Wood all the way!

[WXYZCIENCE]

This was the third year that we lived without natural gas in our home, along with those pesky gas bills. I built this heater from recycled material.

Inside of the stove are 60 feet of 1" schedule 80 steel coils.

Here is our new wood box I built last year,

And the Dutch door that we fill the box through in the winter. Sure saves heat leaving the house every time you need an arm full of wood.

Behind the stone wall is the rest of the unit, pipes, pumps and storage tanks.

The unit burns a very hot fire and stores the heat in the tank. We draw the heat from the tank by the setting on the thermostat. Our domestic hot water is also heated by this stove through a stainless steel exchanger. Last year we burned 4 cords of wood to heat our 1800 sq foot house, our water and we cook on the stove also.
Gathering wood is work but I tell you this, we would have it no other way. No gas bills  and loving it. Joseph.

[jmk]

  I do the same thing with a Classic out door wood boiler. I get the wood for free from a tree service. It feels so good to take a long free hot shower doesn't it. I like it outside. I only load it once every 1 - 4 days depending on how cold it is, and the mess is all outside. We keep are house at 75 degres. I walk around in shorts even when it's below zero outside. The stove has 500,000 btu's. You made yours though. That's great! How much did you spend on it? My system I spent $9,000 on it. I can heat anouther building, my driveway, hot tub, and a swimming pool. I can keep my boiler 300' from the house, but its at the end of my driveway so it's easy to load. I can roll 21" by 30" logs into it. Its big!    

[WXYZCIENCE]

I am into the system for a few bucks now, close to what you paid. The pay off is in my wellbeing. I don't feel like that thirsty guy crawling through the desert anymore. No longer held ransom every winter! I have a 2 year supply of wood and we don't hate winter. This years project is a greenhouse. Lots of spare heat and 60 sheet of tempered 2' x 6' glass. Now I'm looking for ideas. Will have to look in archives. Thanks for the interest. Joe

[behoof]

I can sign that one Joeseph, we've been burning for longer than I'd care to mention but since it's been over 5 years since we've purchased any propane, we're not complaining about the work involved.

The only issue we seem to have had is our LP supplier... they're kind of ticked off about us having a 500gal tank and they never get to put any in it. LOL

They've threatened to replace it with a 50 or 100gal tank... I think they've forgotten that we bought the tank outright when we signed on with them LOL tsk tsk tsk.. I think we'll have to remind them.

Great looking system and I'm taking note of your wood supply idea.. great thinking...

Be Well,

behoof

[harrie]

very nice, nothing like good ole wood heat, and to beable to laugh at the propane truck driving by to fill someone else up.

[WXYZCIENCE]

Fire is HOT! Safety is a concern with all wood, gas, and oil burning fireplaces or boilers. Wood burning is different than gas or oil in that it is hard to shut it off when you have a hot fire burning. The air tight fire places have to some degree attempted to solve this problem by removing the combustion air. This has lead to other problems, creosote buildup is one. Pellet burners are the safest but the pellets have a cost and the units are expensive. The rules are simple and safety is first.

#1. Storage and removal of ashes.
> Metal containers away from anything that will burn.

#2. First fire, burn a small snappy hot fire.
> This removes buildup and heats chimney.

#3. Use good seasoned wood.
> Hardwood if possible. Wet wood requires more heat to burn cleanly.

#4. Inspect your equipment regularly.
> Clean chimney and related air chambers. Joe.

 
 

[jmk]

 That's anouther nice thing about haveing it outside. You dont have to wory about the chemney fires. I clean mine by leaving the door open for a minute or so. The flame is invisable during the day, but at night it looks like a gas flame on a propane torch. When I shut the door it billows black smoke from the creasal. Looks and smells like a fraight train. Pretty fun stuff! It holds 385 gallons of water and it can heat it at one degree a minute. The air intake closes by a silinoid when the water gets to a preset temp {185} It opens it when the temp gets to {174}. If it loses power the damper will fall shut and smother the fire. Plus it can burn pine and poplar or any other oily wood because it cant get a flue fire with the door closed.

[Ampman354]

is there a link that you could post that would give more info on that heater

[WXYZCIENCE]

Ampman, We have no link to this unit. We will try to post some more methods for DIY. We are putting together pictures and the method how the coils are made. Will post sometime in early summer. Joe.

[TimV]

I like it.

Wood goes in top ? How long does it have to burn to heat tank of water?And how long will the tank you draw heat from last without a firing? I have an old large Clayton Wood Forced Hot Air Furnace that I was thinking about adding coils inside to heat an auxilary tank that I would put in basement heated with an exchanger from the water/anti freeze mix so I could use it outside and let it go out  if not needed and not have to worry about it freezing and breaking. I have a newly installed Energy King Wood/ Coal (Totally Happy with this unit)( but it works too well)that is rated at 160,000 btu but I figure it more like 300,000 as if its over 20 degrees outside you roast inside unless you only add a stick at at a time. I would use the outside conversion as a heater for when temps were above 20 such as March ,April and May. Heat would be extracted from tank by a exchanger in heating duct. My current sys can switch from  wood  to oil with no manual adjustments . I am happy with the Energy King as it cut my wood consumption in half from what I was using with 2 wood stoves before the Energy King. I am heating about 2000 square feet of reinsulated farm house. I could probably mount at least 100 of pipe inside the Clayton which measures 18" wide by 36" long by 35" high fire box inside. Can also burn coal in this if wanted. Coal I understand is hard to learn for an old wood useer but if you leave it be you can learn to burn I was told but I dont want the smell or smoke. Anything anyone has to share would be appreciated.

Take off the 123 and 678 and you have my email 123weldingrodd678@hotmail.com

[WXYZCIENCE]

I started using the coil design and have found that I get about 30000 btus for a 21 foot length. 1" schedule 80 steel pipe is about the limit for our coil machine. The lengths are then welded together.This model has 3 sections in the fire box. The system I designed has two modes. The first I call fast or demand heat. The thermostat setting controls this and when the temperature is achieved in the house the extra heat is stored in the tank. The black tank has it's insulating jacket removed. I remove it for winter operation. We live in a place where we have 10800 degree days. Days x degrees need to bring inside temperature up to 20 c. Fire is a way of life here. Joe.