Hey great video I am a Portage & Main dealer and glad you like the boiler. They are great boilers and will give you many years of service. It was unfortunate you had a leak in your pex in your new home. I did notice you used Shark-Bites to connect your heating coil. I recommend you solder / sweat on permanent pex fittings. When you shut the system down with the cooler water temperature they can leak because of the expansion and contraction of the water it will stretch the fitting over time. Just don't want to see you have to cut into your drywall again . All the Best with your new boiler Sean
Thank you for the tips Sean. I've had a few others talk to me about the sharkbites as well. I did crimp fit most of the fittings, but indeed there are a few that I did use sharkbites. I do plan to do a summer maintenance job on the boiler system and replace as many sharkbites as I can... Where are you located?
I live in North Dakota. For the past 30 years my parents have used one of these. We would fill it in the morning and again at night. They are very nice. Many up here use them.
We've been using an outdoor boiler for about 9 years, and love it . I haven't bought any wood so far, I've gotten all the wood I need from blowdowns. I want to warn you though be very, very careful when loading wood into your stove!! I read all of the warnings and cautions and was careful, however after about 6 years of using my stove I got complacent and almost cut off my middle finger on my right hand. Though I have a different brand stove then yours, the front door lip is exactly like mine and if you aren't careful it WILL hurt you!
My friend outside of Orono Maine put his Wood Boiler inside of a metal shed, big enough to contain the Boiler, 10 cords of wood, his Riding Mower, and all of his Wood Cutting equipment and Garden Tools. It keeps the wood and stuff completely dry, warm enough to start right up, and the boiler has practically no rust on the outside or internal doors. The Vent Pipe goes right out the wall which is metal, no chance of fire...
Been running a OWB in the snow belt of the Great Lakes. Fantastic solution for heating a house and separate workshop and the in floor heating we have is quite lovely in winter (especially my wood shop). First year was a learning curve - second year I built a covered woodshed and a separate awning in front of the stove and built a wood cart. What a dream to load dry wood in a blizzard. Now I cut ‘wife size’ wood per the advice of my elders 😂 - turns out it is also kid size! The OWB gets better and better as the years go by and the kiddos get bigger. Well done sir!
Awesome! We heat with a boiler as well and wouldn’t have it any other way. What a heart-breaker with the leaking line! I’m so glad that I installed it myself so that I can troubleshoot issues as they pop up. It’s not all work, we’re heating our hot tub with it as well! Happy heating.
Thank you for sharing this. We have always wanted an outdoor boiler as my husband is a woodsman so this offered another perspective to educate us on the benefits and process. Thank you!
It’s always so interesting to see American homes place their finances in the attic, as a Canadian 🇨🇦 it’s hard for me to get used to seeing haha but it works!
Do you mean 'furnaces' in the attic? Honestly, it's never made sense why also. We tried to build our house on a crawl space to allow for the hvac to come from the floor, but it was too cost prohibitive, so the furnace ended up in the attic. Could be worse, I guess.
We live in Canada and do the majority of our hearing with a Vermont Castings wood stove. We love it! It’s so cozy and such a nice heat. We do have a natural gas furnace that kicks in at night if the fire goes out. We also sometimes use the fur case fan to distribute the heat better throughout the house.
I LOVE the look of those Vermont Casting stoves. We love the warm heat you get from a real fire. Nice to have backups too, sounds like you are fully covered at all hours of the night!! -Cam
Glad it was helpful! (This is Cam). When doing my own research, the information on the web was relatively limited, so I'm glad this has helped in your decision.
Great to see you Cam！ Canning and gardening brought me to the channel, but great to see the work both you and Becky are doing. Fantastic content! I imagine you fee a great sense of satisfaction to have the system up and running:) Always love to watch others trouble shooting (helps me to smile and be patient when inevitable problems arise on projects). Thanks for your hard work and willingness to share your work with us.
You guys really do your research for all your projects. Your home looks so warm and cozy. I could feel your frustration in having to tear down a new wall. We have had annoying problems like that too. So frustrating in a new house with new walls. I would love to be as self sufficient as you guys. Maybe one day. Thank you for taking us along on your journey.
Thank you Bethany!! It is definitely a journey! Self-sufficiency is definitely thrown around like its just "sell your house, buy a cabin, and hook up solar panels!!!" It's definitely a lot more than that :) -Cam
I am on my 7th season with that same boiler and am happy with it. When I hooked up all the plumbing I used Shark bites because the seamed easy to use. I only have 4 of them left in the system because they leaked when heating up and cooling off. It is all crimp rings now.
