Indoor wood furnace ?'s

[Gary R]

Hello all,

We've been heating for nine years with a Quadrafire wood stove. With these cold winter's it is not keeping up. We also have a propane forced air furnace that runs when the wood stove can't keep up. I'm considering an indoor wood furnace. I'm looking for high efficiency and must use a six inch flue. Do you guy's think it's a good idea? How about recommended furnaces? Thanks!

[upsmapleman]

I heat my house with a indoor boiler. The gas company showed up to inspect my meter because I haven't used any this winter. They thought I had by passed the meter. Mine is a Harman not sure if they make a forced air or not. Would be doubtful if you find something big enough with a 6 in flu pipe that is pretty small. Most are 7 or 8 inch.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
We have been heating with a older brand Suburban indoor wood furnace. Yes on the sub zero days with wind it needed a lot of wood too! had the house up to 68. Normally it can run about 70 to 72 in the house. Normal winters we use about 5 cord this year we will use probably 7 cord.
My son installed a older Wood Chuck brand and he likes it a lot. His house is very old and not insulated well he will go through a lot of wood this year maybe about 10 cord.
I would guess you would need a 150,000 BTU min furnace. Tractor Supply has a variety for sale too. I think they are Hot Blast brand.
All of the ones mentioned are ones that you set beside the existing furnace an tie into the existing plenum and duct work.
Its been a harsh winter compared to the last 20 or so. I think all systems have been tested this year.
Good luck
Regards,
Chris

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

I have a Benjamin wood oil combo forced hot water unit. I wish the fire box would hold more wood but other than that it is awesome. I would buy another in a hart heat

Scott


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[Gary R]

I want to stay away from boilers. I only burn about four cord a year now. Of course the propane is taking over on the coldest nights. High efficiency should keep me with about the same wood usage. I probably should have gotten the largest, 5700, quadra-fire. Has anyone used the Kuuma? They advertise in the back of many magazines. http://www.lamppakuuma.com/ This is a gasification furnace. All of these operate with a 6" flue. Thanks for the help, keep it coming!

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Benjamin has hot air systems too


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[wishlist]

Although I don't use that furnace Gary I can tell you a high efficiency ( over 80%) free standing stove works great. I have a Hearthstone and on a normal winter I burn around 3 cords 24/7 heating a 1800 sg/ft house with cathedral ceilings. One thing that many people probably lack is using seasoned wood in these stoves. I just won't work cutting down a green oak in April and expect to have a good fire . I'm 9+ years ahead on my wood supply , all cut/split/stacked. Nothing like have " money in the bank " especially this year when propane is $3.79 near me and some places in Michigan it topped the $5 gallon mark.

[saphead]

3 years ago bought a "Kozy King" model 300-9 made by DS Stoves in Pa. Made by the Amish and built like a tank;cast iron ash and main door,cast shaker grates so you can burn coal also,huge 1 1/4" thick cast piece in the back of the fire box to handle the "tossed in" chunks.Has under fire and over fire forced combustion air, that blower is run by thermostat. Main discharge blower has 3 speed settings so you can dial in what you need for your set-up.Can be run without power as it has vents in the fire door and all you need to do is pull out the blower intake filter and it will natural draft to move hot air through the plenum out into the system.We have a small old leaky house and it will bring it up to temp. rapidly.Only drawback that I found is it didn't hold coals as long as I would like,added a layer of ss expanded metal over the shaker grates to keep the coals from dropping down through the rather large openings in the grates.Weighs in @ around 800#

[Machinist67]

http://www.amishcoalstoves.com/5367/5388.html

[Spanielslovesappin]

www.yukon-eagle.com

We have used an eagle one for 35 years to heat a 2500 Sqft old drafty farm house... they are a great company; very helpful to DIY'ers. i can not say enough good things about their products and support. replace the propane furnace with one and your golden. 6" flue is fine for an eagle one, this would work great for you and be a solid solution.

