Wood stove furnace

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

Anyone on here have any experience with them. Thinking of using one for a secondary/primary heat source since gas is so !!!! high.

[Beer Forever]

Got one in my house right now. It does ALL my heating needs. Cheap and easy. What do you need to know?

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

Originally Posted by sks forever

Got one in my house right now. It does ALL my heating needs. Cheap and easy. What do you need to know?

Pretty much that!

Would you prefer it over traditional oil/gas/electric htg systems.

[NRAJOE]

I had one in a trailer home years ago...definately helped...traded an old beat up pickup truck for 3 cords of wood....yeehaw!

[Ctwo]

my cousin uses one up in Washington. Her place is smokin hot...it works great.

I wanted one, but I found out it is illegal to burn wood where I am. You should get one and use it. Then you can tell your grandkids about it.

[Chris]

They have them at the NC State fair every year. They seem like great investments. I am not 100% on how effecient they are though.

[Bull Barrel]

I cut wood for my neighbor's (He has one, not me) and the only thing I know is you kind of need to monitor it--sometimes his damper gets stuck open and starts to boil the water in his system--it seems like he keeps it going most of the time, but at a low rate, to supplement his heat pump. Apparentyl it'll burn about anything--which is different than a home stove where the chimney is a concern--it's a good ways away from the house and has a short flue that would probably be easy to maintain--wish I had one...

[Father Time]

When I lived up north, I heated my two-story farmhouse entirely with wood. I had to chop about 12-15 face cords a winter. I miss it.

The dryness did mess with a lot of things in the house like moldings and my favorite guitar.

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

I don't think the model I am looking at uses a boiler system; more or less a stove inside a metal box that circulates air around it and through ducts. I am looking to put it downstairs in the garage and run duct to some of the rooms upstairs and to my room downstairs.

Have some issues though due to the downstairs has a brick/block facade. and the area I want to put it is located on the front side of the house. I also plan on changing out some of the old windos and increasing insulation in the attic.

[Apollyon67]

OK here goes. I grew up feeding two wood stoves, one at each end of the house. We cut mostly pine, but had some hardwoods as well. I moved out to my own house at 17 and had a wood stove there as well. It kept me warm, I can tell you that. Now. I have lived in houses with wood furnaces that act just like a regular furnace, you just have to feed it at a rate that keeps the heat right in the house. It takes practice, but its not rocket science. As for the boiler type. They usually work the best as long as you don't heat the water too much and get it to boiling. Thats not too good, but the water heats the house more evenly. OK now, for the wood to use. If you burn all softwoods, make sure you clean the chimney on a regular basis, about once every two months when its burning. A mixture of hard and soft can be cleaned less often. All hardwoods even less. The thing I liked best about burning wood is its cheap if you don't count labor. Kids come in handy for this. LOL If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

[Mooseman684]

I agree with Apollyon67 whole heartedly. One extra point is that a wood stove HAS to be airtight and have a large capacity or you spend a lot of time feeding it. Stack fires from creosote buildup, especially from green wood is why most insurance companies frown on em. I found a stack alarm that has a sensor that goes in the pipe(battery operated) that if it gets too hot, It will wake up the Dead when it sounds. My woodstove is made out of a heavy military 55 gallon drum with a barrel stove kit, 6 " stack and an airtight door and There are loads of them heating cabins all over Alaska, we also weld a flat plate on the top and put a cast iron water kettle on for humidity and before I had running water, I had copper tubing running from a 12 gal. tank into the fire box and back out then up, around the stack and back into the top of the tank and I had HOT water all the time as it will circulate by convection...21 years i'm on the same barrel stove!
Rich

[Beer Forever]

It heats up my house very warm. It is far more effective than a regular gas heater. Just be ready to cut lots of wood and don't be affraid to do a little maintenence.

[Stopper]

I just bought a soapstone stove and so far love it!! It takes an hour or two to get it heated up, but once it is radiating heat there is no equal. The fire can go out and the stone will still radiate heat for up to 8 hours after ward.
Sure was a pain in the rumpus getting it down in the basement, but worth every beer it took.

[iflylow74]

I bought a gas stove and now wish I had a wood burner. The only problem is, when you bring in the wood it can make a mess from the sawdust and such.

Another thing to look at is home insurance. Ours goes up if we have wood burning heat.

[Stopper]

Mine went up to, but the difference between what is paid out in extra insurance versus what is not paid out in future gas bills would amaze you. My insurance went up 400 bucks just because of the wood burner, but my gas bill is gonna go down by 800 or more just this YEAR alone. So this year I'll save 400 bucks and may only have to fill the propane tank once this year. That'll be even more HUGERER savings!!!! ah ah he said hugerer!

Since I've fired that bad boy up, my furnace has not kicked on, it's not all that cold, but before the wood stove the furnace kicked on about 20 times a day!!!!!!!!! It was eating my lunch so I had to fork out the extra 400 in insurance to save maybe double or triple that in the coming year(s). It'll pay for itself, if not this year for sure next year.

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

Well I may go a different route; however I need to replace windows and add extra insulation to the ceiling first then I am not sure which way I will go. I have 2 systems in so I would need to replace atleast one (probably the lower) but the duct work would be the problem since I have normal clearance in the lower level. Garage door and other structures limit most practical location.

[Rufus Rhastus J]

my uncle had a wood stove in the house. worked great and was cheap to run!

[Apollyon67]

I forgot to mention one part of the stove was keeping the big cast Iron kettles full of water to keep the humidity up, Thanks MooseMan. People used to say wood warms you twice. Once when you cut and once when you burn it. I remember the first time I saw a hydraulic wood cutter a neighbor built. I could spit wood faster than it could, but it could do it longer. I was a puny 80lbs when the fellow that built it challenged my pop. Pop said heck, my boy here can out work that thing. So I did. I couldn't let the Old Man down, you know. It wasn't too hard either. I sure wish I was in that good a shape again.

[rosierita]

Originally Posted by SPOCAHP ANAR

Well I may go a different route; however I need to replace windows and add extra insulation to the ceiling first then I am not sure which way I will go. I have 2 systems in so I would need to replace atleast one (probably the lower) but the duct work would be the problem since I have normal clearance in the lower level. Garage door and other structures limit most practical location.

have ya thought about just putting in a wood stove & running your system w/ the fans on constantly?? (if you have a return nearby, it should draw the heat from the woodstove thru the house) you could use the triple wall pipe for a chimney & it would be much cheaper than having a brick mason come in & build 1.