Heating a home

Wood burner or pellet stove??

Wood

If you have access to wood then wood hands down

Look into a wood outdoor boiler keep the fire hazard and dirt outside of the house that way just make the area fireproof. I put my own in it was no big deal really with the pex line's, some copper fittings had to sweated but only a few of them. You can run an extra building or two off of a boiler depending on its size.

Wood boiler

Wood

did you find a cheap way to make pellets ?

or are you going to have to buy all your wood cut , split and delivered?


if your a 85 year old woman who can lift a half a bag of pellets at a time , go pellet it worked well for my aunt
she would pull the bag off the stack we made in the garage let it hit the floor then cut across the top with her scissors and let that fold over into the 3 gallon pail , she hauled that to the stove , then dumped the rest of the bag in the bucket and hauled that in
2-3 bags a day clean the ash out a few times a week

it was manageable for her living by herself

we stacked 3 pallets of pellets in the front of her attached garage at deer camp and that was enough to make it through the winter.
she also had a LP furnace

my cousin has a commercial dock at his farm and could get a truck load of pellets at a good price he sold them to people who pre-ordered

if you can cut and split that is where the heat savings is
a day of cutting and splitting makes a month of heating.

Also, if I understand how pellet stoves work, if the power goes out so does your heat. Bad news if you're not home

Wood burner

Mine paid for itself the first few years when LP was high just did maintenance on mine and it’s working like it’s new..



Put up a wall for ember containment, removed all exposed railroad landscape timbers, moved the wood pile 30 feet away, graveled all around it. I only keep enough wood for 1 day around the boiler and all waterlines are underground now.

I know guys like their outdoor boilers but you'll never experience wood heat that way. It's a LOT different.

I don't know that I would survive winters without that wood heat feeling anymore. It's just so relaxing. Well, maybe it's one of those things in life that you best not get used so you don't know that you'd miss it.

My wood stove is honestly the best part of my house from about October through March. The dogs think so as well.

Also the new stoves are very safe. Just get it inspected by your insurance company (thats really in YOUR best interest). My premium went up a whopping $20 per year. I'll take it.

To each his own, however

Absolutely right Calvin. There is no better way to warm up than by a wood stove !

Mine is working hard right now as it is 42 below out there !

even the smell of wood smoke wafting through the house after loading I always liked.

well then you may not want a new stove, they draft so well you don't get any smoke in the house unless you leave the door open for several minutes

open air controls , put in dry wood , close door let it get going good about 15 minutes , close up primary air about 3/4 and get long burn

From the age of 5 to 18, I lived in drafty old 2 story farmhouses. Nothing compares to a wood burning stove to warm up after a long day spent outside. That being said, all wood stoves are not created equal. Air to air heat exchangers installed in the stovepipe are also a game changer. When you got close enough to the house to smell the wood smoke, you knew you'd be warm soon.

I had indoor wood heat in wood stoves and fireplaces for 18 years. Now I have an outdoor wood burner. And would not go back.

My house is warm all over evenly not warmer in one room, I don't have the mess from bark and ash, I don't smell like I have been smoked all winter, I don't have bugs waking up when the wood warms up and coming out, I don't have to cut or split wood very small, I can burn any wood I have even green pine,. I DON'T HAVE ANY FIRE HAZARD in the house.

Dogs and cats curl up on the wheat register same as in front of the fire place. I also never run out of hot water even if I'm the 5th to get in line for a shower.

Mostly a wood burner or lp furnace would not keep my old farmhouse warm. My outdoor burner does.

I’d rather have bugs in the house than a cat

Not a fan of cats either.

I've had all 3.love the outside boiler mess is outside, takes bigger chunks then a woodstove like said previously. I think with the older boilers you burn alot of wood that you dont get the benefit from.new ones are alot more efficient. I do miss the feel of the wood heat even though my house stays plenty warm.that heat coming off of woodstove/furnace feels so much warmer.love the pellet stove also but pellets are kind of pricey. If my boiler ever gets to the point it isn't worth fixing I would have to think long and hard before I bought another one at my age to justify the cost as there pricey. Alot of variables in your question comes into play which one would be your best choice.

White ...you got a nice train layout to play with...when it's -42 degrees outside ?

Making fur hats ? ...Painting or Drawing ? ...Baking Sourdough ?

An outdoor boiler is rather intimidating but there’s not much to them really my Central Boiler came with a 25 year warranty I got mine before the gas burner was being pushed it smokes at start up and shut down but nothing crazy if you keep the temperature up. Mine has been running 14-16 hours on a fill if I let it go that long.

