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Thread: Experience with, and opinions of, outdoor wood boilers.

  1. #21
    LHBA Member Timberwolf's Avatar
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    There are indoor specific boilers, and outdoor specific.

    Indoor boilers come in pressurized and non-pressurized.

    Www.woodheat.org
    As a whole, the LHBA system (and it is a system) of building, is simplicity at it's core, longevity at it's heart and strength throughout.

    Build to your need, and....desire, and.....ability. And be secure in your decision.

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  2. #22
    LHBA Member Tom Featherstone's Avatar
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    I agree with Timberwolf here on these outside boilers. Know many here that bought into them because of the unit being outside, no mess inside. They actually burn more wood because of their inefficiency. Everything TW has already stated has been true about the maintenance and the problems associated with them.

    I never understood from a simple persons point of view how it was a good thing that the heat source is located away from where you want the heat. How much of that heat is just wasted heating the outside?

    Firewood is not "Free" unless someone else handles every single piece. The most efficient is Masonry Heaters = less wood. Interior gasifacation boilers would be next. imho

  3. #23
    LHBA Member Little Eagle's Avatar
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    This may be a little of the topic here (and maybe not) but has anyone put in a true fireplace and how do they perform for the main source of heating? All the pictures i see people are using a small wood stove, so i am starting to question my choice of a stone fireplace.

  4. #24
    LHBA Member loghousenut's Avatar
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    Why commit to a fireplace. You can get the same effect by installing a wood stove and leaving a few windows wide open.





    My Wife says I'm getting too old to split wood anyway, so don't listen to me.
    Every time I have strayed from the teachings of Skip Ellsworth it has cost me money.

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  5. #25
    LHBA Member rreidnauer's Avatar
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    The reason you don't see them is because they are horribly inefficient. That is, they will draw more heat from the home to feed the flue draft, then they put out in heat. Sure they feel nice being in front of them soaking up radiant energy from the flames, but the rest of the house is getting colder from air leakage coming in from the negative pressure the draft creates.
    All my bad forum habits I learned from LHN

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  6. #26
    LHBA Member loghousenut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rreidnauer View Post
    The reason you don't see them is because they are horribly inefficient. That is, they will draw more heat from the home to feed the flue draft, then they put out in heat. Sure they feel nice being in front of them soaking up radiant energy from the flames, but the rest of the house is getting colder from air leakage coming in from the negative pressure the draft creates.
    Must you continually reinterpret every essentially correct thing that I say?
    Every time I have strayed from the teachings of Skip Ellsworth it has cost me money.

    I love the mask mandate. I hardly ever have to bruh my teeth anymore.

  7. #27
    LHBA Member rreidnauer's Avatar
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    Only when you make a post.
    All my bad forum habits I learned from LHN

    Rod Reidnauer
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    Thinking outside the vinyl sided box

  8. #28
    A masonry heater is a beautiful fireplace that WILL heat your house.

  9. #29
    LHBA Member eduncan911's Avatar
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    That's exactly right: typical fireplaces sucks the air out of the room, or house, to feed the fire.

    But, I am not sure if I'd say all fireplaces are bad. There are direct-vent fireplaces that pipe outside air, aka "combustible air", into the fireplace to feed the fire so it doesn't use the room's air. It is code in some places because it helps to percent back drafts into the house with negative pressure, like a kitchen hood fan activated.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=fire...ion+air+intake



    ^- an example I was thinking of.

    They work on the same principal as direct-vent wood-stove heaters (hearths). The difference I believe is that a wood stove would radiate almost all their heat in the surrounding air, whereas a fireplace radiates heat out in front, but also into the walls.

    I'd be willing to place a small bet that with enough river rock, slate, and large logs, the amount of thermal mass in a log home could soak up that heat into the logs and river rock where it would be released long after the fire dies out.

    I've been on the fence about thus myself since my green building research where they go over the pros and cons of wood stoves and fireplaces like this. In short, a direct-vent wood stove is almost always more efficient, because you are radiating all heat into the room.

    Then, I found out about circulating fireplaces. Think of a wood stove in a wall, with a fan that draws in cool air from the bottom and forces out warm, radiate-heated out the top of the fireplace like a forced-air system does. Something like this:

    Eric Duncan - LHBA Class: May 2012 - http://eduncan911.com

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  10. #30
    LHBA Member rckclmbr428's Avatar
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    My scout troop has a small 18x24 hand hewn cabin from the 1840's that had a very large stone fireplace built into one end, about a 1/3rd of the end wall is stone. It takes a while to get it heated up but once the fireplace is hot it radiates heat for a looooong time back into the cabin.
    www.WileyLogHomes.com
    "Hand Crafted Traditions"

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