Fire chief wood furnace

[Rob Mo.]

I've just about had it with the wood stove that I have in my house. Last night the electric finance kicked on 7 times & the temperature outside was only 30 degrees. The wood stove that I currently have is tied into the duct work of my house but it just isn't maintaining the temperature in my house. I have a fireplace & was considering putting a insert in but I will just be burning twice the wood that I am now. I'm looking into the Fire Chief FC700 model wood furnaces. To I live in Mo. The house was built in 1955 & new windows were installed last the fall of 2011. Any ideas or advice?
 

[gtractorfan]

Something doesn't sound right. How much of a fire are you burning in your woodstove? Is the wood dry or wet and just smoldering? How high is the temperature on the stove pipe? (there are magnetic thermometers to stick to the pipe that show the proper burn temperature) I had a fireplace insert in our stone fireplace for a while, I wouldn't recommend them-- unless you use a stainless steel pipe inside the chimney because your stone/brick chimney likely won't get hot enough to stay clean, and then you need a way to remove the soot. Regardless of what you burn wood in you need to maintain your chimney!
 

[Jim in Ma.]

I put an insert (w/ blower built in) in my fireplace this fall. It sure helps to cut back on the firnace use.
Too soon to tell how much savings it will bring.
 

[Rob Mo.]

I sweep my chimney regularly, 2 times a season regardless if it really needs it or not. Open the damper & let it burn hot once a week for 30 minutes. Currently burning elm, mixed with some oak. Everything I burn has been sitting for 3 months or longer before I burn them, also the trees have been dead for 2 years. I like the idea of an insert but the idea of burn of burning twice the amount of wood & the cost makes me wonder if I should upgrade to a actual wood furnace for the same money as an insert.
 

[gtractorfan]

Another reason you aren't getting enough heat from the ducts could be the blower (surely your ductwork uses a blower). Is the blower running? Has a key lost from the fan/motor shaft? Is the filter plugged? When I was a kid growing up, coming in from doing chores my favorite spot was sitting on the floor in front of the kitchen register. The air blowing from the duct was extra warm and felt wonderful!
 

[jlray]

I"m heating a ten bedroom, 4671 sq foot house mostly with a Quadra Fire, fire place insert pellet stove. I say mostly as I did have my furnace come on one time this years so far. Last year it cost me just over $1000.00 for pellets. Way easier than wood. Very pleased.
 

[Adirondack case guy]

Conventional wood furnaces don't typically have long burn times when they can deliver sufficiently heated air for a forced air heating system. Maybe 4 hrs at the most. Before you buy a new unit, ask the dealer to give you refrences from users, who can tell you what to expect from the unit you are looking at. You could also look at Wood gasser, which are boilers and incorperate a water to air heat exchanger to tie into your distribution system, and meet all the new EPA standards for emissions, and virtually eliminating the need to clean a chimney. The wood gasser will burn at least 1/3 less wood than conventional wood boilers, and all of them I have installed require two loadings per 24hr period to maintain suitable heat. You could also install a Wood Pellet furnace which burnes on demand, the same as your electric unit. they work very well if you don't have availability to quanities of wood. Expect to invest $8.5-10K for one of these systems. (The chminey system will vary the price dramatically) A Wood Pellet, fireplace insert, or freestanding stove in your home would also be a money saving solution for you. I was a certified installer for Harman Wood Stoves, and Pro Fab Wood Gassers, before I retired last spring, from the largest Harman Stove dealer in NY.
Loren, the Acg.
 

[Adirondack case guy]

jlray
I am a big proponent of Wood Pellet Heating Appliances. That being said, unless you live in a very temporate area of the country, you are misleading people here.
The biggest, Quad insert is rated at 52,400 BTUs/Hr. Max and capable of heating 1300-2900sq.ft. (Their rating)
Quick Rule of Thumb for figuring heat loss in a home, here in NY. is this .
Cu.Ft heat loss (full cellar) 1.55BTUs/ Cu.Ft/Hr.
Cu.Ft heat loss (first floor) 2.40Btus/ Cu.Ft/Hr.
These numbers based on the asumption that the home has R19 insulation in walls, (2x6 construction, or (R Max over 2x4 insulated wall sheathing) and R38 ceiling insulation. Modern thermo pain windows are also in the calculation, and all is based on ambient winter low temps @ -15F. It's not oncommon to see -30F here, but that is a spike.
Figure out your homes Sq.Ft. , plug in the figures I posted here, and you will have an idea of how big a heating appliance you need. If I was installing a complete system in a home I would have to do a room by room analisis, to determine, how to make the home confortable.
Loren, the Acg.
 

[LJD]

I heat our house 100% with an indoor wood furnace. Heats all our hot water too. Burn time has never been an issue. Easily goes 8-12 hours on one load if turned down and the wood is big-rounds and not thin stuff that has been split to death. We get temps down to -30 on rare winter days. Most of the winter season is more like 15-30 F above.