I have Heatmor running on 21 years, heats the house and all the hot water you can use. Real savings over this time period approach $80,000.

Always thought a version of the wood chunker this guy built to use for his wood gasifiers would work to chunk up wood to the point it could be handled by mechanical means. Kind of a hybrid between firewood and pellets. Big pellets about the size of a softball. Store them in something like small grain bin or corn crib, then use an auger to feed and transport them to the furnace.

In later versions, he has a gravity feed into the chunker. Could further automate it using a conveyor to elevate chunks to storage bin. Small grove of fast growing black locust would provide a lot of high density, high btu fuel of right size to feed into the chunker.

Wayne Kieth......an Einstein in bib overalls.

We burned wood in my dad's shop. My brothers burned wood in the house they rented.My in-laws burned wood until 12 years ago,,When we first moved to our place in Idaho we had wood and pellet stoves We burned 1 cord and a pallet and 1/2 of pellets, . purchased todays dollars about $550 on the low end.

I told my wife we were done with wood. I blown in more insulation, the house got new windows, last year our gas hot water and furnace was a total of $600. I just know of all the wasted time feeding the pellet and wood stove,,, Toos in a chainsaw a splitter of choice, trailer, damage to the truck and the wifes carpet, no thank you

I enjoy a nice fire ,,And maybe a small cabin but heating my house,, its a no go

I always enjoyed cutting splitting and stacking firewood.

downside of an outdoor boiler is when the power goes out you have no heat, you need electricity for it to heat your house.
Very inefficient way to heat with wood, you'll use alot more wood than other ways of burning with wood.

That's what back up generators are for. I can tell you I would have to have more than one wood burner in the house running to heat my big old farm house evenly. The added cost to put in new pipe in the 2 story house and dedicated space you only use for the wood stove just won't work in my old house lay out.

The lack of smoke, mess, and fire hazard, unlimited hot water, and not having to cut and split wood so darn small as to fit in a wood stove more than off set the added wood I use. Especially if you consider I burnt nothing but green pine 2.5 months this year from 4 pine trees that blew down. Never would have burned that in the house and would have spent more time cutting it up and tending to the brush pile fire than I did cutting it and burning it for heat. Also use some green cherry from a blow down .

Everything had trade offs so far my burner has paid for it's self and saved me 10k in addition to in lp going dron my numbers from back before I put it in. Granted if I had a modern house with new windows and not a 3k sq foot farm house that has had at least 4 additions over the years it would not have made financial since to pay 13k to get and have the unit put in. But that is also not counting I have a unit large enough and with hook ups to heat another building as well as my home. I just have not done that yet. That adds to the benefits of the unit as well.

Now you have to add the cost of a generator. I’ve seen some outdoor stoves that look like nice setups but seems the majority just backed the truck up and dumped it at the most convenient spot in the yard and called it good then start dumping wood randomly all around it. To the OP I would go with a wood stove. My son has a pellet stove and even though he likes it he says the pellets can be costly. If you have resources to get your own firewood that is going to be your best bet and they sure add a nice touch to the inside of a house.

I favor the wood boiler ! But then I have quality hardwoods absolutely surrounding me . Sure is a bonus heating multiple buildings and all my domestic hot water from one stove.

No bugs , bark, dirt , or fire risk in the house. Probably the best investment I ever made !

Either that , or taking the time to find my wife a second job !

As for the "backup" generator, I'd venture to guess most guys already own one for one reason or another, so no big deal or expense there.

Nothing like Wood heat ! And my Wood camp is 300 miles away, (with a few Grouse) most years.

Agreed not a big power draw from the pumps on a boiler. Just the radiant heat from my furnace element heats the house most of the day without the blower going every 10 minutes. Granted I don’t have a big old house but the boiler keeps things warm. With just heating the house now it’s way more efficient than heating a second poorly insulated building so my wood consumption went way down now. I fill the boiler 2X a day and never need to play catch up because of a temperature drop from low wood in the hopper.

Cant beat wood heat as far as I’m concerned. To me nothing else feels like it. I found a cast iron skillet that drops right into my top loaders lid hole, the pan taper stops pan when bottom is an inch or two below stove top. . Been cooking on it a bit this winter.

