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Outdoor Wood Furnaces
Outdoor Wood
Burning Furnaces
Introduction: Outdoor wood furnaces are becoming very popular in rural areas, especially where the winters are severe. As you drive through New England you can see wood furnaces springing up everywhere. There are multitudes of manufactures with each claiming that theirs are the best. All outdoor wood furnaces produce heat and lots of it. In most cases the outdoor furnace is an alternate heat source to augment a home existing heating system. In some areas
the local population is not happy with these
furnaces because they are unsightly and produce
lots of smoke. As the name
implies the outdoor wood furnace is located outside
the home at a distance of approximately 50 to 100
feet from the building being heated. The unit
consists of a firebox inside an insulated water
jacket. The entire unit is housed in a protective
metal exterior that looks like a small storage
shed. Heat from the
firebox is transferred into the surrounding water
jacket through an internal double pass flue system.
The heated water is then pumped through insulated
pipes from the unit into the building being heated
and adapted to the inside heating system. Outdoor wood
furnaces are not cheap. Typically they run between
$1,500 to $3,000, or more, depending on the size of
the unit. In addition, they must be hooked up to
the house heating system which can run several more
hundred dollars and it takes a professional heating
technician to hook them up.
On the plus side
outdoor furnaces can provide a lot of heat to the
home using the existing forced air or hot water
heating system. The mess and fire hazard associated
with wood or wood burning stays outside the house.
Dirt, sawdust, ash, bugs, and other debris are not
carried into the home. And these outside furnaces
can burn different types of renewable fuel. In
addition to wood, green or dried, they can burn
just about anything that is combustible including
coal. Unfortunately
they produce a lot of noxious smoke due to the
burning of non dried and soft woods such as pine
and hemlock. Neighbors find the smoke a nuisance
and in some locations they are banded because of
these complaints. I am not a fan
of these outdoor furnaces for the very reasons
mentioned here. However, they are an alternative to
burning expensive fossil fuels such as oil and gas
and they will reduce the overall heating cost of a
home in the long run.
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