[WESTMAPLES]

ive heated my 1500 sqft house that was built in the 50`s for 18 years with a model 1300 hot blast wood/ coal forced hot air furnace made by US STOVE CO. i haven`t turned on the oil furnace in 5 years and before that it only came on when it was super cold out. its a great unit for the money, you don`t have to spend 6 grand to stay warm and you could keep you propane furnace for a backup . oh yeah another thing people often do is block all drafts in the house, in that case do as i did and install a pipe that brings i cold air to right up under your stove ( i used a 4 inch dryer duct) . stoves need lots of flowing air to work properly wheather they are air tight models or not , since you exhausting gases thru a 6 in thimble you need plenty of intake flow. because most people try to close up every little draft in there house, and usually the incoming drafts are caused by the stove trying to draw in air thru any crack. research it

[Daves Maple Farm]

HHmmm make me wonder if a cold air intake under the firebox on my evaporator would be of great value!:?:

[Spanielslovesappin]

As the old saying goes... you get what you pay for... that said everyone has a different set of economic realities.

The Eagle one is a fully packaged unit that would replace you existing propane furnace, use the same ducting and flue and burn wood, coal or propane with very little operator input. They are not cheap... you are getting a pretty substantial control package, a gas burner that will ignite the wood for you, a ss heat exchanger, a controlled damper and the whole house fan and plenums that can have AC added to it; not just another wood stove that needs another flue, tie in ducting, controls and a higher level of operator inputs. The Eagle one would replace your propane furnace, give you more BTU's for cold weather as needed and be a rock solid back up heat source when your not around that would be a more or less lifetime solution...

Or you could just put a burn barrel in your basement and open a window... you don't really need to spend 2K to be warm either.

[Michael Greer]

Saphead, You may be able to get coals to hold over by selecting the wood for the last loading at bedtime. Beech is a good overnight wood, and will leave nice hard blocky coals for the morning fire. Too much of a good thing will result in a stove with six or eight inches of glowing coals...and no space for the next log.

[WESTMAPLES]

yes a cold air intake that comes out right in front of your evap would work great, unless you like to keep a window or door open to create a better draft for the fire and steam to exit my evap has 12 feet of 10 in stack i used a 8in intake pipe that comes from outside thru the wall right up on the left side of arch and turns so its next to the draft door. helps keep a good flow to the fire atleast without freezing out your whole sugar house.

[WESTMAPLES]

Spanielslovesappin , i apologize if you took my post the wrong way, eagle one furnaces are very nice my neighbor has one ( even tho its used for more of a oil furnace, than wood. because he`s kinda lazy) i was just pointing out that in most cases sometimes small and in-expensive upgrades can make a world of difference, i only ended up with the hot blast furnace because it was a floor model at a family friends farm and auto supply store in Huntington.ma that had closed and he sold it to me. to me at less than half of what a new unit cost at the time i had the same problem as Gary R stated. not enough heat distribution from the large wood stove that was being used at the time.

[Brian Ryther]

I use a Tarm gasification indoor boiler. When used with a thermal storage tank they are very efficient. Mine has a 6" flue. Highly recommend.

[Outdoorsman0490]

I have the same hotblast 1300. Our house is 1150 square ft not counting the basement, where the furnace is; house built in the 1950s. Our house is always 70-75, even when 0 outside. I am sure there are more efficient furnaces out there, but I got mine for like $800 or so to my door. Haven't used our oil for heat since I put it in 3 jan ago. I can get 8-9 hours out of the right load of wood

