Wood stove or add on wood furnace?

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jjcard41

ArboristSite Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2015
Messages
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Location
Central Illinois
Hello everyone,

I've been cutting firewood for a long time for family and some for myself just for the outdoors. It's something I enjoy doing and gets me some exercise. Well, I recently bought an old two story farm house in the country with a full basement and there was an older wood stove set up on the main floor (Vermont Castings cast iron stove). I'm in central Illinois (lived in WI until a couple years ago) and I just had a new furnace/central AC installed. I heated mainly with the wood stove last year, but it took quite a bit to keep the house warm with the wood stove. Would I be better off installing an add on wood furnace (which has a good size firebox) that uses the blower from my house furnace in the basement or buying a larger wood stove for the main room? I have plenty of space downstairs to store wood and a good size window to throw wood in.
I love the looks of a nice cast iron stove, but larger wood stoves are relatively expensive.
Will I get a longer burn time from an add on wood furnace and are they more efficient?

I don't personally have the knowledge in install an add on wood furnace, so if you or anyone know of someone who might be able to help me install, please let me know. Of course I'd pay for your help.


Thank you for your help everyone,

Jerry
 
Well hi and welcome to AS,
Maybe if I post someone will stop by to see what I had to say and maybe get the ball rolling. I heat with wood too and we just a couple years back updated from our 1987 "Old Mill airtight wood stove" to a new Blaze King wood stove and there have been big leaps made in stove tech in the ensuing years for sure.
In your case I might look into a furnace, my cousin bought a really nice furnace at Tractor Supply about 3 years ago and still loves it. They sell some efficient and good looking ones all I really know about his is it has green tin work on the outside. You will need to connect it to the duct work you already have, Of course Insurance may have other ideas but that will have to researched on your end, and be sure you seek a knowledgeable heating installer if you have questions. I will tell you that the newer catalyst stoves are expensive but you will get what you pay for just like anything else. My stove will run 20 hours plus no problem . I run it in about 10 hour cycles though roughly. I fill it in the am 5:30 or so and again about 9pm. Some get very long bur times I can get 30 hours but the real" useable" heat for me comes in at about 20-24 hours max. But in 35 hours there will still be enough coals to relight new kindling firewood and go again if need be. Good luck Jeff
 
I personally recommend the add on furnace. I grew up with an add on furnace and it was much more even heat threw out the home vs the stove at my friends house. They have the wood stove in an added on livingroom so it’s not centrally located at all. He also runs 3-4 box fans trying to move the air in the house. I bet there is close to a 20* difference between the wood stove room and the upstairs bedroom.

The cost my be more for a add on furnace but not substantially more compared to a larger stove. And you’ll have to take into consideration the chimney availability.

Burn times were in the 8 hour range. But we were burning any wood we could get our hands on. I’m sure it could be longer with better wood and a automatic damper control or draft fan control.
 
3-4 box fans is exactly what I do! That made me laugh.
The chimney is in excellent shape, and the only thing being used for the chimney now is for my LP water heater vent.
I would definitely keep the wood stove if I do go with the wood furnace, as I really enjoy the glow through the glass window.
 


Here’s the add on they are talking about. Or at least in one post. This is prob the most decked out hotblast I have seen. Mine is simply connected with two 6 inch ducts to my duct work. My only complaint is I have trouble controlling the heat. Once it reaches temp on the Thermo disk the fans are on until it cools off. You will get a ton of heat out of them, but the sure love to eat a ton of wood.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Is the stove and water heater using the same flue space? Building code states only one appliance per flue space. So you should add a power vent to your water heater and the use the chimney for the furnace.
 
Chimney is only being used for the water heater at the moment. My wood stove is piped out the wall and up. Thank you for the heads up

Is the stove and water heater using the same flue space? Building code states only one appliance per flue space. So you should add a power vent to your water heater and the use the chimney for the furnace.
 
Then it sounds like you should invest in a larger stove. And see if you can move the cold air return in the “stove room” so that it’s closer to the stove and run your furnace on fan only. It will be more effective at moving the air then 3 box fans will be.

As far as insurance goes with the comment above. I just checked with my company and they won’t raise my rates for a recreational type wood heating device. So tell them you run the furnace as primary heat and the wood stove once in a while for ambiance.
 
Hello everyone,

I've been cutting firewood for a long time for family and some for myself just for the outdoors. It's something I enjoy doing and gets me some exercise. Well, I recently bought an old two story farm house in the country with a full basement and there was an older wood stove set up on the main floor (Vermont Castings cast iron stove). I'm in central Illinois (lived in WI until a couple years ago) and I just had a new furnace/central AC installed. I heated mainly with the wood stove last year, but it took quite a bit to keep the house warm with the wood stove. Would I be better off installing an add on wood furnace (which has a good size firebox) that uses the blower from my house furnace in the basement or buying a larger wood stove for the main room? I have plenty of space downstairs to store wood and a good size window to throw wood in.
I love the looks of a nice cast iron stove, but larger wood stoves are relatively expensive.
Will I get a longer burn time from an add on wood furnace and are they more efficient?

I don't personally have the knowledge in install an add on wood furnace, so if you or anyone know of someone who might be able to help me install, please let me know. Of course I'd pay for your help.


