Outside wood furnace we now own, anyone else ?

**ladytoysdream** · 06-08-2008, 08:13 AM

We just recently purchased a outside wood furnace to heat our house. Working on getting things ready to get it installed soon.

Locally propane is $ 3.70 a gallon.
Fuel oil is $ 4.50 a gallon.

I told my hubby earlier this year that I refuse to be held hostage by the propane and electric companies. Either we get a wood pellet stove or outside wood furnace. After some research, we went with the outside furnace setup.
Going to get our wood bought early this summer.
We also just purchased a used chainsaw.

We used to heat with wood in the old farmhouse we lived in when he worked for the farmer. Yes it can be a lot of physical work but when the going gets tough, we get resourceful.

Anyone else heat with wood here ?

Btw....we live in central NY here.

**Darlene** · 06-08-2008, 09:15 AM

Hi Neighbor (we're Schoharie county), congrat's your outside furnace, those are neat! We heat mostly with wood and cut, split & stack our own. We have a fireplace insert that really heats 90% of our home. You're right, it is alot of work but it's worth it in so many ways.
Do you have property that you can fall your own trees? We usually do ours in the winter for the following years use. We've got winches, ropes, chainsaws, log roller, wedges, all kinds of stuff to get them down. When they are, they are cut into big sections that we pile up then split with our splitter in the spring and it's all stacked & ready for the winter. With the outdoor furnace you won't have to split them much so that's nice.
Enjoy your hard working new toy!

**annymoll** · 06-08-2008, 09:22 AM

I saw one of these outside furnaces and really liked the idea!!!We own timbered land, so we could cut and haul and save money that way( for the long haul) plus we live very near Conservation land where we can apply for a permit to cut. The only thing I was concerned about was that if you lose electricity during a storm, the blower would not work.Is there a backup for that? This might be something we need to look into further.

**ladytoysdream** · 06-08-2008, 02:41 PM

Hi again

We only own 2 acres and our own wood is not a option.
I have 2 sons putting in wood furnaces. Both currently
have inside wood pellet stoves.

If the electric fails , then we have a generator. Not a huge unit but big enough to power the furnace and keep us warm.

For this coming season, we just want to go ahead and buy a big pile of wood for here, already split and ready to go. Then for next year, we can start with some other ideas maybe.
My husband works for a town highway and in the winter puts in a lot of hours plowing snow. I just want to make things a bit easier on him for right now, timewise and labor wise.

Because I don't have 15 posts in yet, the forum won't let me post the urls to where we bought this furnace.

Guess I better start posting more

**Darlene** · 06-08-2008, 03:12 PM

Sounds like you have a good plan going for you & I hear you on making hubby's life easier. Mine is a mail carrier & winters can be something.
We too have a small generator that we can use in case of power outage. Hey, those outside furnaces, you can burn all kinds of wood like pallets and stuff right? I know you won't get as many btu's but I know you can often get them for free.
Hubby looks longingly at those furnaces when we drive by them, lol. Maybe the next house.
You near Binghamton?

**ladytoysdream** · 06-08-2008, 03:38 PM

We are about 7 miles from the city of Cortland, so Cortland County.

One of the bigger units of these brand stove, you can burn pallets in it. We did not want to go that big.

We are just going to burn hardwood. Maybe a few newspapers and cardboard. Clean misc stuff in small quanities. Do not want to take the chance of burning anything in it like plastic. That might gum up the chimney etc.

When we get it it place, I can snap you all a picture

**lilk** · 06-08-2008, 06:37 PM

Congrat's on your new furnace.

We have an outdoor furnace also, we have had our for about 3 years. We absolutley love it. We heat our hot water with it in the winter. Dh and Ds cut and split the wood. So far we haven't had to buy and wood to burn.
We need to get a generator, incase of power outage though. Dh had to borrow a generator from work one year.
Enjoy your new frunace.