Awesome!!! Interesting about the sharkbites. I hear very mixed reviews about sharkbite fittings. My setup is 50% sharkbite, 50% crimp rings. Wil probably convert to crimp rings as well as time goes on.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead I have 2 styles of crimpers for the 1 inch rings. The big pliers type and the bolt together style which is very simple and I think makes a better crimp.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead And one more thing I have learned the hard way. The tin ash pan can push ashes into the blower vent at the back of ash pan and block it. My stove was having trouble getting up to temp until I figured out the fan pipe was blocked with ashes. Now I use a turkey roasting pan under the ash pan door and only pull the ashes foreword.
Beautiful property! Where are you located? We live in northern Indiana and have used an outside wood burner to heat our home for 15 years. The savings are considerable if you have access to wood. Congratulations on your beautiful home.
Good presentation. I see so many channels about wood boilers and almost all split wood down so small, and I don’t know why? Sensibly, you use larger pieces that take longer to burn. Hope to see more! Len (Devon 🇬🇧)
This is pretty cool. For myself, I wonder if I can keep that kind of labor up when I’m in my golden years? Hauling, cutting, and splitting wood would become difficult for someone when they get older (maybe I’m looking too much into it). But I still think it’s neat, especially your two other back up heat sources.
In Germany you can buy water-bearing fireplaces for example from the company Brunner A mix of a fireplace with a lot of mass (to store heat) and your wood boiler in one The heat exchanger is built directly into the fireplace and with it you can also operate radiators or floor heating and also certainly your hot water for the shower etc.
As a little girl I have to go 3-4 times in the woods (weekly),with my grandparents from my mom side ( not in winter time),to bring wood in our backs,for cooking ( to cook on the stove the best food),also to warm up the rooms,wasn't much money to buy the wood, maybe some people will said poor girl, wasn't bad,just part of our life.
Great video and explanation. We just have a large wood stove in our house, but upgrading to a outdoor broiler and retrofitting to our central air may be something we do in the future. Thanks for sharing the video!
I've been heating with a water stove for 11 years, Hicks Water Stove, Mount Airy North Carolina. Highly recommend. In addition to the 99000 btu coil in my air handler, there's 125000 BTU hot water heater. Four packs coming and going from stove to house. When you fixed that leak did you scab in a section of PEX or did you wrap in epoxy, rubber gasket material?
Scabbed in a section of Pex for the repair. Hopefully I'll never have to tear that wall open again (fingers crossed). I've never heard of Hicks, I'll definitely look those up. -Cam
This was very interesting to watch; I've never heard of an outside boiler before. Quick question - since you use felled trees for the boiler, do you intentionally plant new trees on your property to rotate the trees and ensure you will have trees in 15-20 years? Thank you for these videos, btw. I've been quite inspired!
Thank you Olivia! From various books I've read on this, and testing it out myself, typically 1 acre of land sustainably provides one cord of wood per year. Where we live we will burn through 5 cords of wood every winter. With 25 acres of dense wooded forest, we have a decent supply. Also, forests have a way of managing themselves fairly well. Naturally some trees die and fall over, and that empty spot of sunshine in the forest is quickly replaced with tree(s) that start to grow themselves. When humans like myself intervene to cut down the dead trees, I just call that "weeding the forest" :) Thanks for watching!!! -Cam
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Cam is it still legal to have a wood boiler? I've seen some articles saying that it's now illegal as of Jan 2020. Just looking for some clarification because I'd really love to get one. Thanks, love the channel
@@TheSeasonalHomestead really impressed with what you and Becky have accomplished in a relatively short space of time. So glad you clarified that they're dead trees you're felling. If you can set aside 1 acre for sustainable quick-growing pine it will help keep and add to the biodiversity in the old growth area. Also, in times of drought, those fallen logs will help to retain some shade and moisture for the floor.
I have a boiler that heat water for cast iron radiators and for the shower. I installed that in the garage because i don' t want to go out to fill the fournace. I burn wood 4 feet long and I made many iron frames to move them with the tractor and the transpallet in to the garage. The stove doesn'have any fan, he has a pump that push the water in to a reservoir of 400 gallons.
I feel your pain about the wall. Time will heal, or someone will throw a baseball through the wall there and it won't be such a big deal! I'm impressed you found the holes in the pipes. Good job.
The wood boiler is cool. I like that it doubles as a water heater. I don't get how hot water is made in the other seasons though. Conventional water heater? Propane/Electric?