Thank you for your help everyone,

Jerry
What’s your budget?
 
Jerry
Budget is a big thing. How long do you plan on being in the house. I would check with my insurance company and make sure you can change out what you have for some thing different and still have insurance. Around here insurance company's don't like wood stoves. If you going to live there a while with the new furnace and AC you might want to think about a OWB and keep the mess and fire danger out side.
 
Jerry
Budget is a big thing. How long do you plan on being in the house. I would check with my insurance company and make sure you can change out what you have for some thing different and still have insurance. Around here insurance company's don't like wood stoves. If you going to live there a while with the new furnace and AC you might want to think about a OWB and keep the mess and fire danger out side.

If it were me::
I would do a boiler (indoor or outdoor) and run the hot water to an auxiliary hot water heating coil in the supply air stream. This would keep the basement air in the basement.

As long as I'm going through that much trouble, I would add to that a water-to-water heat exchanger tank for domestic hot water and save even more $$ over time. (something like this -- https://www.ecomfort.com/Burnham-AL35SL/p37736.html)

I briefly looked into an OWB. I started with the local ordinances. In my township, an OWB must be a minimum of 150ft from any property line, which I don't have. End of search.
 
Space heater vs. central heating?

Generally speaking - my choice would definitely be furnace. (But definitely not a Hotblast). Depending on situational install and/or operation obstacles.
 
Ask 10 people and you’ll get ten different answers. I have a furnace in the basement and a stove in the center of the house and I am very happy with the setup. I like the radiant heat of the stove and the ambiance of the fire. I can heat solely with the woodstove with about a 15 degree temperature differential between the coldest rooms (bedrooms) and the warmest by the stove. This is with no fans. At first I was worried aboutthe temperature spread but we have come to see it as a benefit. Too cold, move closer to the stove, too warm,move away. Sleeping at around 60f turns out to be fairly comfortable. I can supplement the stove with the furnace when it is very cold and windy or vice versa.

As far as efficiency goes, an inexpensive stove is likely more efficient than an inexpensive add on furnace. Add on furnaces have been exempt from epa rules for quite some time while stoves have not. I replaced an old cast iron VC Defiant with an Englander NC-30 which was a relatively inexpensive (<$1000) stove. It not only cut my wood usage in half but allowed me to regulate the fire much more easily on days when heating demand is low.

Based on what you have already it would probably be the cheapest to upgrade the stove. Putting a furnace in the basement will require a chimney and a two story class a chimney won’t be cheap. I also don’t think that putting two furnaces on the same plenum is a great idea. I know it is done but to me it compromises both appliances to some degree.
 
I have a wood furnace because I did not want a stove in the basement. It is a nice even heat and it still keeps the basement and floor warm. I'm running a cheap furnace comparable to the hot blast and my biggest complaint is efficiency and burn time. A nice EPA stove with secondary burn has got to be 50 percent more efficient than a cheap wood furnace. But in an hour I can bring the whole house 5 to 6 degrees when its about 10 degrees out. It's a nice slow warming heat too unlike a regular furnace. Once I get to about 70 and the fire is burned down I close it all down and it stays warm for a few hours until I load it up again. It took a couple years to figure a good way to run the furnace.
 
Mostly in the colder regions, people require furnace to heat their homes. Wood furnace is mostly preferred as it is environment-friendly. One can take help of furnace installation Santa Barbara to get the best service, where the professionals will help you in the installation, servicing and repairing of your furnace at the best affordable price.
 
I am in the same debacle as the OP. Old farmhouse on 4.53 acres. Currently has a newer gas furnace. Older windows and the house dates to 1904. Gas/electric bill the last two months have been through the roof. Granted-it was -38 degrees a few nights in the last bill cycle so it's been colder than "normal" this year. I'm currently looking at either an add-on wood furnace to go in the basement right next to the gas furnace or possibly an outdoor wood furnace(not a boiler). Obviously the outdoor one is more expensive initially and the install will be more having to run hot/return line from outside to furnace. Ideally I would like the outdoor one to keep the mess outside. However, it wouldn't be so bad not having to go outside every 8-12 hrs to refuel it with wood. I do have a lot of area in the unfinished part of the basement to stack wood. Also have a walkout with large concrete pad to back truck/trailer up to for ease of stacking in basement. Really torn on what to do. Already have a splitter, chainsaws, tractor(getting grapple for tractor this week or next) so I have the tools I need to cut/split wood. I've never burned wood in my young lifetime(35 y/o) but I do have decent wood for cutting available and close to my house. My in-laws have an old farmhouse that they have an add-on wood furnace in. It works very well and the tenant that lives there hardly ever has used the actual LP furnace. Things I'm trying to accomplish: heat our home on all wood/mostly wood to cut our gas bill to $0 or close to it.
Clean up our acreage(lots of trees will be coming down from severe neglect).
Exercise(don't get any at work)
Being outside and enjoying the 4 seasons of Iowa a lot more
Enjoying the smell of burning wood in the house
Teach my boy hard work and have it be family time together of splitting/stacking/burning wood

Let me know your thoughts. Also always looking for like-minded individuals around Iowa to socialize/cut wood/bs with when available
 
How much exactly are we talking for a gas bill?

I would not do an outside forced air furnace. Add-on, yes.
 
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