OWB's and lotsa wood.

[Blazin]

What size is that Central Boiler, 6048?

It's a 5648, the earlier model of the 6048. Same other than the extended side panel for piping (which I did to mine) and a few extra gallon of water.

 

[Iska3]

I agree with Kemper and the others. I might use 20% more with the OWB then I did when I burned indoors. Now I split everything once, cut everything longer and sleep all night. When I heated indoors, I drank more beer. I'd have a few extra beers before going to bed so I'd get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove. :msp_rolleyes:

If the electric goes out, I have the LP as a back-up "IF" it still works. (Never had it on in three years...) I live on a farm so if the power does go out for a long time, I'm not so worried about the heat as I am the water.. I could be going out to the outhouse but that's where I put my OWB.

We heat with a indoor stove when we go deer hunting and it's ok for that place but looking it over, I'll never go back to an indoor stove.

I heat the house, the shop, a craft room and the stock tank.. Maybe use 10 cords at the most. Most of my wood is kept in one big pile and I'll fill the trailer once a week and feed the stove from that.

I see nothing wrong with an indoor stove if it works for you. For me, my labor time is cut by 3/4 from when I heated indoors. The best part is, all the wood that I passed up in the past.... I'm using that now and when the plate exchanger, I take long hot showers..

I spent a little extra with my set-up but it's paid for itself after three years..

+1

The nearest i can figure is that my OWB burns maybe 20% more than the wood furnace in the basement when it is cold. Also heating the domestic hot water, and getting 12 to 14 hour burn times.

I have burnt wood for years, the OWB is the best investment i have ever made, i would hate to go back to stacking wood then loading it up and throwing it through the basement window then restacking it again by the furnace, not to mention all the wood smoke and dirt in the house...

The heat is also controlled with an OWB, not one extreme to another, It's always nice and warm in the morning.

 

[Marc]

I loaded the Heatmor at 5:15 am yesterday. I came home to this at 9pm last night. Mostly Ash but some pine in there as well. House is 1000 sq ft plus DHW and full basement. Wife, me and a 13 year old daughter that uses her share of hot water. I used 5 cord per year avg for a long time with the basement furnace. I will probably go though 7 cord this year but the house is more comfortable and no propane for the DHW while the owb is running.

That does sound like a lot to me, but then, everything is a tradeoff.

My father heats his 2000 sq ft raised ranch on 4 cords of hardwood/year with his VC Encore. Oil for hot water, though. I think he runs through a full tank of No. 2 oil/year for that with 2 people.

 

[Guswhit]

I agree with Kemper and the others. I might use 20% more with the OWB then I did when I burned indoors. Now I split everything once, cut everything longer and sleep all night. When I heated indoors, I drank more beer. I'd have a few extra beers before going to bed so I'd get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove. :msp_rolleyes:

If the electric goes out, I have the LP as a back-up "IF" it still works. (Never had it on in three years...) I live on a farm so if the power does go out for a long time, I'm not so worried about the heat as I am the water.. I could be going out to the outhouse but that's where I put my OWB.

We heat with a indoor stove when we go deer hunting and it's ok for that place but looking it over, I'll never go back to an indoor stove.

I heat the house, the shop, a craft room and the stock tank.. Maybe use 10 cords at the most. Most of my wood is kept in one big pile and I'll fill the trailer once a week and feed the stove from that.

I see nothing wrong with an indoor stove if it works for you. For me, my labor time is cut by 3/4 from when I heated indoors. The best part is, all the wood that I passed up in the past.... I'm using that now and when the plate exchanger, I take long hot showers..

I spent a little extra with my set-up but it's paid for itself after three years..

+1

Showers and the hot water definately make the differance for me, 2 daughters and wife love their hot water. Stupidest thing I did when building the house was not planning for the OWB and did not put tubes in the basement or garage floors. I can still come home after plowing snow for 12-16 hours park the truck inside and it will be completely thawed and dried in the morning though! This winter has been very very mild, I don't think I have even burned 4 cord yet. Have not burned any L.P. since November of 2009 and my tank is still at 40%.

