So after about two months of use, I am rather pleased with my outdoor forced air furnace project. I would have rather went with a better stove, but $$$ was a real issue. So instead, I purchased a discounted US Stove 1557 and dug in. I did find that the stove doesn't have enough push with the blower motors to satisfy me, so I purchased a booster fan and placed it inline. Seems to have solved the issue well. It is wired to the blower, so it comes on as the blower comes on.
There is NO DOUBT that the wood boilers out there are MUCH more efficient than a forced air stove. But again, I have a FRACTION of money invested in this. Most of the parts to build the framing were scavenged from our farm.
On a cold day (highs around 20f) I can load it in the AM, once again around 5pm, and top it off at bedtime (I burn coal with wood when it's really cold). At 7am there are still coals. I open the draft, and load it up again for the day. I am loving my power bill :msp_biggrin:
I did however get quite a bit of creosote (as seen in the video) from burning green wood and keeping the draft cut off too much on a warm day. Since then, the stove has done much better by keeping dry wood in the stove.
Here is a video of the stove
Building an Outdoor Wood Furnace - YouTube
There is NO DOUBT that the wood boilers out there are MUCH more efficient than a forced air stove. But again, I have a FRACTION of money invested in this. Most of the parts to build the framing were scavenged from our farm.
On a cold day (highs around 20f) I can load it in the AM, once again around 5pm, and top it off at bedtime (I burn coal with wood when it's really cold). At 7am there are still coals. I open the draft, and load it up again for the day. I am loving my power bill :msp_biggrin:
I did however get quite a bit of creosote (as seen in the video) from burning green wood and keeping the draft cut off too much on a warm day. Since then, the stove has done much better by keeping dry wood in the stove.
Here is a video of the stove
Building an Outdoor Wood Furnace - YouTube