Great question! So, in the summer when the boiler is not going, it reverts back to propane for heating our hot water. Some people run their boiler year round for hot water heating, but where we live, that doesn't seem economical. We will just bite the bullet in the summer and heat with propane, then enjoy cheaper heating in the wintertime :) - Cam
I'm a licensed HVAC/R service contractor. That is a nice residential application boiler system. I like the versatility of the design, in that it is used to heat air and potable water. I'm assuming there are automatic safeties and manual safeties built into the boiler, such as high pressure safety switches on the water vessel portion as well as low water level and high water level safety switches and high temperature safety switches for the water vessel and for the combustion chamber. That is how gas-fired boilers are designed Some safeties require a manual reset to get the boiler back online; other safeties automatically reset themselves once the alarm conditions no longer exists. However, for gas-fired boiler ignition systems and for gas-fired furnace ignition systems, typically, three attempts to ignite the gas will be allowed. If no combustion is obtained by the third attempt, the ignition system goes into a "hard lockout" which requires a technician to come out and do a manual reset. This feature forces a technician to have to come to the scene to troubleshoot what led to the failure to ignite within three attempts. Again, that's a nice system you have and the redundancy tbuilt in to back it up is well thought out.
Thank you Tyrone!! I appreciate your approval as a licensed HVAC/R contractor. I did a lot of research and talked with a lot of local experts before determining the setup I wanted for our house. There are high temp safety limits built in to the boiler, but since this isn't a high pressure system, I did not need any pressure sensors and such.
Thanks so much Eugene! We hope we can continue to put out good content that is a good mix of entertainment, legitimate knowledge content, how to's, and inspiration. The more gardens we can help grow, the better off we will all be, for a myriad of reasons! -Cam
Very informative. Thank you for your time. We are looking to hear a commercial premises in the U.K. but the industry of wood burning is small here. What brand and model is the unit please? Will see if I can get anything shipped here. Thanks in advance 😊
Thank you Pete! Our model is made by Portage and Main out of Winnipeg, Canada. Shipping overseas may be a challenge. I have heard of people building wood boilers themselves, depending on how resourceful you are... -Cam
Yeah I'm about 3 hours from portage you should put their link down in your description or in the comments area. I'm telling you right now northern Maine people are the most kindest people ever. We help each other no matter what
@@TheSeasonalHomestead I am a plumber in New Jersey. We use a standard boiler that runs on natural gas for snow melt. Even if you do a high efficiency model your bill will double running a snow melt system. Parts of Jersey there is no room for a outdoor boiler. I live near nyc very crowded and small property lots. But south ,west Jersey it’s possible. Also amount of snowfall makes a difference. In your area it would definitely pay off fast.
My brother has an outdoor wood stove. I’d actually classify it as an incinerator. It’s tremendous. We live in upstate NY and he heats his 5000 square foot house and garage. He also has a concrete driveway that’s heated by it so it’s the one place he doesn’t have to plow😂… additionally it’s connected to his central air and water heater. Runs his entire house! He happens be a contractor so he did everything himself and has an endless supply of wood…but I envy his almost non existent electric bill! It’s awesome if you can do it that’s for sure.
Sounds like your brother has a pretty awesome setup!! When you decide to get one, you'll for sure get the family and friends discount, right?!? :) We love our outdoor stove!
Lol…yes he sure does! It’s so efficient for him maintenance wise and very minimal cost to run. He works such long hours it’s a blessing for him to have something that does most of the work for him now. He also only loads his twice a day in the winter. Once a day during the warmer months. It’s definitely something we plan to do in the future. We have an indoor one that is our main heat source for now with a furnace as back up, but for the most part we are wood only. Grateful considering the price of fuel. Kerosene is $7.99 a gallon here right now. Ridiculous. We have to use it because fuel oil, even with additives still gels. Winters are brutal here. The last few years we keep getting slammed with back to back nor’easters dumping almost 2 foot of snow on us at a time. We had snow banks at least 20’ + high . Absolutely crazy. You’re Dad is right…nothing like heat from a wood stove. I’m probably not getting the luxurious heated driveway though…I’ll just keep making him plow it😅. Love watching you’re videos. You have a beautiful family!
From talking with the company, and reading lots of online forums regarding wood boilers, they should last between 15-20 years if maintained properly, before any major maintenance is required...
Thanks, would love to heat with wood but my wife is allergic to wood smoke. Our 1971 house, on our half acre, is all electric; so propane is my next choice. God Bless and stay safe.