 

[homeyd]

owb

Well I've read many times here and quite honestly I've even made the comment about OWB's and wood. They take a LOT... Yes they do.
But I've read time and time again about people tryin to make some dinky little half assed stove burn for a full day and then complainin about it.

Then they proclaim with all sorts of reasons that an OWB is just wasteful and nowhere near efficient enough.
Well fine. Drag yourself out of bed at 5 am to fix a fire while the house is at 50.
Split your wood into toothpicks just so it will fit in this stove.

I'm in no way sayin that a small stove is worthless. Neither are our wood eating boilers.
Yes we go through more wood than the stove owner does but we are also NOT up at 5 am fixing a fire. Nor are we #####in about hot spots in the house. Nor are we #####in about bugs, bark, and dirt in the house.
So if splitting toothpicks is your thing or wakin up to a cold house is what you like then by all means burn your little stove to your hearts content.

If you want to get serious about heating with wood. Get an OWB and cut lotsa wood!

Everyone talks about how much more wood a OWB takes. Yep it takes more.
I'm willing to bet though that I have no more time in a winters worth of wood than the stove owner does and I have half the headaches. I'm not talkin cords ricks or piles. I'm saying a winters worth.
I don't care wether you burn 6 cord to my 12. My 12 cord of bigger stuff cuts as fast as your 6 cord of kindling.

Yes I'm in a mood tonight!

calm down bro if they dont got iy bi now they must still be wackin on the kindling ..gotta stay warm some way lol

 

[AIM]

I've been calm from the start. Once in a while though you just need to rant a bit.

While I'm thinking about it let's talk efficiency.

Which is more efficient.
OWB= cut bigger, split less, load less often, burn more pounds of wood..

Indoor stove= cut smaller, split more, load more often, burn fewer pounds of wood..

My point is that EFFICIENCY is not just about pounds of wood per year. What makes the diff if you spend the same amount of time processing your 6 cords to my 12.

 

[AdamG]

Holy crap. I've never had a load that big yet
This isn't the biggest, but it's the only one I can find right now. It was about 2 weeks ago, high was roughly 8-10 degrees
View attachment 277589

~48hrs later:
View attachment 277590

 

[Blazin]

Holy crap. I've never had a load that big yet
This isn't the biggest, but it's the only one I can find right now. It was about 2 weeks ago, high was roughly 8-10 degrees

That was a -20° night a few years ago, not really a lot of wood either since the coal bed was up to the horizontal front split, one row of 2' up front and a 14hr burn

 

[Marc]

I've been calm from the start. Once in a while though you just need to rant a bit.

While I'm thinking about it let's talk efficiency.

Which is more efficient.
OWB= cut bigger, split less, load less often, burn more pounds of wood..

Indoor stove= cut smaller, split more, load more often, burn fewer pounds of wood..

My point is that EFFICIENCY is not just about pounds of wood per year. What makes the diff if you spend the same amount of time processing your 6 cords to my 12.

You have to be more specific. Efficiency can be defined many ways and used in many contexts.

It makes about as much sense as saying "let's talk heat."

OWBs (specifically the non EPA versions) achieve far less combustion efficiency than EPA stoves or indoor wood boilers (the newer, forced induction versions). But we could also talk about the appliance efficiency, i.e., how much heat produced by the appliance is used/usable and how much is wasted. Or go for overall efficiency and quantify how much potential heat from the fuel input is delievered as usable heat by the appliance. If you wanted to start edging toward pedantry, you could take into account the energy required to process the wood into usable size and quality, but then you have to take into account the methods used to process and dry and other factors (hand split, chansaw efficiency, starting size, wood species and volumetric energy density) and it becomes hard to make a like comparison.