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have been building a house for last 28 months. We have been living in house since Oct 6th, 2012. I installed a Harmon SF1500 in basement which is a forced air dual fuel(wood and coal) furnace. I am heating 2530 feet on the main floor as house is one level. The basement is the same size not counting cellar area. It keeps the basement around 60 degrees too even with the subzero temps we have been having so much of as it puts off heat around jacket and front and back and I also installed a Magic Heat Reclaimer in the pipe before the flue. It is the smallest furnace Harmon makes and probably should have went with a larger size. My house is ultra insulated with all of the outside is brick even to peak of eves except the large triangular dormer on the front of the house and the 3 eves above roofline. I have 15" of blow in insulation covering everything in the attic and 6" of fiberglass on the 2x6 exterior walls over top of aprox 1" of spray in closed cell phone. All the seams on the exterior wall are caulked on the inside of the wall including top and bottom plates and firestop foam in all of the holes thru the top and bottom plates and all interior walls. I bought a half ton of coal aprox 3 weeks ago and bagged up about 170 bags into Kroger grocery bags with 5 quarts of coal in each bag. I throw a bag of it in the fire in the morning and at night and put the wood on top of it. Wife or I usually puts some wood on it around 4 or 5 in afternoon to hold it until I fill it before we go to bed. Coldest January in my lifetime and many sub zero nights and days with sub zero wind chills and my electric bill was $ 100. I have no gas and our electric is 9.4 cents per kilowatt hour. I did install a GE GeoSpring 50-Gallon 10-year Hybrid Water Heater ENERGY STAR a few months ago and it saves aprox $ 25 to $ 30 a month in electric also. I am very happy with the furnace and it was $ 2699. I finally hooked it up to my ductwork for my heat pump aprox 5 weeks ago and heatpump hasn't kicked on but 2 times since then which was right after I hooked it up. Before this I was just letting it blow all of the warm air out into the basement and the heat went up through the floor. My basement walls are all poured concrete and not insulated except brick or dirt on outside of them and the top plate on top of the basement walls and around the doors and windows are insulated. I would have preferred to have a gasification unit but they started around $ 6000 for the ones I found. All of the interior of the house has 9' celings.

[Gary R]

I appreciate the input. Our house is a 10 year old 1400SF ranch. It's insulated to code. The wood stove is in the basement. I do have a return trunk line over top of the stove open to cold air return. We leave the furnace blower on during cold weather. Still not enough. Big melt line around the basement walls even though they have 2" foam outside the block wall. I know I need to get that heat up to the main floor. I also have outside air to my Quadra-fire. Our wood is one year dry and mostly Black Birch. I have concerns over large shaker grates. A lot of coals fall through. I did look at the Alaska and thought the Super Jack is appropriate. I don't want to remove my current furnace and air conditioning. I have plenty of trunk line over top of where the wood furnace needs to go. I'll look at them all.

Outside air is a help to all evaporators. We have a friend with a nice but small sugarhouse. His evaporator would not burn well. Open the door and things are great.

Welcome back Brandon.

[Gary R]

Hi guy's, I checked out the furnaces and here's what I came up with. The Harman needs an 8X8 chimney. Benjamin has a 7" flue. Hot Blast is not for modular housing and only has 2 two 8" outlets. The Kozy King is a possibility but the web site expired and I'm having trouble finding installation instructions. The Yukon is also intersting. However, I would be using it as an add on furnace. The Super Jack is for that and does not have secondary burner. I fear that line may be less efficient. The Kuuma looks the best but is also the most expensive. I've looked at a different forum and people do get a 10-12 hour burn time. This is important because no one feeds the fire at night or while at work. The Kuuma has great installation instructions. It shows that all of these furnaces need to be installed to meet NFPA 90b code. This is going in our home and safety is the most important issue. The quality of instructions will ensure that we put this in right.

[WESTMAPLES]

hey good luck Gary R with whichever unit you choose, im sitting here enjoying my 72 degree weather inside, the hot blast wood furnace is creating. its a great add on unit or in my case heating my entire house, with long burn times. my unit is controlled by a wall thermostat that that turns on/off a small 90cfm draft blower. so everyday a get up at 6am , go load the stove. set it and forget it till lunch (2 pm) and so on. all the units you have listed have pros and cons. keep up on your research and you`ll fine the right one for your needs.