We have a wood stove insert in our fireplace, but I was just reading about a woman who has a wood furnace. I had never heard of it, but my electric furnace is on its last legs, and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how feasible a wood furnace is? It looks like you just hook it up to your duct work. I have access to a lot of free wood. But I don't like the idea of having ONLY a wood furnace. Does anyone know where I could get information about wood furnaces?
Wood furnaces?
- Thread starter raro
- Start date
freemotion
Food Guru
They are illegal in many communities (smoke), so find this out first before possibly wasting too much time on research.
They are also referred to as outdoor wood burners. You can burn stuff in them that you cannot burn in an indoor woodstove. The chimney is very short, you can even burn pine! My dad was telling me about them, as they became very popular in the extremely northern community that he and my mom lived in until last year. It is like a little shed outside the house and you can put big logs in it (within reason) so it can burn all day or all night.
Sounded like a worthwhile investment, especially for an ss lifestyle.
They are also referred to as outdoor wood burners. You can burn stuff in them that you cannot burn in an indoor woodstove. The chimney is very short, you can even burn pine! My dad was telling me about them, as they became very popular in the extremely northern community that he and my mom lived in until last year. It is like a little shed outside the house and you can put big logs in it (within reason) so it can burn all day or all night.
Sounded like a worthwhile investment, especially for an ss lifestyle.
journey11
Almost Self-Reliant
My wood burning furnace is the indoor type. It is basically a woodstove with a thermostat, a big blower connected to the duct work and a small fan in the front that is controlled by the thermostat to stoke the fire up when you want the house warmer. It can also burn coal.
Now we have ours set so that the small front fan is constantly on (by turning the thermostat all the way up). You really don't want to run a woodstove on a thermostat (allowing it to turn off and on) because you will not get complete combustion and therefore have more creosote to deal with, which is not worth it. We adjust the small fan by opening and closing the damper on it partially and based on the wood we are currently burning and how quickly it will burn.
It has a regular chimney like any other woodstove or fireplace. For all intents and purposes, it is just a wood stove with a blower that puts out to the duct work.
The downside to having a woodburning furnace like mine is that if the power goes off, you better have a generator. We have had to shut down the fire before so that it wouldn't overheat the ductwork when the power had gone off for a couple hours. This could also fry the thermostat controls and electric wiring or make it unsafe. We have got to get a generator for this reason. When we hear the weather is going to be bad, we just build smaller fires as a precaution, so they will be easier to put out. Definitely a problem--now I'm worrying about it again. Ha.
Our house is two-story so this set up does do an awesome job of getting the heat pumped to the upstairs. Our upstairs does not feasibly have a good space to have an additional woodstove because of its layout.
If I had a one-story house, I would much rather just have a plain 'ol freestanding woodstove or coal burner/combo and have one on either end of the house. This is the setup we had when we lived with my inlaws. It was ideal because we comfortably camped out during an 8-day icestorm back in 2003 while everybody else was freezing their fannies off. Our freestanding woodstoves did not require electricity to run a blower for distributing the heat. Overheating that stove was not an issue like it is with my wood furnace and ductwork.
The outdoor wood furnaces would not have the issue of overheating at least. But you would be without heat in the event of a power outage unless you did have a generator. There is also the cost of electricity to factor in, as you will need it to pump heat to the house.
Now we have ours set so that the small front fan is constantly on (by turning the thermostat all the way up). You really don't want to run a woodstove on a thermostat (allowing it to turn off and on) because you will not get complete combustion and therefore have more creosote to deal with, which is not worth it. We adjust the small fan by opening and closing the damper on it partially and based on the wood we are currently burning and how quickly it will burn.
It has a regular chimney like any other woodstove or fireplace. For all intents and purposes, it is just a wood stove with a blower that puts out to the duct work.
The downside to having a woodburning furnace like mine is that if the power goes off, you better have a generator. We have had to shut down the fire before so that it wouldn't overheat the ductwork when the power had gone off for a couple hours. This could also fry the thermostat controls and electric wiring or make it unsafe. We have got to get a generator for this reason. When we hear the weather is going to be bad, we just build smaller fires as a precaution, so they will be easier to put out. Definitely a problem--now I'm worrying about it again. Ha.
Our house is two-story so this set up does do an awesome job of getting the heat pumped to the upstairs. Our upstairs does not feasibly have a good space to have an additional woodstove because of its layout.