If you want to talk about effiicient use of one's time, then specify that when you begin speaking and there will be less confusion. You still won't get very far though, since while it is easy to quantify combustion efficiency, efficient use of one's own time is highly subjective and personal. It all depends on what a person perceives he's getting from his use of time processing wood and the cost of that time spent instead of doing something else (usually called "opportunity cost"). For instance a personal might get much enjoyment out of spending the same time processing 6 cords to your 12. Perhaps the person sees added benefits in the exercise, the opporunity to be working outdoors, to be occupied doing something that isn't otherwise costing money, etc. ad naseum. It's all too subjective to argue about, IMHO, but if you like chasing your tail, I guess, by all means. I won't judge you

 

[AIM]

Yep Marc you are correct. I guess I was mainly thinking about efficiency from a time spent standpoint.

 

[AdamG]

That was a -20° night a few years ago, not really a lot of wood either since the coal bed was up to the horizontal front split, one row of 2' up front and a 14hr burn

Ah makes sense. I try to leave only a couple inches of ash at most build up on the bottom, the rest I push to the back. It just makes it so much easier to rake the coals out. All of my stuff is cut to 4ft, except the big logs- I cut those to whatever length I think I can handle
The next several days it dropped to 4 degrees, I loaded just about the same and was cut to just over a 24hr burn. It's amazing what just a couple degrees and some wind will do. I'm still waiting for the negatives- Ever since I installed the damn thing I don't think we've had a a neg. night around here.

It's all too subjective to argue about, IMHO, but if you like chasing your tail, I guess, by all means. I won't judge you

Like I said before- I love running the saw. The splitter- not so much. I think if I had to split all my stuff I would be a lot less enthusiastic about it. But to each their own- I personally know a handful of people who are the opposite of I.
I Know a guy that enjoys hand splitting so much- he will gather a huge pile of logs over a period of time leading up to his birthday- and then his birthday present to himself is swinging the axe for an entire day.


Adam

 

[Blazin]

Ah makes sense. I try to leave only a couple inches of ash at most build up on the bottom, the rest I push to the back. It just makes it so much easier to rake the coals out. All of my stuff is cut to 4ft, except the big logs- I cut those to whatever length I think I can handle
The next several days it dropped to 4 degrees, I loaded just about the same and was cut to just over a 24hr burn. It's amazing what just a couple degrees and some wind will do. I'm still waiting for the negatives- Ever since I installed the damn thing I don't think we've had a a neg. night around here.

Adam

I tried the 3'-4' wood the first year, but I found the more you keep the fire to the front, the less wood you need.....that and the wife don't like to handle big wood

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

..that and the wife don't like to handle big wood

You honestly believe that?

 

[AdamG]

...that and the wife don't like to handle big wood

First time I've ever heard that!

That would definitely be something to consider whenever I find one-- cut it down to a more manageable size and get her to do it haha!

 

[Blazin]

You honestly believe that?

First time I've ever heard that!

That would definitely be something to consider whenever I find one-- cut it down to a more manageable size and get her to do it haha!

I was waitin for that.... :hmm3grin2orange:

Well honesty, It is easier to load with smaller chunks. I'm trying to not beat myself up like I used, I did get a bit frisky last weekend and shove a 20"dia round of maple thru the door Saturday morning ....... Only cause the splitter ran out of gas with one block left

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I was waitin for that.... :hmm3grin2orange:

Well honesty, It is easier to load with smaller chunks. I'm trying to not beat myself up like I used, I did get a bit frisky last weekend and shove a 20"dia round of maple thru the door Saturday morning ....... Only cause the splitter ran out of gas with one block left

I'm with you, I do the same thing. Dad and I use the wood so we never who is going to get what. We cut it all 24" and to easy handling size split wise. If it is a close tree and taking it directly into the furnace house I'll do the 4 ft stuff, basically by weight. 2 ft stuff just makes it a lot easier stacking wise as you know.

