in on acreages where the insurance company's have said no more wood stoves or furnaces in the house or the premium was so high to have wood heat the folks took it out. One I did last summer the guy said the saving on the insurance would buy about half his LP. There isn't a lot of wood burning going on in my area.

That's such a shame, there are lots of people around that burn, heck it's all there's ever been in my house as far as I know. This furnace was installed by the original owners 20 years ago when the house was built.

 

[sean donato]

Im not so much worried about quantity... Wood is a commodity I have avenues to acquire.

The hardest part of an intsallation will be running the lines to the house. The best place to put a boiler is right next to the barn where there is power. But Id have to cross the drain field and siphon chamber to get the lines where they need to come into the house.

The lines are very expensive my father in law has his boiler out in his shop, and pipes the water to a heat exchanger in his house. Roughly 350 feet away. He went with the twin line instead of separate supply and return so he gets a bit of bleed over, nothing too bad though. I can't remember exact costs but next to the boiler it was his highest cost. (not including installation) he has said if he had a do over he would have went with separate lines and dug them in himself. Your looking at quite a lot of obstacles, plus whatever depth bellow frost line considerations and length of run. Lots to consider.

 

[panolo]

Im not so much worried about quantity... Wood is a commodity I have avenues to acquire.

The hardest part of an intsallation will be running the lines to the house. The best place to put a boiler is right next to the barn where there is power. But Id have to cross the drain field and siphon chamber to get the lines where they need to come into the house.

You don't have to be very deep with thermo pex. If you have a couple feet you would be fine for that area. I have a spot in my run where they are two feet only and the snow never melts.