Been using a outside boiler for over 20 years Heatmore , no major problems ,, bought a generator for just in case havent needed it yet for the boiler but use it many other places , as far as wood goes trees are growin and dyeing here faster than i can clean them up will never run out of fuel , already own tractors ,, may get to old to put the fuel in eventually . Do not split anything unless it wont fit in the door of the stove . Heats the house put in cast iron radiators at the start also all hot domestic hot water sept thru may ,, i love no fuel bills I have to ask everyone says oh no Whats your backup ,, my question is allways the Whats your backup most people heat with indoor furnaces and assume wood heat is unreliable when their system runs on electric from the grid

Winner winner. Back up generator is good for everyone to have all the time. It's not a I have to have it now that I have an outdoor burner thing.

Don't know about the stove but the food looks awesome!

I had a pellet stove might just as well burn a candle for heat, and pellets around $250-$300 / ton, you can buy a lot of firewood for that.
Wood stove works when the power is off, and you can cook on it as well. My parents lived to be in their late 80’s and had no problem feeding the wood stove and furnace.

And as others have said, there is no substitute for radiant heat from a wood stove on a cold winters day.

I am sitting in front of mine watching the fire and absorbing the heat. The thermometer is sitting right on minus 50 at the moment. Supposed to get cold tonight though

Dang! Did ya haul plenty of wood inside Ken?

Its been +33-+35 last few days here. I hate loosing snow this time of year. I switched from hard wood back to cottonwood in the stove for the warm up.

Yeah I have plenty of wood. I just wish some of it was maple or oak !! Birch is what I am using

When you have a wood supply; there ain't no shortage of ways to use it.

I heat my 3000 sq ft house, garage, and hot water with an outdoor boiler-No bugs bark or mess in the house. Only one fire required.

If i want to warm up by a wood stove, the wood fired sauna fits the bill perfectly.

I may have to take a look to see if I have any wood still on hand

Is there a reason / requirement why wood boilers have to be outside? Could they be in a basement or in an attached and enclosed area similar to a garage just as easy?

What type of temps are your woodstoves running at and how long is your burn time? I have a pellet stove on one end of the house and a coal at the other.

My Boiler temp is set at 175. At 165 the damper opens and stays open until water reaches 175 again. I fill my stove twice a day a heaping wheelbarrow load 2x a day on a typical winter day. Yesterday with temps near 40 I burned one wheelbarrow full.

I've got a fan in the door on mine kicks on at 160 and off at 180.i can change the temp on the aquastat but leave it alone.the cooler the temps the more creosote buildup on the inside.i can fill mine once a day and get by in sub-zero temps. I've got a fairly new house and heat my hot water also.it takes more wood if you use alot of hot water then to heat the house in,showers washing machine dishwasher and so on. Mine is supposed to heat 5,000 Sq ft my house is roughly 3200 Sq ft.i wish I had a shed around mine to stay out of the elements when working on it or loading it.maybe some day.

They make one model I know of that can be inside a building. I don't remember the details on what makes it different other than when you open the door it does something to keep the blower from coming on while your loading it and to keep it from fairing up when the air comes in when the door is opened.

I promise you wouldn't have a building long if mine was inside.


And for the temp it runs at mine has a small computer controll I set at the temp the blower kicked in when the water temp gets so low and off when It get to set temp.

A few years I set it at 180° to kick off and 10° differents so it came in at 170°.

This year it kicks off at 175° and on at 160°. I like the longer burn time with 15°

If I was going to put a shed around mine it would be a metal versa shed from menards with sides all the way down.i think you would be ok with that.

Have you seen the post of our member that had his catch his wood pile on fire and now keeps his wood 30' away.

I keep my wood to close .

No the way the flames come out of the door and up over a foot above the door at times I would not build a building around it. I planed on a lean to off to the side but with lots of clearance several feet at least 10 but after seeing his fire thread an not sure about that.

If it's not approved to be inside a structure there is a good reason. I thought it would be a good idea before I got my unit. Not now that I have used it 6 years. If you want to do that find a unit approved for it.

It's not like a indoor wood burner. I have my pile uncovered now out in the rain. I burn green pine and cherry when they fall with zero issue. I'm not out long enough to fill it to need to be under cover. Took a few years of having it to get my thinking and habits adjusted from indoor fireplace/wood stove needs.

The forced air input to the fire box is incredible.

We have dry wood for our boiler but use plenty of green at times seems to last better ,, We have lots of big white pines and burn plenty of that i would never burn inside my home these stoves are made for it , you dont need split fine aged hardwood

Yes I seen his post he didn't have a shed he admits it was his fault,wood to close pex hose on top of the ground not sure what the issue was.its no different then a wood stove/furnace in the house you have to be aware of what your doing.ive had mine since 2002 and no fires.

Well build a shed around it then when you get it. Seems like your mind is set on it. I had the same idea when I got mine until I used it a few years. Then I saw why they make one that is different and approved for indoor use.

