Looking into OWB what to get?

[Uncle Sam]

I'm moving into a house in aug that has electric forced air. I'm not going to use the electric furnace as its going to cost lots to use. I've been looking at stoves or OWB as options. The stove doesent really make much sense to me. The house is 2200 square feet and there's a three car garage I'd like to heat on weekends. If I go with a stove I'd need a few of them to do the house and garage. By the time I buy the stoves, chimney and have them installed with a WETT cert I'm in the price range of a boiler. There is a central dealer in my area but after reading posts on here I'm not sure if that's the way to go. Any help would be nice.

Sam

 

[greendohn]

an add-on wood furnace would be an option. you can buy one for a LOT less money than an OWB. and the install would probably be cheaper also.

i love my OWB and wish i'd installed one 15 years ago. it's a greedy, wood eating monster but man it heats my house. i have no regrets. i installed it in 2007 and been nothing but happy with it.

if i had a basement i would have considered the add-on wood furnace instead of the OWB.

 

[gwiley]

Been running a Central Boiler 5036 for a few years now and I really like it. The unit is very solid - the only work I have done so far is to replace the cartridge on my circulating pump (which has nothing to do with central). We save a fortune every year using it and it keeps the house right toasty.

If you go with an OWB a few points I'd suggest after doing the installation completely on my own (with my sons helping):

1. Do NOT save money on the insulation for the underground pipe - insulate well, make it watertight and bury it as deep as you can. Poorly installed circulating pipe will loose heat to the ground.

2. Size the OWB properly, over OR under are both bad. Too big and you will not burn efficiently, too small and you will have to feed it too often.

3. Install bypass valves to allow servicing every heat exchanger without shutting the system down. If you need to clean a HX in the winter you don't want to have to shut down the furnace.

4. Put it as close to your house as your can - saves money on underground pipe (which is not cheap) and reduced heat loss to the ground. Heat loss is a function of insulation AND distance.

5. Place the unit where you can get your truck - it is nice to stack the wood fairly close to the unit - reduces handling time for each cord.

6. Be realistic about wood usage - 10 cords per year for us in North Virginia with a 3600sf house to heat.

7. Keep replacement parts for stuff like the pump on hand.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I have thought of that too but I don't think that would work out with the wife. I did look at a house that had one and asked how often he needed to load it. He said every two hours. There's no way that would happen. The OWB can go longer then that and it's something that I think the wife can do.

I only talked to one guy about the add on and maybe he's wrong or burning the wrong wood. I don't know what unit he had either.

 

[THE PLUMMER]

A properly sized and installed OWB should only be fed once every 8 hours. If it has to be fed more than that , then you should be looking into why. Supply lines, heat transfer problems, design issues. I think A wood fuel heat source would be an excellent consideration if you have electric now. Central is a good brand, but do some research there are many other types and brands of wood boilers.

 

[Uncle Sam]

The guy I talked to had a wood/oil set up in the basement and he was filling it every two hours.

 

[owbguy]

my Central Boiler CL6048 is awesome! 9 seasons now and still loving it.

There are other manufacturers now that can compete, so check them out. Nothing came close, imho, when I got mine.

 

[cford]

I have a 'add-on' wood furnace and if it was -20c/-10f I would have to fill it every 4-5 hours to keep my 1800 sf ... average insulated house heated to 20c/70f. My wifes main complaint is the dust it adds to the house.

My friend has a indoor wood boiler in one of his garage bays, in the winter he leave a trailer full of wood right by it. If used with a 1000 gallon heat storage tank this seems to be an ideal setup.

Once the boiler gets to temperature there is no smoke from the chimney, all the owb's around here are very smokey.

 

[greendohn]

The guy I talked to had a wood/oil set up in the basement and he was filling it every two hours.

the couple guys i know with add on furnaces are pretty much getting all nite burns.

every two hours ??? he's full-o-crap or was burning news paper..

 

[4b316]

Owb

We installed a taylor OWB in november and am very happy with it.We look at a few other models but most have the stovepipe out the top of the firebox and smoke goes right up and out.The taylor design sends the smoke thur 5 3 inch pipes,3 foot long to the back of the stove thur the water jacketthen up a cleanout box and back thur the water again thue a 4x8 channel.Along with help heating the water with the wasted heat is that it cools the smoke down some and decreases the smoke out of the chimmey.Our taylor was built in 2002 and doesn't have a ash cleanout(several of the other stoves do not also)but I don't know if the newer ones do or not.We are thinking of putting a grate in it this summer but just taking a couple shovels full of ashes out every 4-5 days keeps it down pretty good and we don't have to let the fire go out to clean.We wished we would of installed one several years ago