WHy buy an OWB when you can have a boiler inside an outbuilding?

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ktm rider

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I had an OWB for 3+ years and I was never so happy to sell something then the day I sold that thing.
I ended up buying an indoor boiler and put it in my garage It is way more efficient which I really like, but the best part about it is that I'm not freezing my tail off everynight loading up the boiler. It just does not make sense to me to buy an OWB when you could have one inside out of the weather. Unless you do not have an outbuilding. But then you could just buy a small shed for it at Home Depot and STILL not have the money in it you would have in an OWB.

I will list my personal pros and cons of both boilers. I would like to hear others pros and cons also.

OWB
Cons--- Price, Efficiency/Burn Time, Durability, Outside freezing to fill. unable to put inside a building ( insurance will not allow it. )

Pros--- mess is outside. Will accept very large pieces of wood. like all wood/coal boilers ( indoor or out) very cheap heat.

Indoor Boiler

Cons---- will not accept quite as large pieces of wood as an OWB,
mess is in the garage ( but very minimal mess)

Pros--- it is inside a building, much more efficient, cost less, Is ASME stamped
will last much longer Wife does not complain about loading in the cold.
 
If every heating situation was the same we would have one heating system. I own an OWB as everybody here knows and everybody has an opinion that I have no anticipation of being able to change. But so I may save myself from being known as one of the OWB owning morons may I explain? My situation is I had two buildings to heat and own a farm with more wood than I will ever burn and have two healthy sons that enjoy the saws and a day in the woods as much as I do. OK so the choices are two super efficient EPA wood stoves that someone has to be here to feed. PLUS two masonry chimneys PLUS building to store wood so it will be dry, Now how much does all that cost? A heck of a lot more than one OWB and two hand dug ditches I can tell you that because I checked it out. Oh yeah did I mention extra tax base because of the wood shed and did I forget you aint going to put up any tar paper shanty for a wood shed here and get away with it? It costs me very very little to cut a couple extra loads of wood per year because of lost efficiency and it sure does my waist line good and keeps my sons off the streets for a couple night prepping the wood. Realize that I must cut wood in fence rows and blow downs out in my fields whether I throw them in a heap and burn them or if I feed my OWB. If you are buying wood or calculate woods time, saw time etc as some big deficiency to life then by all means go buy the best efficiency stove at any cost and save a cord or two each year. An indoor boiler sounds like a cute idea except I have to build a building to put it in at X cost plus X in extra taxes every year because of it. I envy those neat freaks who can have a stove inside with no dust and wood chips being tracked around like I do and don't have crappy days for draft and swirling winds that cause smoke in the house like we had but these are things I cannot change.

Minuses of the OWB
1.Heating the house is boring, no coming home to cold home when we take a day away. No swings from 60 to 80 degrees, aways 74 here.
2.The gas company hates me since my gas furnace has not run this winter save a 15 minute test run in September,as a matter of fact the meter has not run at all since we heat the water too.
3. My splitter is rusting up from not being used.
4. My back hurts some from lifting big chunks of wood
5. I have got wet a few times loading it
6. I have got cold loading it
7. I get tired of people interfering with my supper when they stop to see how I like my OWB

All for now,,,
 
I was in no way inplying that people with OWB's are morons. I also was not talking about indoor wood stoves. I was talking about indoor boilers. If you have any type of barn/garage or outbuilding you would be set. You could heat 2-3 buildings just like with your OWB. My indoor boiler has an oil backup. So I can leave my house for a day or a week with no worries.
Again I was in no way implying OWB owners are morons.
I was just wondering what possile situation where it would be better to have an OWB instead of an indoor wood boiler.
 
I researched wood gasification boilers.

thinking of putting one in my garage. Made a call to my insurance company first.. He said no. Not in the garage.. he saind no problem to put it in the living room bedroom or bathroom. Just not in the garage..Hummmm., I have a bathroom in my garage.But it is not large enough.. so if I ever want to do away with my outdoor boiler.,I could build a mechanical room in the garage that will hold my water softner, my fuel oil fired water heater and my new wood burning boiler.. I love the free heat. but darn I hate that cold or rainy trip out back.
My woodboiler is home made. so the firebox won't hold the normal half a truckload so I have to fire every 4 hours. when it is really cold..
I am trying some coal in it as I type. I had to add a blower to the draft to get it to burn well. as I just had a damper door prior.(my blower is a small stanley squirrel cage sitting on the ground aimed up at the damper door for now..
 
My indoor boiler is a wood/coal/ oil multi fuel boiler and I burn mostly coal. I doubt you have much luck burning coal in your OWB. You really need the combustion air to come from underneath the fire for it to burn properly. Do you have grates in your boiler? If so, maybe you could find a way to put the combustion blower below the grates. If you can do this i think you will really like burning coal. I burns alot hotter hotter and longer than wood..
 
I was in no way inplying that people with OWB's are morons. I also was not talking about indoor wood stoves. I was talking about indoor boilers. If you have any type of barn/garage or outbuilding you would be set. You could heat 2-3 buildings just like with your OWB. My indoor boiler has an oil backup. So I can leave my house for a day or a week with no worries.
Again I was in no way implying OWB owners are morons.
I was just wondering what possile situation where it would be better to have an OWB instead of an indoor wood boiler.