**freebs** · 06-10-2008, 08:22 AM

We dont have a outdoor wood furnace we have a inside wood burning stove. We heat exclusively with wood, we dont even have a central heating unit. We have an advantage my dh works for a furniture factory and gets to bring home all there scrap wood, so no woos costs,BUT we are cutting and stacking that wood all year! We have enough stocked already now to last probably 2 years and he is still bringing it home. We are building another shed just to store wood. I would recommend to anyone to get a log splitter or build one it sure saves TONS of time. It is also something that I can do myself i dont have to wait for dh to split wood as i cant split it with and ax myself.

**della92** · 06-10-2008, 08:36 AM

We have an outdoor wood furnance too. I live beside my inlaws and it is used to heat both houses. When it is really cold it has to be filled twice a day and rarely 3 times a day. It also heats our hot water. It is great because our winter electric bill is way less than the summer bill and the heat is very warm. We have had it for about 6 years.

**CoCo** · 06-10-2008, 03:56 PM

I have one and have ben using it for 6 yrs. But low and behold we are now in a burning band in my county in WI. So I will not be able to use my stove untill the neighbors need to start burning wood to keep from freezing. DID I mention these neighbors are as young as my eldest? and now they need all baby items as they can't afford heat????? I will burn as it's my only heat source, or I will ask for a hand out to keep this house heated.

**freebs** · 06-10-2008, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by CoCo

I have one and have ben using it for 6 yrs. But low and behold we are now in a burning band in my county in WI. So I will not be able to use my stove untill the neighbors need to start burning wood to keep from freezing. DID I mention these neighbors are as young as my eldest? and now they need all baby items as they can't afford heat????? I will burn as it's my only heat source, or I will ask for a hand out to keep this house heated.

i would check into that! We have been in burn bans for several winters and we are allowed to still burn in indoor fireplaces or woodstoves as long as you have a spark arrester on the top of the chimeny.

**wendinbill** · 06-11-2008, 02:19 PM

We also have an outdoor wood burner. We use ours year-round for heating our water, and in the winter w/ our forced air heating. It works great-best investment we've ever made. We don't lose power that often for it to be a problem, but have access to a generator if necessary. We also have a pellet stove in our basement, to help the clothes dry in the winter.

**ladytoysdream** · 06-11-2008, 05:54 PM

Hi -
Thanks for all the responses

Monday this week, I made contact with the person we are going to be buying our wood from. I ordered 18 face cords. Probably more than we will need, but I want to be prepared. It should be arriving this weekend, the first batch of it.
Looks like the price of wood is starting to go up.

We thought about buying a splitter but will hold off on that.
If we buy stuff already split, we should be just fine.
Hubby does have a chainsaw though.

**Ivonna** · 06-16-2008, 10:51 PM

We heat our house with corn but I did want to make one comment. Be sure that you have a carbon monoxide detector in the house. Our cousin put in a outdoor wood stove and they have had the detector go off a ton of times. I don't know if they have ever figured out what the problem is but you should use one as a precaution. We always have one plugged in since we use alternative heating.

Ivonna

**chettasmom** · 06-18-2008, 11:21 PM

Originally Posted by Darlene

Sounds like you have a good plan going for you & I hear you on making hubby's life easier. Mine is a mail carrier & winters can be something.
We too have a small generator that we can use in case of power outage. Hey, those outside furnaces, you can burn all kinds of wood like pallets and stuff right? I know you won't get as many btu's but I know you can often get them for free.
Hubby looks longingly at those furnaces when we drive by them, lol. Maybe the next house.
You near Binghamton?

I'm in Binghamton, and the NYSEG bills here at my house run almost 300 bucks a month in the winter..and that's on a budget, with the heat turned down to 60 at all times in the winter months. I'm a cheapskate and refuse to turn it up higher..thank Goodness we had a fairly mild winter here last year..not looking forward to this year though-with electric and gas, and an 80% rate increase in our water bills, Binghamton is not such a good place to live anymore..*sigh*..are you from Binghamton?