Maybe a wood boiler is your solution then!! Put a tall chimney on this, and the smoke will never reach ground level!! And, if far enough away from the house, you'd hardly see it anyway!! Thanks for tuning in!
Interesting. Never heard of this - it sounds very efficient. I wondered if you considered green options for energy, especially since you were building from scratch? PVs or geothermal heating for example?
We priced geothermal heating, and quickly realized we'd need to nearly win the lottery to afford a complete system for our home. We do plan to slowly add solar panels with the goal to eventually be 95% off grid.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Oh gosh. Budget is everything! You've done loads already. I wish you much luck in your future endeavours - I'm sure you'll get there!
My grandparents liked using wood in their furnace during the depression. Coal was too pricey. Wood gave a moister heat than coal. The trees on their farm were bountiful in those days. Corn cobs were burned in their stove for cooking.
How much wood does it take in a season? Seems like a cool off grid thing to have. But i imagine you'll need more than a couple trees to get through a winter.
Shoulda poured the pad so the stove was to the left . Every load of wood is at least 4 more steps around that door. I would tire of that in one day, and pour another pad or somehow get the wood on the other side of that open door.
My wood stove is in the basement w/ an awning over the sliding glass door where I back my trailer up and a woodshed along side my house.. I stay dry getting wood all winter.. Mine burns wood or coal, wood burns at 500F, coal 1500F, when I add air the Temp. doubles.. I could forge metal in my woodstove, but I never need it that hot... I can't use coal till the Temp. drops below 20F or I have to open windows to let out the heat - It happened twice.
wow very interesting to hear your reasons for choosing a wood boiler! I'd never heard of such a device, but after hearing your logic, I agree that it's the best option especially because of your free fuel. I don't know how big your land/forest is, but I'm curious to know the growth rate versus your burn rate. Thank you for all the information you share with us!
That's definitely a good question, and something I'll have to encounter 20 or so years from now. For now this works great. By the time I need to consider other/easier alternatives, the system will have already paid for itself so that either repairing it or replacing it altogether are two equal options in my book.
Curious as to why you had the insulated pex pipe come out of the ground outside the house and then in through a wall? Wouldn't it be more efficient if it went under the slab and up through it directly into the house? That way the pipe is within the envelope of the conditioned house and not exposed directly to outside air even if it's only for a few feet.
yep i did mine through foundation wall and then up through floor. im in nc so not to cold here. im a plumber hvac by trade so i did all the connections and duct work. saved me thousands
Awesome video Cam, I could listen to the dulcet sounds of your voice talk about cutting and burning wood all day long. 😂 Can you burn unseasoned wood in your boiler? I had issues burning unseasoned wood my first winter in our fireplace and got a good amount of creosote build up. I’m trying to plan better by splitting my wood a year in advance to make sure it’s seasoned well.
You're awesome Kyle!! I'll make sure Becky gives me more speaking parts in thee videos, lol! The boiler "can" take unseasoned wood, but I'm trying hard to use fully seasoned wood. No matter what, you'll get some creosote when burning wood. Burning wet wood simply accelerates that buildup. You're the best!
Outside wood stoves are stupid. You have to go out when it's freezing to add wood. I use to heat with wood coal and oil, 4 years ago I got geothermal total cost $15000. All I have to do now is just change air filter. I no longer have to carry coal, and then the ashes, not more cutting wood, no more oil. Cost about $50 a month to heat my house in the winter and I live in western NY. Best investment I ever made.
I would LOVE to do geothermal here. $80,000 was the quote given for a 5-ton system to support our place. Can I pay you to come install a geothermal system down here for perhaps closer to your $15,000 price? I'll even fly you down here :) 🙌
Hi, Cam, You say that wood comes free. Do you own some part of the forest there, or how? Would it be cost-effective if you were to by that would? And do I get it right that there is no need for the logs to get dry? Nice set-up anyway Glad for you
We have 25 acres of forest on our property. Plenty of deadwood that is already seasoned. I haven't run the cost if I were to buy that wood, but if mine ever runs out, I have plenty of neighbors that would love to have me start cleaning up their deadwood as well. Weeding the forest, I call it.