Well ya did say it didnt make any sence to own an OWB did ya not? I was in a hurry 'cause supper was ready and forgot to include the indoor boilers in my equation, sorry for that and yes I checked them out. Still need a chimney built somewhere and a building if I want the mess outside, still need building for wood shed and still have extra taxes and insurance man says wood heat in building is wood heater in building no matter what you call the building so extra bucks go to him.

And sorry for what appear to be flames from me wasn't intended that way.
 
Ktm,look at a CROWN ROYAL OWB with grates and a blower under the grates it burns coal perfect,also it will take corn and of corse wood. You can find it at northlanddistrib.com.
 
Speaking of the tax man, My wife works for H&R block and did you know you can get a tax break of around $400 for heating you home with alternative heat? Anything other than electric, even propane !!! Not sure what the tax code is but I can ask her or you could just bring it up to your tax guy/lady. Why would You have extra taxes if you put it inside a building compared to sitting outside?


I don't understand why an insurance company would rather have a wood stove/boiler inside a house but not inside an outbuilding. I talked to my insurance guy and he said I COULD NOT put an OWB in my garage ( has to be 6ft from ANY building) but i could put an indoor boiler inside my garage.

i don't have a block chimney. Just single wall 8" stove pipe to the roof and then one section of triple wall that is above the roofline.

I think I am confusing people. I was basically looking for the situations where an OWB would conform more to one situation better than an indoor boiler..

No worries with the flaming, I did not take it that way. Nor did I mean for this post to be taken that way.
 
Again I was in no way implying OWB owners are morons.
I was just wondering what possile situation where it would be better to have an OWB instead of an indoor wood boiler.

Bringing wood into your house can bring in pests, dirt, and generally make a mess.

Not to mention hauling it in, and storing it somewhere.

Then you have the smoke in your house from time to time.

There is also the potential risk of fire, which is obviously lessened greatly when you move the source away from the house.

Also, a lot of OWB people like to throw all kinds of junk in OWBs, like railroad ties, lumber, stumps, etc. ( not like I'm endorsing that)

Just a couple ideas.

For the record, I have an insert, so Im not on either side of this one!
 
I'm not really on " a side" I was just wondering what circumstances would make the OWB a better choice. I would not put the Indoor boiler actually inside the house. Just a garage of barn or any outbuilding.
You could throw junk in the indoor one if you would like. But i paid too much money for my system to do that.

HotSaw,
I looked at those. There are quite a few OWB that have the coal grates in them. A few of my friends have them. That was what I was saying to ericjeeper. That he would need some type of grate in the boiler with the combustion air (natural or blown) to come from under his grates for coal to burn properly and to make it worth the effort.
 
KTM,

Does your wood supply magically bring itself into the garage during the winter or do have a garage stoked to the ceiling for the whole heating season. The time I spent splitting and hauling inside for a woodstove far outstrips the time doing the same for an OWB.

Different strokes for different folks.
 
Husky,

I burn 80% coal in my boiler and I have a coal bin right outside the rear door of the garage. It is also a lean-to in the back of my garage for all the wood.
I usually fill 8-10 five gallon buckets of coal and bring them in and they last me for a few days. I use wood so the wife can throw some in if I am not home.
My burn times vary alot depending on the quality of coal and how much coal you put in it.( I never really had just a wood fire going) I have got as much as 28 hours on 2 five gallon buckets with good quality Bituminous coal at around 20 degrees. My house is not air tight at all ( contractor issues) Coal is only $40 a ton where I live and I use about 5 ton a year. Anthracite coal would give much longer burn times but it is hard to find in my area and VERY expensive around here. I also heat my domestic water with my boiler.

I have the AHS multifuel boiler ( CO-55 model) 225,000btu on coal.
 
I wish i could find coal that cheep...dam 40 a ton.cheap
 
owb only

I cut wood with my two brothers and this is how we do it.
1.cut down tree and cut into 12' lengths
2.use skidsteer to load logs into truck to haul home
3.pickup logs with skidsteer and cut into 2' lengths
4.use skidsteer mounted splitter and split the 2' logs
5.haul wood to owb with skidsteer and dump next to door on owb.
6.pickup wood by hand and put into owb.

I don't like to carry wood by hand,let alone stack it.
an indoor one wood be more work for me
I load it once in the morning before I go to work and again when I get home from work. If it is real cold out I may load again around 7 or 8 in the eve. For me wood is plentiful and cheap so efficiency is not an issue. and I heat two buildings and throwing wood in the stove usually makes me sweat.
 
I wish i could find coal that cheep...dam 40 a ton.cheap

I live in coal country. There are 5-6 mines only within a 5 mile radius of my house. Just pull in and they will load your truck with a loader. takes 2 minutes. Cost me about $200 to heat my house ( 3,500sq. ft ) and 30x40 garage last year. I am very happy with that.:biggrinbounce2:
 
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