Out side wood Stoves what is best for me?

[btlook1]

Hi guys. I'm new to this site and I'm sure I'm going to ask a question that's been asked many times before.
I live in Kansas and am in the market for a new outside stove. My house is approx 2000 SQFT. It's partially underground I have a fireplace with a wood aire insert that we use to heat most of the time with. Due to allergy and asthma problems with my wife we are looking at keeping the wood out side from now on. Maybe only use the inside for emergencies or on a rare day. I am not interested in using water to heat the house nor do I care about heating my water heater at this time. I just want the hot air to hit my furnace and then it can push it around from there. I'm having a hard time figuring out all this stuff and exactly what I need.
Any comments or suggestions I would welcome. Thanks in advance and just want to say looks like there is a lot of good information on this site. I look forward to exploring it soon! thanks again. bt.

 

[porta mill]

out door wood stove

The first thing is do your research . talk to everyone around you and get there opinions pros and cons of each indiviual unit . buy the best stove you can afford if you skimp on the unit or the undergroud pipeing and insulation have read many threds where people skimped on things and a few years later they are redoing things spending double the money they spent. on the unit it self, look for a unit with a power draft quicker recovery time , look for a stainless steel if you are planning to have the unit for a long time . Stay away for 409 stainless steel look for 304 . hookingthe init up to an existing forced hot air furnace no problem a heat exchanger is cut it to the plenum of the existing furnace . I personally I have an empyre out door wood stove ,it has tubes along the sides of the fire chamber that forces air in to the coal"s I also burn wood chips from my chipper .

good luck

 

[Butch(OH)]

Asking who makes the best outdoor boiler is like asking who makes the best pick up truck, same for which material, carbon, 409 or 304. Some manufacturers will tell you that 304 is the only way to go and the next one will tell you that they quit building 304 units because of problems. One factual thing is expect that if you go with a cheap unit that you will have typical cheap unit problems and simple designs would seem to be advantageous over the long haul. Mine happens to be made of 1/4 carbon steel and is a Woodmaster. I went with them because the dealer is near and a good one. It has been burning since September and has run perfectly. To connect with your forced air system you install a heat exchanger (fancy term for radiator) in the duct and control the furnace fan with a separate thermostat. If you had heat going in all the right places before nothing changes with the boiler. Adding the domestic water heater is about $250 and I figure mine is paid for right now as we use a ton of hot water around here. Portamill is right on about the underground pipes. Skimp once and pay dearly forever or do it right once, your choice. A few posts down you can see my choice in pipe insulation. One advantage to the packaged pipe with insulation as sold by Central Boiler and many others is you can put the furnace in right now if you wish and lay the pipe on top of the ground and then bury it next summer.

 

[ktm rider]

Hi . I am not interested in using water to heat the house nor do I care about heating my water heater at this time. .

Did I just read this wrong or something ?? There is no way to use an OWB and not use water as a heat transfer.

Or do you mean you do not want to use radiators, or radiant floor heat?

 

[ericjeeper]

They do make exterior forced air furnaces

Just duct em to the house.

 

[HOT SAW]

Just duct em to the house.

I did not now they made those,do they work well.

 

[antigrassguy]

My neighbor uses a forced air OWB. He heats 2 pretty good sized shops with it. No water at all and if heat isnt needed you can let it go out and not worry about water freezing.

 

[HOT SAW]

What do they pipe the air under ground with?It cant be vary efficient to pipe hot air vary far.

 

[btlook1]

Thank you all.

Thanks all for the information. I do plan to buy a brand name furnace. I don't plan to use the hot water from it for now. Plumbing it in to my house would be a job I think. Even if only for hot water. We are looking at building a kennel in the future so I'm thinking that when/if that happens we will look at using the hot water feature...depends on how the side business goes in the next year or so. Anyway If you guys want to point in the right directions on the brands you all use feel free or PM me if you like. Thanks again for the information! See you guys around! Nice web site!

 

[ktm rider]

Thanks all for the information. I do plan to buy a brand name furnace. I don't plan to use the hot water from it for now. Plumbing it in to my house would be a job

I am confused here a little bit. If you are going to buy an OWB you have to dig a trench and run the waterlines to your house no matter what kind of heat you are going to use ( forced air, baseboard, radiant whatever... ) If not you simply have a $6,000+ yard ornament. So, You already have the trench dug for the hot water lines, why not just spend a few more bucks and add a third line for your domestic hot water?? You will most likely recoup your money for the extra line in just one winter anyway.
Besides, It will cost you more money and more time in the future when you do hook it up.

Not sure if the OWB you are buying has the HW coil inside it or not. If not you can get the Brazed plate domestic HW coils on ebay for a very good price. then all you need to do is hook it up... You will be amazed at the money you will save just by heating your DHW with a OWB.

Or I could be totally misreading your original post and you are looking for a outdoor hot air furnace not a outdoor wood boiler. If so, I don't know of anyone that has one of those units and i wouldn't think they would be all that efficient anyway. You would have to insulate the bejesus out of the ductwork and then have it EXTREMELY close to your house. I would think it would be better to just get an OWB and a heat exchanger and go with forced air. But, if you are dead set on an outdoor hot air furnace here is a link
http://www.charmaster.com/embers.html

 

[btlook1]

Thanks for all the information guys

I'm still thinking something along the lines of a forced air only for right now....I would like to go with water but it sounds like a lot more work to hook up and set up. I'm thinking just sit a stove right behind my house and pipe the hot air to my furnace and let it help push it around the house...
Thanks for all the information their is alot of it on this site. I look forward to reading more. Thanks again.

 

[windthrown]

Outside wood burning... furnace?

I'm still thinking something along the lines of a forced air only for right now....I would like to go with water but it sounds like a lot more work to hook up and set up. I'm thinking just sit a stove right behind my house and pipe the hot air to my furnace and let it help push it around the house...
Thanks for all the information their is alot of it on this site. I look forward to reading more. Thanks again.

Well, I have to agree with ktm rider on this one. You are going to be very limited in an outdoor forced air wood burning system. I do not know of any personally. All the outdoor wood boilers and indoor wood gassifiers that I have reaserched and or installed are boilers... meaning that they heat water. Reason for that is that water has good heat capacity, good heat transfer, it is fluid and thus relatively easy to plumb and transfer the heat in small PEX tubing to wherever you need it.

I do not think that the Embers furnace can be very good with only a 24 in firebox. *shrug* We have one of the smallest Central Boiler OWBs and it is almost 4 ft deep by 3 feet wide. You may be better off getting an outside air supply wood burning stove and a good tight firebox and flue. Probably be a lot cheaper too.

Now don't let old Sparky know I said anything good about an indoor wood burning stove now, OK guys???