HAVE HAD A PORTAGE AND MAIN WOOD BOILER FOR SEVERAL YEARS. WE'VE HAD OTHERS BUT THE PORTAGE AND MAIN USES LESS WOOD THAN THE OTHERS WE'VE HAD. GOOD DESIGN I GUESS. ARTER 30 YEARS OF USING OWB. I STILL DON'T LIKE GOING OUTSIDE FOR THE LAST FILL OF THE NIGHT WHEN IT'S BLOWING SNOW AND 20-30 BELOW ZERO F. NICE VIEO
This makes me happy to hear you like the Portage and Main boiler you have. I did TONS of research before landing on this one. So far, super happy with it, but only 1 season in. I hope to still be raving about this one ten years from now :)
As a daughter of a lumberjack you need to wear ear protection, face screen, and you need to wear chaps that will protect you from the blade and steel toe boots. Because I'm going to tell you this right now your family needs you and you need your body. Please be more protective because my father was cutting down a tree and it kick back and it cut him. And this is back in the late '70s. Everyone I know up in northern Maine where is protection so please wear protection
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Thank you so much! We're putting a Quadra-Fire Pioneer III with the rectangular front into our new construction home and looks very, very similar to yours. Could you also tell me about the materials you used for the surround and mantel? Love your videos! Thanks again!
@@patrickcenter your Quadra fire, at least on the web, looks pretty awesome!!! Good choice 👍🏻. Our fireplace is wrapped in soapstone that we got from a local dealer. Good luck with your build!!! -Cam
when splitting wood with an axe try put the wood in 2 or 3 old car tires. that way you split the logs and dont have to pick em up again for the next split.
I harvest trees from our land that are already dead, and a risk if left standing. No need to worry, by "weeding" the forest of dead trees to allow for new growth, I'm likely helping the environment more than I'm hurting it 👍
Get yourself a pulp wood hook grippo made in Canada great tool if you cut a lot of wood and for loading stove run a central boiler for 13 years now for my new house
You have probably figuren that yourself, bit i were you I would have buildt a shed or something around that boiler. Could work as heat source for a greenhouse or likewise
I was going to get an outdoor wood boiler, but my state has some ridiculous requirements for getting one. I have a neighbor who is within 200 feet of me, therefore i can't install one of these. But I have a wood stove and that's totally fine apparently. Go figure.
Contact your local Dpw tree department and ask if they could deliver downed trees they clear off the roads as they take up a lot of room in the town dump and they usually are overjoyed at a local resident who wants and heats with wood.
Are you cutting trees for fuel or are you using just trees that have fallen.? Do you track your costs for all expenditures and actually know what you expenses are?
In regards to the plumbing leak That's why you add strapping over exterior insulation that nail into the studs and siding nails only into strapping not sheathing. Also risk of hitting eletric and starting fire. Also the strapping behind the siding gives both an air gap and rain screen, siding shouldn't be nailed onto the house wrap and sheathing And Why is their plumbing in your exterior wall in the first place. You should have gone through foundation hole below frost line then go over to an interior wall and go up from there
check out heatmor boilers. im on my 18th winter with mine. clean out is an auger and very easy to go into a bucket to cool. no shovel or slide bin to worry with
Tony! This may be the best tip ever!!! It totally makes sense. And here I am trying to carry this burning hot ash pan to my dump pile, seconds away from a major/minor emergency! lol! You don't know how happy I am now 🙌🥇🔥
We have had a central boiler sense summer of 2006 saves thousands of $$$$ each year. Only thing I seen I would of did differently is run the underground through the foundation. Less heat loss that way.
Hey great video I am a Portage & Main dealer and glad you like the boiler. They are great boilers and will give you many years of service. It was unfortunate you had a leak in your pex in your new home. I did notice you used Shark-Bites to connect your heating coil. I recommend you solder / sweat on permanent pex fittings. When you shut the system down with the cooler water temperature they can leak because of the expansion and contraction of the water it will stretch the fitting over time. Just don't want to see you have to cut into your drywall again .
All the Best with your new boiler
Sean
Thank you for the tips Sean. I've had a few others talk to me about the sharkbites as well. I did crimp fit most of the fittings, but indeed there are a few that I did use sharkbites. I do plan to do a summer maintenance job on the boiler system and replace as many sharkbites as I can...
Where are you located?
When loading full of wiod, for how long can this Portage Main boiler heat? How many hours without uploading with new wood? What price more or less?
I live in North Dakota. For the past 30 years my parents have used one of these. We would fill it in the morning and again at night. They are very nice.
Many up here use them.
