Anybody in the deep south with an outdoor wood heater

brdmkr · July 23, 2010, 01:10:13 PM

From time to time, I find myself thinking about better ways to handle waste from the mill (generally those times occur when I need to burn a slab pile ;D ). I hate watching all those BTUs go to waste. We opted not to have a wood stove or firelplace in our house because of the mess associated with burning wood given that it does not really get that cold here. However, I have been thinking about the outdoor wood stoves. The mess-in-the-house issue would go away with this option, but it still does not get that cold and I wonder how much money I could expect to save on my electric bill if I went this route. Do we have any Deep South members that have an outdoor stove? Is it cost effective? Just thinking.

doctorb · July 23, 2010, 03:36:16 PM

Do you heat now, when needed, with electric? Is this combined with AC via heat pumps or are they separate? How about domestic hot water?

I am in Maryland and, therefore, do not fulfill your criteria for "deep south". We definitely have sustained winter here compared to you. I would be interested how far south members of the FF are using outdoor furnaces for heat.

Doctorb

Radar67 · July 23, 2010, 03:45:12 PM

Pinenut has a Hardy Heater. It is made in Philadelphia, MS. I am seriously considering one myself.

brdmkr · July 23, 2010, 03:59:18 PM

Doc, I do heat with electric now, but our winter electric bills do not approach our summer bills. We do have a heat pump and electric hot water.

Maybe pinenut will jump in with some info.

doctorb · July 24, 2010, 07:49:00 AM

brdmkr

There have been a few threads on the FF regarding solar. While my understanding is that it's expensive to install, the costs appear to be coming down and the efficiency increasing. Solar electric could decrease your utility bills, as well as supply domestic hot water. When you are not using a lot of electricity, you sell the excess back to your utility.

Again, I need heat for about 6 months of the year. For you, it's a much shorter time period and maybe intermittant. Outdoor wood furnaces are not, after my experience, the type of device to start up once or twice a week when you need heat. When they are running well, the maintenance is tolerable. Start-up requires a little more attention and is best done as infrequently as possible.

Solar, for you, may give you the biggest boost when you need no heat, in the summer. In my opinion, your savings would be greatest having something that decreases your electric draw all year rather than helps you with the costs of heat for a only few months. Any solar experts out there want to lend a learned opinion?

Doctorb

fishpharmer · July 24, 2010, 08:05:50 AM

Can't add much here myself. As Radar mentioned, pinenut seemed pleased with his outdoor wood burner. Not sure how the numbers work out with initial cost versus monthly savings. Saving on the mess sure would help.

Member Thomas-in-Kentucky has a very substantial solar power system, maybe he will weigh in on that aspect.

WH_Conley · July 24, 2010, 09:08:37 AM

I sent Thomas a PM regarding this thread. He has been pretty busy, just won the primary for County judge executive. I mentioned to him about the possibility of getting a tutorial/thread about serious solar started, I know there are other experts here, if we can just get the ball rolling.

I used my OWB to replace my hot water heater in the summer time.

DanG · July 24, 2010, 10:43:19 AM

Personally, I can't see how to justify the cost of a commercially built OWB down here. It would take many years to recover the initial outlay. Several years ago, Fla._Deadheader showed some pics of a homebuilt unit that may be more practical. It used a gas water heater tank, with an old propane tank for a firebox. It would be a lot easier to use it intermittently than a commercial unit, since it doesn't heat but about 30 gallons of water.

One advantage you would have is that, due to the scarcity of OWBs, we don't have to contend with zoning restrictions about them.

Radar67 · July 24, 2010, 03:49:15 PM

Pinenut keeps his boiler operating year round. He heats all his domestic hot water with it, and heats a greenhouse, a kiln, and his house in the winter.

Fla._Deadheader · July 24, 2010, 08:17:31 PM

That unit I built was plumbed to the house cold water supply. As long as you had heat, it would heat all the water you needed. Didn't take a lot of wood, either.

poolman · October 13, 2010, 08:05:15 PM

Get a clothes basket out of an old washing machine drum.You can put a couple of cement blocks under it.It has many holes in it to feed air to the hot coals.It makes a nice hot fire to sit around on a cold night.The basket will glow orange if you use hardwood in it.I need to get myself another one for the river bank in front of my house. brian

Woodwalker · October 13, 2010, 10:41:18 PM

Quote from: poolman on October 13, 2010, 08:05:15 PM
Get a clothes basket out of an old washing machine drum.You can put a couple of cement blocks under it.It has many holes in it to feed air to the hot coals.It makes a nice hot fire to sit around on a cold night.The basket will glow orange if you use hardwood in it.I need to get myself another one for the river bank in front of my house. brian

In case some of the coals escape, got to have an adult beverage handy to pour on 'em.