Wood Stove Outside Boilers
Overview
As energy prices continue to rise, there is a renewed interest where ever it is readily available, in burning wood. The problems associated with burning wood in today’s modern house include: tighter house construction, dirt, smoke and bugs. Keeping the wood stove outside and brining in only the heat offers tremendous benefit. Outside wood boilers can also be much larger in size than typical inside wood stoves, so larger fires can be built and/or much more time between needing to ‘add another log to the fire’. A well managed outdoor unit may need to be only stoked once or twice per day, and rarely should there be a need to restart the fire from a cold start. All the dirt, bugs and smoke stay outside.
On the down-side, central boilers are quite expensive to install, and burning wood all season long – not just for weekend moods, can be a huge undertaking. Unless the wood and labor is ‘free’ there probably isn’t a fast payback.
Check with local codes before moving ahead with any wood-fired project. Many communities have enacted ordinances against outside burning, which may include outside boilers. This issue is currently being contested in a Michigan community near where I live that recently banned all new installations of outdoor wood boilers; if wood burning is a problem in Michigan, then it could be a problem anywhere!
How They Work
Central Boiler:
- The Classic can be located up to 500 feet away from the home or building being heated.
- Heated water from the Classic is pumped to the home or building through insulated, underground ThermoPEX piping – the most efficient way to move heat over distances.
- The Classic is designed to work with any existing heating system. A heat exchanger or direct circulation conveys the heat into a forced-air furnace, radiant baseboard, or radiant floor heating system. This gives you normal thermostatic temperature control.
- The Classic can provide heat for all your domestic hot water by adding a water-to-water heat exchanger. You can turn off your hot water heater and save $30 to $80 or more per month!
Central Boiler
20502 160th Street
Greenbush, MN 56726
Telephone: 800-248-4681
Web site: www.centralboiler.com
The Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace provides hot water to work in conjunction with your existing forced air, boiler or radiant system as well as providing domestic hot water plus heating spas, hot tubs and pools. Our systems tie in easily to virtually any system; floor heating, forced air, boilers, water radiators and more.
An outdoor wood furnace is a wood burning furnace that sits outdoors – keeping the mess, smoke and bugs outside. The furnace, looks much like a small utility building. It is a wood fired, water-jacketed stove.
The hot water is circulated through underground pipes to the inside of the house, where they are hooked to a heat exchanger in the majority of cases. It is also directly plumbed to the hot water heater, eliminating the need for a $200 side-arm heat exchanger for that purpose. It can also be tied in with an existing Hydronic floor heating system or boiler.
Heating with an outdoor wood furnace has never been easier. Instead of moving the wood and corresponding mess and bugs indoors, the wood burning furnace is outdoors – next to the wood. Load it once at night and once in the morning and you’re done! Don’t believe the stories about wood burning 96 hours.
Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace
328 Hwy 62 West
Salem, AR 72576
Telephone: 828-683-0025
Web site: www.nextlevelsolutionz.com
More Information
Source: Text Bob Fegan 12/2008; images from web sites referenced above 5/2008
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