It's a very bad idea to inclose one or put a roof.over it. but that just my .02. Based on my experience of having an outdoor unit about 6 years. Before that it was wood stoves and fire places inside for just shy of two decades. Outdoor.unit wins hands down

Besides burning all kinds of wood you normally would not heat with and very little splitting and cutting length much longer mine can take 47" long and had a 2'x2 door so if your willing to pick it up it will fit. Saves a lot of time and large pieces burn longer. it's also great for getting rid of dead things . Toss it in and its gone. No trip to the dead.pit or digging a hole when the ground Is frozen. Goats, chickens, cats, coon, coyote all just disappear like magic.

That’s pretty much the exact same thing that I do

I have wood stoves, but I think a corn/grain stove would be the ticket.

I have a Northstar heat and glo stove that will heat my 1800 square foot ranch home and keep it around 76 deg when it's zero outside. We are in a warm spell right now in the upper 30s so I let the fire go out. Need to do a quick chimney sweep. Our gas furnace is running at 74° and I feel cold. There is nothing like wood heat.

Those complaining about bark and bugs. If you happen to have a stave Mill nearby generally they will sell you the off fall pretty cheap. Ours will sell all you can stack in a truck bed for 25 bucks. It's already split and there's no bark on it. Solid white oak. I can burn it in my stove for 3 weeks and not have to scoop out ashes. My farm has 135 acres of red and white oak so I have no short supply but it's cheaper for me just to buy it from the stave mill.

White 17, how long will a stove full of birch last you? Are you filling it every few hours or can you get an overnight burn with it?

Ol dad

ive had one since 2002 so it's not when I get it to build a shed.dry firewood burns more efficiently then wet.your entitled to your opinion. A metal shed is pretty hard to burn down compared to a wood structure.

I’ve had them all. I’m 58 and have had wood heat my whole life. Mom and Dad had indoor stove and fireplace. I had an outside forced air wood stove for 25 years. 2017-23 we had an inside stove. I loved it. The wife not so much lol. Very uneven heat throughout the house. Lots of cleanup. The aesthetics were cool, the meals she cooked on it were great, and backing up to it after coming in from outside was mighty nice. It was handy to hang wet gloves and such around it.
We lost that house in a fire last March. Fire not caused by the wood stove. We built new this past spring and summer. Put in a Heat Master outside wood boiler. Obviously I only have 3 months of experience with it, but I absolutely love it. The efficiency is incredible. There’s not a cool or a hot place in the entire house. The real nice aspect of the setup, and one that I’m sure not used to, is the thermostat! You can keep the temperature within a degree no matter the outside temperature. I’ve never had that luxury before lol.
Everyone’s situation is different. I own 80 acres of oak/hickory timber that surrounds my house. I’ve got enough wood here for my grandkids kids. I like cutting wood. That helps lol.

Well since you already know all about it then why did you bother asking? Reminds me of a city boy cousin of mine that has money. He ask a ton of gun and reloading questions and since he bought his farm farm and animals questions. I answer them with my experience and or why I think the answer is. Then he responded " well this guy on UTub. Says". He does it that way then calls with how to fix the problems that resulted from it. The same issues I told him were possible and likely to happen. The last time it was about live stock purchases. He didn't listen got a great deal with free delivery of over 100 mile on ,6 to ten calf's with in a short time many had died if not all. He called wanting to know what was wrong and how to save them. I responded what's the guy on U tube recommended ? I would go with that and hung up.

My issue is not he doesn't listen learning the hard way is best sometimes. My issue is how he responds defensive when my answer is not in line with what he heard on U tube. I think part of it Is he wants to feel smart like a real county boy because where he got the idea never comes up untill I give him my answer. So I'm assuming he wants me to think he has this great idea he came up with and what do I think.
Another time he started making reloading and gun smithing u tub videos always send me the link hey what do you think? . Now this guy doesn't know crap and it was a disaster waiting to happen. He made several videos on building AR's and could not get it to group. Finally another cousin that is a gun guy had him bring it up to his house and rang to troubleshoot it. Well turn out he didn't torque the barrel nut down. It was loose and why it would not group.

You asked about an idea I also had that same one at one time I answered. You don't like my response cool build it and I hope it works out well for you. Yes metal is harder to burn up than wood. Yes it really easy to get it hot and burn all the paint off of it costing time and money. I gave my thoughts and advice it could be what you paid for it or it could save you thousands. Either way does absolutely nothing to or for me. Other than wasting time typing an answer to a question out.

.

