All things considered, I need advise!

[blades]

Friend of mine with a wood furnace down stairs, made a chute up to one of those little transom type basement windows He just tosses it down the chute and stacks a bunch up in side every so often ( several weeks worth). I hear ya on dragging wood down the stairs, with the NC30 upstairs haven't needed to fire the wood furnace down stairs unless I am going to be working down there. I don't have cross a room at all though just from the porch right down the stairs, I do have to traverse most of the basement though. For the 30 I keep a short stack close bye as the it is centered in the house so some traveling there but all hallway from the porch. I keep a cord or more out on the enclosed porch.

 

[Cheesecutter]

You can buy a non gasser Central Boiler 4030 OWB for $5200 or a 5036 for about $6500. The gassers start at $9000. I bought a Portage and Main non-gasser for $7500 4 years ago and it cost me $1500 to install it to 2 houses. The concrete pad takes +/- 20 bags of pre-mix cement so figure $70. The plumbing - Pex pipe, clamps, fittings, tools, pumps, heat exchanger, hot water exchanger- will cost $5-1000. The insulated underground lines can cost from $4-14 per foot, this can get pricey if you have a long run, but the good stuff is worth the $$$$. I bought my 2 pumps, underground lines and 2 heat-exchangers off E-bay and the rest from Menards. It takes time to hook one up, but it isn't hard if you have basic DIY skills. There are other less expensive stoves out there but IMO CB and P&M are 2 of the best. Get a couple dealers to come out to give you quotes and you will learn 2 things... one is pricing and more importantly which dealers are worth dealing with and which ones will blow you off.

 

[olyman]

The major problem is hauling wood through the house to the stairs and then down into the basement. That's alot of work and it would be alot of work adding an exterior door to the basement as well... We have a concrete pad out back of the new house already and the water pipe would only need to be 25-30ft long including inside the house to the furnace. And piping/plumbing/wiring the thing isn't a problem since I have a buddy that has done it before and would be willing to help (most likely...).

My main problem would be delivering enough wood to either up a long steep driveway from the lower level of the property during winter... I wouldn't mind either really and with a 1998 Lenox furnace we may not need one right away but I figured that if we were going to burn wood why not put something in now and start saving right away!

the basement wall is? block, or concrete???

 

[nstueve]

You can buy a non gasser Central Boiler 4030 OWB for $5200 or a 5036 for about $6500. The gassers start at $9000. I bought a Portage and Main non-gasser for $7500 4 years ago and it cost me $1500 to install it to 2 houses. The concrete pad takes +/- 20 bags of pre-mix cement so figure $70. The plumbing - Pex pipe, clamps, fittings, tools, pumps, heat exchanger, hot water exchanger- will cost $5-1000. The insulated underground lines can cost from $4-14 per foot, this can get pricey if you have a long run, but the good stuff is worth the $$$$. I bought my 2 pumps, underground lines and 2 heat-exchangers off E-bay and the rest from Menards. It takes time to hook one up, but it isn't hard if you have basic DIY skills. There are other less expensive stoves out there but IMO CB and P&M are 2 of the best. Get a couple dealers to come out to give you quotes and you will learn 2 things... one is pricing and more importantly which dealers are worth dealing with and which ones will blow you off.

First off the "dealers" around here will sell a unit but not install. They subcontract to someone else for installation and the dealers are few and far between. I was looking Acme Brand boilers out of Macon MO.

http://acmesolarbiomasswaterfurnace.com/

The boilers seem to be fairly priced, and they looked well built. $4500 for their 235gal unit.

 

[nstueve]

the basement wall is? block, or concrete???

Poured concrete... Digging a giant hole into the side of the yard and cutting up the basement wall isn't a high on my "want or need" list. The 24x36 shed needs a 4th wall and a concrete pad so I have enough inside storage before the snow flies... Plus we have 1.5 acres to clear and cut up before winter too...

Trying to keep things simple...

And to whoever suggested throwing wood down a shoot into the basement... There are no basement windows either!

 

[Woodchucker Ron]

Poured concrete... Digging a giant hole into the side of the yard and cutting up the basement wall isn't a high on my "want or need" list. The 24x36 shed needs a 4th wall and a concrete pad so I have enough inside storage before the snow flies... Plus we have 1.5 acres to clear and cut up before winter too...

Trying to keep things simple...

And to whoever suggested throwing wood down a shoot into the basement... There are no basement windows either!

couldn't you cut a 16"x16" hole in it and frame it with metal and build a door for it close to where your furnace would be. Just saying thats what i got. Works for me.

 

[blades]

Are you sure this place wasn't built by the Egyptians of say about 2000 years ago. Your basement sounds like King Tuts's tomb. ( just jerking your chain a bit, your wife likely has it up over a pipe somewhere at this point anyway).
Well you are going to have decide which trade offs you are willing to accept, or just dial up the utility supplied fuel. Any thing inside is going to cause clean up activities. out side has its own set of issues. No free lunch.