Sounds like you enjoyed a nice warm house in the ND winters!! Not without some good old fashioned work :)
We've been using an outdoor boiler for about 9 years, and love it . I haven't bought any wood so far, I've gotten all the wood I need from blowdowns. I want to warn you though be very, very careful when loading wood into your stove!! I read all of the warnings and cautions and was careful, however after about 6 years of using my stove I got complacent and almost cut off my middle finger on my right hand. Though I have a different brand stove then yours, the front door lip is exactly like mine and if you aren't careful it WILL hurt you!
Thank you for the warning. i will be mindful of this 👍
Why go through all that work when you could capture all the heat energy from outside with a heat pump
Love the video. Just an idea: stack the wood on the other side of the furnace so you don’t have to walk around the door every time?
Yeah, I quickly realized myself that may have been a better setup. Maybe next year
My friend outside of Orono Maine put his Wood Boiler inside of a metal shed, big enough to contain the Boiler, 10 cords of wood, his Riding Mower, and all of his Wood Cutting equipment and Garden Tools. It keeps the wood and stuff completely dry, warm enough to start right up, and the boiler has practically no rust on the outside or internal doors. The Vent Pipe goes right out the wall which is metal, no chance of fire...
That sounds like a good setup! -Cam
Been running a OWB in the snow belt of the Great Lakes. Fantastic solution for heating a house and separate workshop and the in floor heating we have is quite lovely in winter (especially my wood shop). First year was a learning curve - second year I built a covered woodshed and a separate awning in front of the stove and built a wood cart. What a dream to load dry wood in a blizzard. Now I cut ‘wife size’ wood per the advice of my elders 😂 - turns out it is also kid size! The OWB gets better and better as the years go by and the kiddos get bigger. Well done sir!
Awesome! We heat with a boiler as well and wouldn’t have it any other way. What a heart-breaker with the leaking line! I’m so glad that I installed it myself so that I can troubleshoot issues as they pop up. It’s not all work, we’re heating our hot tub with it as well! Happy heating.
Just got a new efficient fireplace insert. Love it! Childhood memories cutting splitting wood with my Dad. And still cutting every fall together!
Yes!!!! Can't match the real heat you get from a fireplace. Enjoy your warm home Eric!!
Thank you for sharing this. We have always wanted an outdoor boiler as my husband is a woodsman so this offered another perspective to educate us on the benefits and process. Thank you!
Glad to hear! If he enjoys cutting wood, definitely consider it!!
This is fascinating. Lived in Texas my whole life and never heard of this. We hope to build our own place some day, and I’ll keep this in mind.
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😮
It’s always so interesting to see American homes place their finances in the attic, as a Canadian 🇨🇦 it’s hard for me to get used to seeing haha but it works!
Do you mean 'furnaces' in the attic? Honestly, it's never made sense why also. We tried to build our house on a crawl space to allow for the hvac to come from the floor, but it was too cost prohibitive, so the furnace ended up in the attic. Could be worse, I guess.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead haha yes I did mean furnace, damn auto correct!
We live in Canada and do the majority of our hearing with a Vermont Castings wood stove. We love it! It’s so cozy and such a nice heat. We do have a natural gas furnace that kicks in at night if the fire goes out. We also sometimes use the fur case fan to distribute the heat better throughout the house.
I LOVE the look of those Vermont Casting stoves. We love the warm heat you get from a real fire. Nice to have backups too, sounds like you are fully covered at all hours of the night!! -Cam
@@TheSeasonalHomestead my husband was super picky about how the stove had to look 😂. We live in a 90 year old home, so it fits the bill.
We have been researching wood burning boilers for our new home in SW Virginia. Thanks so much for this - it helps in our decision making.
Glad it was helpful! (This is Cam). When doing my own research, the information on the web was relatively limited, so I'm glad this has helped in your decision.
We heat exclusively with firewood....I absolutely love it! Plus it's instilling a work ethic in our kids...
Great to see you Cam！ Canning and gardening brought me to the channel, but great to see the work both you and Becky are doing. Fantastic content! I imagine you fee a great sense of satisfaction to have the system up and running:) Always love to watch others trouble shooting (helps me to smile and be patient when inevitable problems arise on projects). Thanks for your hard work and willingness to share your work with us.
Thank you Jacob! So glad you are enjoying the gardening stuff, and a bit of my handyman stuff as well :) -Cam
I do the same. Well insulated homes can be heated by a single hi-tech fireplace. We plant two tree saplings for anyone we cut.
You guys really do your research for all your projects. Your home looks so warm and cozy. I could feel your frustration in having to tear down a new wall. We have had annoying problems like that too. So frustrating in a new house with new walls. I would love to be as self sufficient as you guys. Maybe one day. Thank you for taking us along on your journey.