I didn't ask any questions these 2 guys did I was just answering there posts. When I said think that would work I wasn't asking a question. I was telling him I thought it would be ok to use a shed like that . I went back and edited it.

Here is a members stove inside an enclosure.

I had one but didn't work out well for me. Needed to shut down every day to clean the stirrer in the fire box. If not it would kick out a lot out un burnt corn. Englander was the brand I bought and their customer service sucked at best. They housed the stirrer motor inside the unit and would cook the reducer motors about once a month. I burn Corn is a great site for information on burning grain if is what a person wants to pursue it.

Some advice from experience that I learned the hard way. Never use any exposed railroad ties in construction around a boiler, never think bark pieces on the ground won’t burn and spread (walk) a fire over a larger area. Plastic pipes or hoses burn like wood once they get going run all lines underground when possible as dirt and gravel won’t burn.

Protect your boiler coals from the wind with a metal/ brick wall or have a containment area for dropped embers to stay in. Minimize the wood stacked in that containment space next the boiler to the next fill only no more. Clean up loose bark and clean out the boiler on calm days only. If you have a hydrant near by or water containers in a heated building wet the areas down or toss snow around if you drop coals or in hurricane winds when your loading. Wood siding burns and steel won’t so use steel when you can near the boiler or stack landscape bricks to make a firewall.

The way I figured it when I had my fire it was during hurricane wind time a coal fell out, after I scooped up what I found I missed some that the wind took. An old railroad tie probably started up then that started the bark on the ground going. The only reason the shed caught fire was the waterline went into the side of the build that should have been run underground.

The fire walked across the bark scrap on the ground that I left to keep the wood off of the dirt a big mistake on my part. That ended up starting the stacked woodpile then my favorite mini truck. So several things if done differently might of prevented or minimized the damage of the fire I had, so if it can go bad it probably will so plan accordingly.

Like said above, If you have access to wood, go wood. Did it for years, now at my age, pellets are a lot less work. They drop em by the cellar door & I bring in enough for a week at a time. I have a ranch that is 1624 sq. ft. stove heats it all.

A type of heater not yet mentioned are the rocket mass heaters......which are popular amongst the hippy / dippy off grid crowd. In short, they tend to be one of / custom built down draft gasifiers. The only one I know of that is commercial built is the Liberator. https://rocketheater.com/

Rocket mass heaters are one room space heaters that are almost 100% efficient as they burn incredibly hot (2300 F) for a short burst of an hour or less, then a mass of masonry of some type stores and radiates the heat for about 12 hours or so. The upscale version is a masonry heater, which resembles a fireplace, but does the same thing in a conventional looking, upright fireplace type structure. There is a guy a mile or so down the road that has one. His is a masonry wall about the size of a couple side by side refrigerators that separates his dining room and family room and radiates warm, comfortable heat into both all day and all night. But again, these are line of sight space heaters. The bedrooms and bathrooms on the other end of the house are going to be freezing without some form of circulating heat. But none of them require any electricity to run. Just light a match.....then stand back and watch it go.

The advantage of a wood boiler is you now have a means to circulate your heat. Having now looked into it, the gasifier boilers (like the heat master) working the same as the rocket stoves........but are a lot more complicated. Control boards? Fans? Draft controls? Yet so does most any other modern era boiler and even forced air systems. But the crude nature of burning wood, and required loading and ash removal does complicate things. Have watched more than a few utubes on these and have yet to see one where the owner was out there in the dark, 20 below in a howling snowstorm stoking his boiler. Yet that is the reality of an outdoor boiler.

So if you were going to have one, unless you are able to do that, seems you better to have it under some type of shelter you can get to without having to bundle up. Or at least under a roof like a cheap metal carport......that will shed the weather, keep the wood dry and you out of the weather whilst stoking and cleaning out the ashes. And a 55 gallon drum or two for ash storage.

Or.........it looks like they also make INDOOR boilers.....one you can put in your basement. As crazy as that sounds, the house I grew up in and my grandmother's up the road both were built with coal chutes and coal bins. Both had wood / coal forced air furnaces in the basement. I can't imagine a wood fired boiler being any different and they both worked fine. To stoke it, just put on your slippers and head off to the basement and doesn't matter what is going on outside. More complicated, more expensive, but it would work.

But hook either type of boiler to a hot water radiant floor heat system and that ought to be a sweet setup.

PS: Having seen how the down draft gasifier boilers work, still think it would be possible to design a mechanical fuel feed system using wood chunks. Same concept as pellet stove or grill, just bigger pellets.