If I had a one-story house, I would much rather just have a plain 'ol freestanding woodstove or coal burner/combo and have one on either end of the house. This is the setup we had when we lived with my inlaws. It was ideal because we comfortably camped out during an 8-day icestorm back in 2003 while everybody else was freezing their fannies off. Our freestanding woodstoves did not require electricity to run a blower for distributing the heat. Overheating that stove was not an issue like it is with my wood furnace and ductwork.
The outdoor wood furnaces would not have the issue of overheating at least. But you would be without heat in the event of a power outage unless you did have a generator. There is also the cost of electricity to factor in, as you will need it to pump heat to the house.
Old Sew'n'Sew
All Strings Considered
I think the outdoor furnace is the safest. Google: Central Boiler, they make them with catalytics so the pollution is kept to a minimum, most states require something like this on all wood stoves.
Stay warm!
Stay warm!
sweetproserpina
Power Conserver
I have a combination oil/wood furnace in the basement and we have used both over the few winters we have been here. Wood was cheap, but required a lot of work (chopping, hauling, lighting a few big fires over the course of the day etc.) Oil is more expensive, but it's much easier and the temp is more constant (great now that we have a little one in the house). It's nice having both options though, especially if finances are tight! That being said we live in a bungalow, and probably would get more heat if we had a woodstove upstairs in the living quarters of the house. I don't know if they still make these kinds of dual furnaces any more, ours is probably 30 years old.
ChickenToes
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We have a wood furnace in our basement and we have a gas furnace. The gas furnace gets very little use, because it costs about $300 a month to heat our house in the winter. The electricity to run the blower on the wood stove costs about $20 to $30 a month.
The biggest pro of the indoor wood furnace is that even if the power goes out, it will still keep the house fairly warm as long as it's not extremely cold outside. The heat drifts up thru the ductwork by itself. The downside of course is that if it's 10 degrees outside (or colder!) than it can't keep the house warm without the blower running.
The biggest downside for me is the upkeep of the chimney (terrified of chimney fires!!) and the mess of throwing/stacking wood in the basement. Within the next few years we plan on getting an outdoor wood stove. Safer, and no mess in the basement.
The biggest pro of the indoor wood furnace is that even if the power goes out, it will still keep the house fairly warm as long as it's not extremely cold outside. The heat drifts up thru the ductwork by itself. The downside of course is that if it's 10 degrees outside (or colder!) than it can't keep the house warm without the blower running.
The biggest downside for me is the upkeep of the chimney (terrified of chimney fires!!) and the mess of throwing/stacking wood in the basement. Within the next few years we plan on getting an outdoor wood stove. Safer, and no mess in the basement.
Wannabefree
Little Miss Sunshine
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The outdoor wood furnaces heat your water too. We want one, but at about $5K...not this year. Maybe next year 
They do hook into the existing ductwork.
They do hook into the existing ductwork.
Marianne
Super Self-Sufficient
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We have both a regular wood burning stove and a wood burning furnace. Love both of them. We built a little room to the side of the house for the wood furnace. Our homemade wood rack holds 1/2 cord of wood. Hooks up to ductwork and does an awesome job of heating most of the house, even in -15 degree weather. Lots of heat for the cost of running the two blower fans. It paid for itself in one heating season. The woodstove heats this large, hard to heat room, can be used for cooking and heating if we're without power.
In my neck of the woods, the last thing I want to do is run outside to load up the wood burner when it's dark, below 0 with a 30 mph wind. All of us that burn wood inside deal with some mess, but that can be minimal with some planning. Overheating the ductwork is not a problem. I crack the ash drawer door a bit for draft, don't have a thermostat, stoker fan...
I won't spend the money for a generator. I can get by just fine with the little wood burner. If I had to use the wood burning furnace during the power outage, I'd use a DC to AC converter, car battery and wire up a squirrel cage fan for a blower.
In my neck of the woods, the last thing I want to do is run outside to load up the wood burner when it's dark, below 0 with a 30 mph wind. All of us that burn wood inside deal with some mess, but that can be minimal with some planning. Overheating the ductwork is not a problem. I crack the ash drawer door a bit for draft, don't have a thermostat, stoker fan...
I won't spend the money for a generator. I can get by just fine with the little wood burner. If I had to use the wood burning furnace during the power outage, I'd use a DC to AC converter, car battery and wire up a squirrel cage fan for a blower.