Thank you Bethany!! It is definitely a journey! Self-sufficiency is definitely thrown around like its just "sell your house, buy a cabin, and hook up solar panels!!!" It's definitely a lot more than that :) -Cam
I am on my 7th season with that same boiler and am happy with it. When I hooked up all the plumbing I used Shark bites because the seamed easy to use. I only have 4 of them left in the system because they leaked when heating up and cooling off. It is all crimp rings now.
Awesome!!! Interesting about the sharkbites. I hear very mixed reviews about sharkbite fittings. My setup is 50% sharkbite, 50% crimp rings. Wil probably convert to crimp rings as well as time goes on.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead I have 2 styles of crimpers for the 1 inch rings. The big pliers type and the bolt together style which is very simple and I think makes a better crimp.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead And one more thing I have learned the hard way. The tin ash pan can push ashes into the blower vent at the back of ash pan and block it. My stove was having trouble getting up to temp until I figured out the fan pipe was blocked with ashes. Now I use a turkey roasting pan under the ash pan door and only pull the ashes foreword.
Beautiful property! Where are you located? We live in northern Indiana and have used an outside wood burner to heat our home for 15 years. The savings are considerable if you have access to wood. Congratulations on your beautiful home.
We are in Arkansas. Glad to hear yours is still ticking after 15 years 👍 I hope to enjoy those considerable savings in the near future as well :)
no need to despair patching drywall - it generally patches good as new; great video !
It's an educational for me ......I'm learning new things......
We LOVE learning around here too!! Thanks for watching -Cam
Good presentation. I see so many channels about wood boilers and almost all split wood down so small, and I don’t know why? Sensibly, you use larger pieces that take longer to burn. Hope to see more! Len (Devon 🇬🇧)
Thank you for noticing that. Definitely get a more efficient and longer burn with the bigger logs.
I believe the down side to large pieces is the time it take for them to dry. If you can cut a year or two in advance it works fine though
I would love you to a house tour of your new home, it's absolutely stunning.
Your heating solutions are right on! 👌
Thank you!
This is pretty cool. For myself, I wonder if I can keep that kind of labor up when I’m in my golden years? Hauling, cutting, and splitting wood would become difficult for someone when they get older (maybe I’m looking too much into it). But I still think it’s neat, especially your two other back up heat sources.
get a Tesla bot to do it
Yes, I have a friend that suffers because she doesn’t have wood and is a single parent. Good idea, but It’s a no for me
In Germany you can buy water-bearing fireplaces for example from the company Brunner
A mix of a fireplace with a lot of mass (to store heat) and your wood boiler in one
The heat exchanger is built directly into the fireplace and with it you can also operate radiators or floor heating and also certainly your hot water for the shower etc.
Those Brunner units look awesome!! Thanks for sharing!
@@TheSeasonalHomestead yeah but quite expensive... Easy up to 10 000€
As a little girl I have to go 3-4 times in the woods (weekly),with my grandparents from my mom side ( not in winter time),to bring wood in our backs,for cooking ( to cook on the stove the best food),also to warm up the rooms,wasn't much money to buy the wood, maybe some people will said poor girl, wasn't bad,just part of our life.
Great video and explanation. We just have a large wood stove in our house, but upgrading to a outdoor broiler and retrofitting to our central air may be something we do in the future. Thanks for sharing the video!
I've been heating with a water stove for 11 years, Hicks Water Stove, Mount Airy North Carolina. Highly recommend. In addition to the 99000 btu coil in my air handler, there's 125000 BTU hot water heater. Four packs coming and going from stove to house.
When you fixed that leak did you scab in a section of PEX or did you wrap in epoxy, rubber gasket material?
Scabbed in a section of Pex for the repair. Hopefully I'll never have to tear that wall open again (fingers crossed). I've never heard of Hicks, I'll definitely look those up. -Cam
This was very interesting to watch; I've never heard of an outside boiler before. Quick question - since you use felled trees for the boiler, do you intentionally plant new trees on your property to rotate the trees and ensure you will have trees in 15-20 years? Thank you for these videos, btw. I've been quite inspired!