In the heat master your talking about I almost bought instead of my older c375 model I did get. The wood has to have the right moisture content and be cut and split small like an indoor wood stove. Also they have issues with the wood bridging and the fire going out. I was also conserned the tubes in the back the smoke runs through would clog up after the sales man said they had to bee taken apart and cleaned now and then because the system they sell it with does not keep it clean enough all the time. They burn half as much wood and burn much cleaner putting out very little smoke. The trade off Is being more complicated expensive and limited on what you can burn. Having to cut and split it small . They are neat and efficient for sure.
I didn't get one because it was my first outdoor unit and they were more complex with more to go wrong. With me not home a lot I wanted it simple for the wife. I also didn't have a good day wood supply built up and it was going in in October . So went with the old style.

The indoor approve units have a switch that creates a draft and pulls air I'm the door when it's open to keep heat and smoke from coming in the building. It also cuts power to the blower that blows air into the fire when it kicks on. When the blower kicked in flames will come out above the door at times more than a foot.

The draft also eliminates the poof or back draft that occurs after the blower kicked off and the fire is burning down starving for air . If you open the door at that time air shoots in and you get an explosion fire ball shooting out of the door. Very bad if inside a. Structure. This is why you open the door a crack an inch or two and wait 5 to 29 sec and stay behind the door so the door protects you from the fire ball if it happens. It will still come around enough to burn the end of your beard.

My friend has a Tarm with storage. He makes 2 fires a day(pita), wood has to be split very small and mc has to be 16-18%. On very cold stretches he has to time the fires, so the storage makes it through the night. Wat too complicated for me. Start a fire in September and run to June, load twice a day and comfort!

Yes that’s another thing I love.
I started a fire October 28th. Been lit ever since. Don’t have to let it go out to clean some ashes out.
So much better and easier.

2x. It's all about simplicity and ease of use . Saving money on heating and having a warm old farm house helps to.

Wood

I know there are advantages to wood boiler. But, I can’t imagine going through all the cutting hauling etc involved in heating with wood, and not be able to feel that wood heat feel.

I would not want a out door furnace. When it is blowing and 20-30 below, I don't want to wade through a three to four foot snow drift that wasn't there to stoke it twice a day. Some how that doesn't even sound fun to me. .

But you will wade through a 4'drift to catch a $3 rat!

I had a buddy in Canada who had a fuel oil back up on his outdoor wood boiler. If he left home for a few days he would change to fuel oil and lower thermostat. Not sure if he rigged that up himself or if it was a commercial add on deal. If propane or fuel oil back up is available from manufacturer I’d sure have it if I heated with an outdoor boiler.

On my wood chunks as fuel idea, looks like it has already been done. Except they use wood chips vs. chunks. But looks like you better also have a standby generator and a BIG checkbook. Ouch.

Would also want to have a wood chipper and maybe an old silage blower or drag chain elevator to load your storage bin. More ouch.

If you have another heat source that will heat the boiler if you’re gone for a while the element that fits in the furnace would cycle warm water through the system. It takes days for a boiler to totally burn out depending on the ash set up. You light an outdoor boiler once in many cases, it takes a lot for my boiler to burn out completely.

I went out this morning and did not fill it the coals were still deep it will need it to burn down for the morning before filling it since dinner time yesterday. I raked the coals to the front and I’m good for a few more hours with no drop in max temperatures. When the coals go down just top off the hopper and it goes on its own.

It’s free heat I don’t mind doing a little work I enjoy the country lifestyle I have other ways to spend my money foolishly. LOL I spent money on cat supplies and fuel to drive 100 miles round trip a few times a week to catch a cats that won’t recover most of it.

Burrowed a page from the Northerners playbook
and am burning white pine during the day.

When you have lemons....

I see a lot of evergreen wood piles out west in the Black Hills all I can think is I bet that guys in good shape from hustling wood.

I have a wood stove in the basement. It helps heat the house and cuts down on the amount of propane I use. It will run without electricity. I have a wood/coal bin off the basement that is 18'x10'x8'. It has a hole to the outside, I can throw wood down. For the weather here and wind we get, a out door just would not make much sense to me. It would drift in so bad you would spend a lot of time moving snow to get to wood and get wood to the furnace. Ground blizzards are pretty common here. If one works where you are, good for you, but it does not mean they would work every where.

thats a great setup. My neighbor had the same thing in a old 2 story farm house. The advantages are the wood gets tossed down and gets dried even more all winter long in the basement exposed to the heat from the wood burner. Also heat rises so no need for electricity to move the heat, its all done on its own. no need to run around out in the cold daily to keep the fire going. Also the mess is all contained in the basement where its less of a deal. If your going to have a wood stove this is the best way to do it no doubt.

