WAY OT: Outdoor Boilers

[Jeff]

Anybody have an experience with one?  Good/bad/ugly?

With last night dipping to 23deg, and me firing on the heat, I started thinking about one.  I could heat the home (~3600 ft-sq w/basement), back garage (23x30) and hot-tub (which runs around $55/mo in electric during the SUMMER).

I just don't know about costs/wood consumption/etc, to do my break-even analysis...

[Dawn]

The cost of wood has a LOT to do with location.  Currently we are purchasing our wood for $25 - $30 a face cord.  It's not all hard wood, but a mixture of woods.  At this price, were going to continue to buy verses using some of the woods on our own property.  We purchase 20 cords a year.  

Farther south, don't be surprised to pay up to $50 - $65 a face cord.  

Dawn   ;)

[cornercamping]

No wonder I don't get it.  It must be a "Wisconsin thing."

 ;D

[Jeff]

The cost of wood has little to do with my decision as I believe I can get more than enough from local sources for nothing but my labor & transportation.

I just don't know how well these things work, how efficient they are, if they're hard to maintain, etc...

From what I'm finding, I'd expect the price to range from $5k-8k depending on who installs & what options are involved.  

At my current rate, my gas & elec is about $2500/yr.  Obviously the largest expenses are for heat, hot tub and air conditioning.  If I were to be able to knock out heat & hot tub with this, that should be at least 70% of my entire bill.  This 'saves' me $1750/yr, but equates to a 2.8-4.5 yr payoff.

If I was absolutely confident I could obtain wood for little/no cost, it makes good sense... hmmmmm.

[tzracer]

Do some seaching, not too difficult to find.

They seem to be about 20% to maybe a high of 50% efficient.

When they fire up, they are VERY smokey (to the point people have called the fire department), I wouldn't bother unless I had at least 20 or more acres. Many woodburning organizations do not like them due to the large amount of smoke produced each time they fire up from being dormant.

They seem like a good idea, but not very efficient and produce a great deal of smoke.

[Dawn]

Our woodstove in the house isn't very smoky....

Excessive smoke usually means that the wood is not fully dry.  The outdoor stoves can burn that type of wood because of the short chimney and you don't need to worry about creasote (sp?) like you do in a chimney located in a home.

Dawn  

[Eric Kelcher]

$20/cord  

I paid $60 for 1/4 cord picked up! :o it was 130 for a full cord or 200 delivered!!! Do think they deliver to the 214? :P

[Jeff]

Eric, don't you just burn cactus down there?!?  ;D

[Eric Kelcher]

 burn cactus NO! you make Tequila from cactus ;D

[CCSRacer114]

... and hot-tub (which runs around $55/mo in electric during the SUMMER)...

Are you running the tub on 120v or 240v?

[Jeff]

Are you running the tub on 120v or 240v?

60A 220...  It's extremely efficient, but it's a big tub (550 gal) which we use a LOT (like 4+ X per week)

[tzracer]

Our woodstove in the house isn't very smoky....

Excessive smoke usually means that the wood is not fully dry. ÊThe outdoor stoves can burn that type of wood because of the short chimney and you don't need to worry about creasote (sp?) like you do in a chimney located in a home.

Dawn Ê

The excessive smoke from outdoor boilers is due to their design. The  fire runs until the water reaches its max temp, then the damper closes, causing the fire to smolder rather than burn. When the water cools, the damper opens to allow the fire to burn again - this is when the excessive smoke is generated. It is bad enough that some municipalities have banned outdoor boilers. Also, boilers that allow direct contact between the fire and the water tank (with no fire brick in between) are worse. The contact with the water tank removes too much heat from the fire causing the burn to be smokey regardless of the wood used.

These are very different than a wood stove.

http://www.woodheat.org/technology/outboiler.htm
http://www.woodheat.org/technology/outbobpen.htm
http://www.woodheat.org/technology/outbobpen2.htm