Our house is a big old farm house. 1/2 built in 1820 and the the 1/2 in 1995 (I never quite finished it).

We keep the house 70F when anyone is awake. At night - I load it around 11:00 PM and turn the thermostat down to 60. 6-7 AM in the morning the fire is still fine. Just throw in some more wood and turn the thermostat up.

There is a big difference in burn rate depending on temps. When it's in the 20s outside (F), I often find the furnace with a 1/4 of the wood left in the morning. If it's 0 F or below - I'll a bank of coals in the morning. Plenty for the fire to take right off once I throw some fresh wood in.

When I got it it was the biggest and most rugged furnace I could find. Myers Woodchuck model 4000. Made by Myers Farm Equipment. Hot air distribution.

http://www.meyermfg.com/woodchuck.php

I have a 2nd wood furnace in my barn. Smaller, crude, and not blower. Just convection. Thermocontrol 500. Made in Cobleskill, NY (20 miles from were I live). It heats my entire 3 story barn and workshop. No thermostat; just a bi-metal air-take door control. It too never burns out. I load it once at night and once in the morning, and once mid-day when I'm not working in the shop and it's turned down. When I turn it up it eats a lot of wood.
 

[Adirondack case guy]

John,
You know how to use a wood stove , and have a large wood chamber that will hold a fire.
I hooked up a free for the taking, used Royall wood/coal boiler located it in my garage, and tied it to my radient system this summer. It is heating my 2500 sq. ft ranch with 1800 sq. ft. heated cellar, and a attached 1128 sq.ft. garage/tractor shop. The near 20yr old Royall is an airtight with a thermostatically controlled combustion fan. Two loadings a day with as much round wood as posible, plus 8-12"D, split wood.
I have a Harman P61 Pellet stove in the cellar, that I installed last year, but with the Royall Boiler running I haven't done anything more than test fire it. The oil fired boiler hasn't run for two years now, other than test fires, either. Last year we ran the Harman and our Fireplace Extrordinair to heat the cellar and living area. Nothing better than wood heat, in my opinion, and now I have lots of time to cut wood, which I enjoy doing. Been burning the heating oil in my Kubota tractor.
Loren, the Acg.
 

[JOB]

I also heat with a wood boiler (Buderus) and oil boiler. I am not a hot water heating installer. I designed the current system, the system works but not like it should. My zone valves are shot and have been ran open all the time for the last couple of years. I need to re-plumb the two boilers together and install new zone valves. I have a drawing of how I want to do it but the people I have showed the drawing to do not want to comment on it. Would you be willing to share your skills and show how you tied together your two boilers. Or look at my drawing and make comments or suggest changes?
 

[Lou from Wi.]

JD, finished reading your post and on the bottom paragraph, it reminded me of my daughters furnace (our old cottage) that had no fan and relied upon air flow to circulate heat.

I made a plenum work that set on top of the furnace,and used a coffee can filled half way with water, for moisture content.

Now the big offering of circulated heat came with a oil burner blower motor fan assembly, using an electric clothes dryer clicks-on switch, to start and stop the blower. Clicks-on was installed in the plenum work, so when the heat was reached the clicks-on switch, it started the blower motor to circulate the hot air.
Thought you might be able to use something like that to add to your wood burner in your shop.
Just offered as a suggestion.
Regards, LOU
 

[Lou from Wi.]

Rob, There is a company in Minnesota that manufactures wood and wood/oil and wood/gas combo furnaces. I've added a link for you to look at as a alternative and for some information. A friend of mine used one,when his wife had MS. He filled it with wood before work in the morning and let the oil take over at night. A little pricey, but for him it was worth it. My opinion is it's easier to do alot of shopping around before making a choice.
We use straight wood in our furnace in our house for main heat, and a new lennox oil furnace for backup,until the oil prices goes back to being reasonable,which I doubt,but always keep a few gallons in the tank for back-up or for when we clean the wood flue.
Hope the information helps.
Regards. LOU
Charmaster furnaces click here

 

[LJD]

On the subject of heating oil - sort of "good news" and "bad news" in New York. Bad news is - NY got rid of the old fashioned heating oil a year early. No longer available where I live as of last week. Now it's low-sulfur and the price jumped 30 cents a gallon.

The "good news" is nobody can get arrested anymore for running heating oil in a farm tractor. It is now - at least by sulfur content and dye, legal again.

Our oil burner never runs unless we go away somewhere and use it as backup. We haven't gone anyway in 10 years (in the winter).

Diesel police have been around my town, entering private property and dipping fuel tanks. Local saw mill owner got busted running high sulfur old-fashioned heating oil in his Detroit Diesel.
 

[JOB]

I checked out the charmaster site and they are pricey, but I feel all the wood burning boilers, and furnaces are expensive. The manufactures want to cash in on what you are saving in fuel also. I have a Buderus wood boiler that new today costs over $5,000 it does not come with any controls, but it is all cast iron. I don't have any complaints. I just need to figure out how to plumb together the oil and wood boilers to make them work efficiently.