I have a masonry heater, most efficient way to heat with wood no doubt. No electricity, even warm heat all thru the house, minimal mess with most often one fire per day occasionally 2 fires per day in real cold weather. Downside is upfront cost, every couple of days cleaning out ash and I go thru lots of kindling. But as I do wood working I generate all kinds of kindling.

No one solution fits all or best in all situations.

I don't have to have a generator, I have solar with a battery backup. Only downside is keeping the panels clear in the winter. If the sun comes out they melt clear pretty quickly on their own. But there are times that I brush off the bottom 3 of 5 rows so that they melt quicker. I don't need to worry about fuel for the generator and maintenance along with it working when needed, the solar and batteries are always working. The only maintenance I do is monthly topping off the water in the battery cells.

Can't talk right now Law Dog I gotta,,,

That's quite the story on the fire. I remember when it happened.
Glad everyone ok.
One thing I often see from people is
their handling of ashes they THINK are cold.
Our Elders drilled that into our heads.
Burning wood with poison ivy too.
Hold your breath and watch this,

Looks like since it warmed up the last fill will go 24 hrs. I can’t do much in my basement because I don’t have one, like said what works for one guy won’t work for the next one. A guy also picks up wisdom the more he uses a certain type of heat to get the most out of it over time. I learned that most boiler issues come from maintenance problems that are easily fixed.

I loved when I moved my wood stove into the basement at my other house but it was a walk out basement and I wheelbarrow wood in. A full one would be enough for a day. J also put more by the stove. But the bark mess an dry wood had the potential for a bad fire that would burn the whole house fast especially since fire loves to go up.

Wood pop and sparks coming out when I would load it always made me nervous and I keep it clean up very well sweeping everything time I was down there.

The heat did rise and go up the stairs nicely. I also cut a hole in the duck return vent right behind the stove and near the celling so it would suck in the hot air and circulate it through the house when the furniture blower was turned on.

My wood/coal bin is in another room from the wood stove. There is a walk through door that goes between the two. The wall between them is a cement wall. I used to heat with stoker coal and could get ten plus tons of WY stoker in the bin. It would last me about a season and a half with no other heat source. The old coal furnace finally gave out and I replaced it with propane farced air and put the wood stove in. When I stoke the wood stove in the morning, by the time I come back up stairs I can feel the difference in the living room above the wood stove. I like having something that wi9ll run with out power. We loose electricity at least once a winter. The longest was for five days. I had the coal furnace then. It was cooler than when the blower was working, but I knew the pipes would not freeze at 60 degrees.
.

The outfitter I hunt with in WY heats his lodge,2 cabins and his house with an OWB that burns coal. He uses 5 ton/winter @$30/ton. Cheap heat!

My Boiler is on the way to my fur shed. My wife usually has the path shoveled to both Boiler & shed. Hard working farm gal that refuses to buy propane !

Don’t know of a place that even sells coal around here. Don’t know of a person that even burns coal anymore anywhere in the North. It was popular in Chicago when I was a kid growing up.

The outfitter is close to the Powder River coal mine. A friend heated his house with 3 ton of coal one winter. He burned a volleyball size hole in the grate, so he ordered coal grates from Heatmor and he was set to burn coal. I tried coal on -30F nights and made a wood burrito, wood on bottom, bag of stove coal and wood on top. Really did the job but coal is $8/bag here in NY.

The WY usage made sense being it’s mined there it’s just strange it looks like it was never used in this area that I’ve ever come across. I’ll need to ask around some but not many old timers around now.

As a kid growing up in a house that had a coal / wood forced air furnace in the basement, when it got rough outside, parents would opt for coal. Could go to town and buy it at the coal yard. Two grades......low grade bituminous or high grade anthracite........if memory serves, latter was called IL coal and was more expensive, but burned cleaner and hotter.

Another concept that is hard to wrap your head around........like old joke about which weighs more....pound of feathers or a pound of lead.......trick question......they both weigh a pound. Wood is the same way. They claim a pound of balsa wood has same BTU as a pound of white oak. One may be the size of a volleyball, the other the size of a tennis ball but a pound is a pound. So wood really ought to be sold by the pound vs. volume like a cord.

And if you can deal with the fireworks, the most dense of all is osage orange........or hedge. Always comes with dire warning.......if you use that, be careful as it will melt your stove.

Coal is $600 a ton here but I still burn it. Transportation costs to the northeast makes it expensive. The last time I tended this stove was around eleven hours ago and it's still cruising along at 500 degrees.