We have something else in common. I have a 5648 CB OWB too. It's the stainless version and going strong. Have you had to fix anything on yours? I had a damper warp out but they replaced for free. Some loose wiring cause my damper control to go crazy but dealer told me to check( loosen and retighten) and it fixed it. Other than that it's been trouble free and I love it. I haven't had to add any water in close to 10 years since install either. Only added chemicals once and it was borderline then.

 

[Iska3]

Yep! There is a lot of little tricks to learn when using an OWB. Like you, I cut my wood 18 to 20 inches. I rake all my coals to the front and load the wood up to the front. I'll use the larger rounds on the bottom and will what I can with splits. On the colder nights, I'll use the smaller dia. and longer rounds once I'm above the baffle in back. Once the logs start to burn above the baffle, the flame seems to circulate and burn the gasses along the top for a longer burn time. I also adjust my boiler temp to the changes in the outside temp.

I tried the 3'-4' wood the first year, but I found the more you keep the fire to the front, the less wood you need.....that and the wife don't like to handle big wood

 

[Guswhit]

I've been calm from the start. Once in a while though you just need to rant a bit.

While I'm thinking about it let's talk efficiency.

Which is more efficient.
OWB= cut bigger, split less, load less often, burn more pounds of wood..

Indoor stove= cut smaller, split more, load more often, burn fewer pounds of wood..

My point is that EFFICIENCY is not just about pounds of wood per year. What makes the diff if you spend the same amount of time processing your 6 cords to my 12.

I agree with you to an extent. Years ago, I had a remarkable indoor add-on wood furnace(northern leader brand). This stove was wonderful for 10-12 hour burns but it required small splits to get it filled for those long burns, thus much more time spent processing. When I had this furnace I was single, no children and LOTS of free time. Things changed, priorities get changed, job requirements changed so my free time drastically dropped. When I moved, after getting married, we did not plan on heating with wood, but after a few years of paying those L.P. bills, I started up again with a C.B. I cna process wood for this boiler ALOT faster than I could for the add-on since I do not spend as much time splitting and cutting smaller pieces. Did I keep track years ago, no. But I do know that I spent more time before scrounging wood up than I do now, plus I work more and have time for the wife and all of the childrens functions. As I follow this thread, I happen to be working on my taxes, I cut and split approximately 20 cord of wood this year and I burned $106.50 in splitter gas and chainsaw gas. I don't keep track of Truck fuel, as I write off mileage. I should keep track of time spent as well, maybe I will for this year. Any way, getting back, I believe the outdoor boiler is better for my application.

.....that and the wife don't like to handle big wood

I was waitin for that.... :hmm3grin2orange

My wife prefers the big wood, but she says "you still have to know what to do with it"

 

[jh35]

.............





My wife prefers the big wood, but she says "you still have to know what to do with it"

My wife probably would prefer it, but I am unfamiliar with that adjective....

 

[Blazin]

I'm with you, I do the same thing. Dad and I use the wood so we never who is going to get what. We cut it all 24" and to easy handling size split wise. If it is a close tree and taking it directly into the furnace house I'll do the 4 ft stuff, basically by weight. 2 ft stuff just makes it a lot easier stacking wise as you know.

We have something else in common. I have a 5648 CB OWB too. It's the stainless version and going strong. Have you had to fix anything on yours? I had a damper warp out but they replaced for free. Some loose wiring cause my damper control to go crazy but dealer told me to check( loosen and retighten) and it fixed it. Other than that it's been trouble free and I love it. I haven't had to add any water in close to 10 years since install either. Only added chemicals once and it was borderline then.

I'm on year 7. I've only replaced one damper solenoid, and one pump which was in the last year. I have done the water treatment twice, only because I hooked another run in a few years after I got it. I haven't had to add water either, pretty amazing being an open system, you'd think there'd be evaporation at some point. I got what I expected when I bought it, a simple well built stove that works how it should

My wife prefers the big wood, but she says "you still have to know what to do with it"

If'n it don't fit don't force it! :msp_w00t: