Outdoor Boiler: Opinions?

[Farley]

Hi Folks

I live in NB Canada, about the same latitude as central Maine- we have cold winters here. My house is 1800 square feet with a full basement (used as work area/ utility- not finished). I currently heat with a Kerr Scotsman wood furnace and forced air, using roughly 5 cords per year mixed hardwood and softwood.

I am considering building an attached garage (roughly 600 square feet) and am debating getting an outdoor wood boiler, to use for heating house and garage. I cut my own wood off an 85-acre woodlot.

For those of you who have outdoor boilers, how do you like them? Pros, cons? What brand is it, how much wood do you use and what is your square footage?

Thanks in advance,

Farley in NB Canada

 

[NSMaple1]

I would make the garage big enough for a room for an indoor boiler and use one of those, before going owb. Ideally room for the winters wood too. And more ideally, water storage tanks too. Those could maybe go in the basement though.

What part of NB?

 

[cantoo]

I have an OWB and have posted lots of pics of it on here. I heat 2 houses including domestic hot water. For 1800 square feet it isn't worth the money for an owb. NSMaple1 speaks the truth build the garage a little bigger and get an indoor boiler, burn less wood. No expensive underground lines and wood stays dry and ready to burn. Don't have to store a whole years worth inside just enough for a month at a time, it will predry in the warm room. I wish I had done this when I did mine but I bought a used unit at a good deal so I'm still "saving" money. Oh yeah, check local laws 1st.

 

[stevetheboatguy]

Yep they summed it all up. Owb is great if you are heating multiple buildings. But for the amount of fuel you will consume and the initial cost. There are more effective options.
You may be able to get a outdoor forced air wood furnace. They are much more efficient for single structures.
Many good options just take your time and do your research.

I love my owb and hope I am never without it. It is the only way for me to heat my house, garage and small barn economically. But it eats alot of wood!!! Hahaha

Steven

 

[absrio]

the main reason I like the owb is the fact that I cant burn my house down with it. also I spend less time processing wood for the owb than i ever did processing wood for the indoor wood stove.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Hi Folks

I live in NB Canada, about the same latitude as central Maine- we have cold winters here. My house is 1800 square feet with a full basement (used as work area/ utility- not finished). I currently heat with a Kerr Scotsman wood furnace and forced air, using roughly 5 cords per year mixed hardwood and softwood.

I am considering building an attached garage (roughly 600 square feet) and am debating getting an outdoor wood boiler, to use for heating house and garage. I cut my own wood off an 85-acre woodlot.

For those of you who have outdoor boilers, how do you like them? Pros, cons? What brand is it, how much wood do you use and what is your square footage?

Thanks in advance,

Farley in NB Canada

Home we have lived in for over 24 years has always been heated with wood. First a forced air indoor wood furnace, then I switched to a Woodmaster 434. Heated home with 434 for 11 years, sold it to neighbor and now using Woodmaster 3300. Neighbor put 434 in his insulated garage and now it's outside, no way of controlling temperature. We use about the same amount of wood either method, around 22 face cord per year, depending on winter temps. Our sliding back door is open a lot, letting 2 dogs and 2 cats in and out. I would never go back to using an indoor unit period, mess is outdoors, bugs are outdoors, less handling of wood, no smell, no chimney cleaning, much lower risk of fire (if not any), controlling indoor temp is easier and wife stopped complaining of all the dust. I would build a wood crib fairly close to your unit. Add a domestic hot water plate heater, endless hot water. Sounds like you will not be buying wood, like myself, big plus. If you are going to heat with wood and can afford initial cost, do yourself a favor, install one.

 

[Gundy]

I put in a natures comfort 175 OWB a couple of years ago and it works pretty good. Heating a 4000 square foot house and hot water with it. Im not 100% sure but I think the EPA banned OWB's like the one I have starting this year. They are pushing people to get the more efficient gasification types. I may end up upgrading to one of those in 5 or 10 years to lower my wood consumption some. Only thing is the one I have now will take just about any wood I through in it, the gassers are pickier and need more cleaning.

 

[sdt7618]

I use an log gasification indoor boiler, sited in a room below our single story home( house is on a hill). our home is now over 200m2( after digging out the basement and remodelling) and use about 15T of wood a year, not sure how that would equate to cords but to be honest can't be much more than your 5 cords but she don't like even damp wood. has to be properly seasoned and has to be dry. the tanks give me over 1800l of water storage and one 6hr burn on the 35kw boiler is enough to heat our home and put enough heat into the tanks to give us all our hot water and early morning heating the next day.

Pro's
over 90% efficient
clean, very little mess and minimal ash, one a week removal of the ash pan.
inside, no wet and windy fills
boiler room is a great drying room for wet gear
little emission so should be future prof from environment agencys


cons
need to light every day( every 3 days in summer for just hot water, this could be extended with larger buffer tanks)
not cheap,( we get grants here in uk to install)

 

[blakey]

This was the 15th winter for my central boiler 5648. I heat a 5 bedroom brick farmhouse, dhw and a couple small buildings (mostly kept above freezing) on about 13 to 15 cord, mostly ash and maple. The even heat and 12 hrs between fills are the biggest pros. One of the few cons for me is smoke coming back out the door when loading. It has been very reliable, I don't even think about it between fills. My oil tank has been empty for 15 yrs.