Knew a family that heated a huge old non insulated home using used oil they would get for hauling it away. One yet they got ear corn from a field that got flooded before got picked. They tossed in too much at once and that old early morning stove was glowing red all the way to the chimney. Burnt the grates out of it. They had the windows and doors open for hours trying to get it cooled off.

We had a coal/wood combo stove in the kitchen of our farmhouse. Mom would burn wood all day and "bank" it off with coal for the night. Our morning wakeup call was her running the shaker grates to get the coal ashes into the pan.

I haven’t seen anyone say a bale burner I know some guys that use them to burn cornstalk bales and like them.

I've been burning a Central Boiler outside wood boiler since 1998. Used a wood stove before that. My boiler is 130 feet from the house in a covered wood shed. I harvest the trees from my own land. I pull them right up to the shed with the tractor, pick them up with my pallet forks, and block them up off the ground. No bending over. I only move my cut wood about 15 feet into the shed. Some people grow and harvest gardens, I harvest the forest. I feel like my heat and hot water is free. I love working on the wood. For me, an outside boiler is the only way to go.

Sounds like a good setup.

The last Wy stocker I bought was $110 a ton. It was $35 when I first started burning it. I can get it in Minot about 25 miles one way. They sell Lignite, which is mined in ND, but it is softer and doesn't not burn as clean. There are quite a few places that burn coal here. Both homes and business. Some are set up to auger the coal into the furnace and auger the ash out. My stove had a hopper that would hold a few days worth of coal and was augured into the furnace. I would shovel coal in too to keep from having to fill the hopper as often. I liked the coal heat.

Coal is nice hot heat smell of the smoke not so much.

The smell of coal smoke meant heat, so it didn't seem that bad to me.

I like it when it's black smithing, but compared to hard wood smoke when it's out in the yard non stop not so much. But I got high sulfur strip minc coal from a mine here in Indiana had a bunch of clankers. I also didn't want to put the coal ash and clankers in the garden not thinking it would be good for it. All the wood ash goes on the garden.

Coal sure did burn long and hot. I would try it again if I had a cost effective source.

You guys seeing smoke from coal must be burning bituminous. Anthracite produces zero visible smoke and no odor. I've been burning it for more than a decade. I love it.

I'm sure there is something to this. I'm uneducated about coal. Bought a coal rated stove drove to the mine I was told would sell it to me got 3.8 ton on my flat bed trailer and drove it the 1.5 hrs home. Our mines are strip mines high sulfur I heard. No idea what it's called. Makes a green tint smoke my closest neighborhood and friends wife didn't like it with her breathing problem. And they are not real close to us. I couldn't keep it lite with coal only had to mix in wood. Figured it was very poor coal most likely. Never have seen a source anywhere around for anything else . I think that mine has since closed.

Mark. March out back and cut some oak. Lol.

You're not wrong. I did a bit of research and found Indiana is sitting on a pile of bituminous coal. It's considered a softer, dirtier coal to burn. I think I read anthracite makes up less the 10% of the world's coal reserves. I'm burning Pennsylvania anthracite.

Good to know. I didn't write it off just didn't want any more of what I had. I was excited to try it it was cheap I thought can't remember the price anymore. Thought if it worked I would get a bunch more and have it around Incase I couldn't get out and cut wood. But it didn't work out like I hoped.

Just LP for me 1200 gallons a year 2 tanks fill in summer at about 1,00 gal, no worries and no work in winter or wood cutting in summer

I like chucking wood and it’s free with all of the ash and elm trees dying around here. We get other hardwoods depending on the area the wood comes from. Some towns must of planted different species as projects at some time because that’s the only place you run into that type of tree.

One town around here has hackberry a type of elm a different town has honey locust some have maples. Some trees might be the work of individuals efforts other are clearly the result of a planting projects.

Love that locust for burning or making fence posts.

So does anyone use a wood boiler in conjunction with hot water radiant floor heat? If so, how does that work? The demand side does not seem too extreme........temp of water going in not much over 120F if that......but how much heat does it use?

We have a hot water circulating pump on the hot water heater, so distant faucets like kitchen and bathrooms have instant on hot water.........and since this house is on a slab (hate that but is what it is), the floor area where those lines run is always warm. But that is a very small part of the house. The whole thing would be a bigger load. But once you got it up to temp, seems like it would be easy to keep it there.

I've got in floor heat in the garage and basement,but don't use it all the time.but it is nice if iam working on vehicles in the garage.like everything else you use alot more wood/fuel when trying to heat more water.