Thank you Olivia! From various books I've read on this, and testing it out myself, typically 1 acre of land sustainably provides one cord of wood per year. Where we live we will burn through 5 cords of wood every winter. With 25 acres of dense wooded forest, we have a decent supply. Also, forests have a way of managing themselves fairly well. Naturally some trees die and fall over, and that empty spot of sunshine in the forest is quickly replaced with tree(s) that start to grow themselves. When humans like myself intervene to cut down the dead trees, I just call that "weeding the forest" :) Thanks for watching!!! -Cam
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Cam is it still legal to have a wood boiler? I've seen some articles saying that it's now illegal as of Jan 2020. Just looking for some clarification because I'd really love to get one. Thanks, love the channel
@@TheSeasonalHomestead really impressed with what you and Becky have accomplished in a relatively short space of time. So glad you clarified that they're dead trees you're felling. If you can set aside 1 acre for sustainable quick-growing pine it will help keep and add to the biodiversity in the old growth area. Also, in times of drought, those fallen logs will help to retain some shade and moisture for the floor.
Good job, Cam 👏👍😁 I enjoy your videos and your family so much. Have a great day
Thank you Joanna! Feels like you should move right next door so we can be neighbors :) - Cam
@@TheSeasonalHomestead that would be a dream 😂❤️
I have a boiler that heat water for cast iron radiators and for the shower. I installed that in the garage because i don' t want to go out to fill the fournace.
I burn wood 4 feet long and I made many iron frames to move them with the tractor and the transpallet in to the garage.
The stove doesn'have any fan, he has a pump that push the water in to a reservoir of 400 gallons.
I feel your pain about the wall. Time will heal, or someone will throw a baseball through the wall there and it won't be such a big deal! I'm impressed you found the holes in the pipes. Good job.
The wood boiler is cool. I like that it doubles as a water heater. I don't get how hot water is made in the other seasons though. Conventional water heater? Propane/Electric?
Great question! So, in the summer when the boiler is not going, it reverts back to propane for heating our hot water. Some people run their boiler year round for hot water heating, but where we live, that doesn't seem economical. We will just bite the bullet in the summer and heat with propane, then enjoy cheaper heating in the wintertime :) - Cam
That's not a bad idea. Especially since 90% of our hot water needs are during the daytime anyway, I'm sure that helps. I will definitely look into it!
What do you use for domestic hot water in summer months? You are so blessed great set up
Thank you Ged! During the summer months, we bite the bullet and revert back to our propane supply for hot water -Cam
I'm a licensed HVAC/R service contractor. That is a nice residential application boiler system. I like the versatility of the design, in that it is used to heat air and potable water. I'm assuming there are automatic safeties and manual safeties built into the boiler, such as high pressure safety switches on the water vessel portion as well as low water level and high water level safety switches and high temperature safety switches for the water vessel and for the combustion chamber. That is how gas-fired boilers are designed Some safeties require a manual reset to get the boiler back online; other safeties automatically reset themselves once the alarm conditions no longer exists. However, for gas-fired boiler ignition systems and for gas-fired furnace ignition systems, typically, three attempts to ignite the gas will be allowed. If no combustion is obtained by the third attempt, the ignition system goes into a "hard lockout" which requires a technician to come out and do a manual reset. This feature forces a technician to have to come to the scene to troubleshoot what led to the failure to ignite within three attempts. Again, that's a nice system you have and the redundancy tbuilt in to back it up is well thought out.
Thank you Tyrone!! I appreciate your approval as a licensed HVAC/R contractor. I did a lot of research and talked with a lot of local experts before determining the setup I wanted for our house. There are high temp safety limits built in to the boiler, but since this isn't a high pressure system, I did not need any pressure sensors and such.
your videos are so inspiring. love you guys
Thanks so much Eugene! We hope we can continue to put out good content that is a good mix of entertainment, legitimate knowledge content, how to's, and inspiration. The more gardens we can help grow, the better off we will all be, for a myriad of reasons! -Cam
Very informative. Thank you for your time. We are looking to hear a commercial premises in the U.K. but the industry of wood burning is small here. What brand and model is the unit please? Will see if I can get anything shipped here.
Thanks in advance 😊
Thank you Pete! Our model is made by Portage and Main out of Winnipeg, Canada. Shipping overseas may be a challenge. I have heard of people building wood boilers themselves, depending on how resourceful you are... -Cam
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Thank you, I've emailed them this morning. Was this the BL 24 34 or the BL 28 40? How much was the unit also. Thanks again
Nicely done!
Thank you for watching!
Yeah I'm about 3 hours from portage you should put their link down in your description or in the comments area. I'm telling you right now northern Maine people are the most kindest people ever. We help each other no matter what
I've heard this about Mainers, too! We have some cousins that live up there and absolutely love it there!! -Cam
I would love one of those for a snowmelt system for my driveway and sidewalk.
That would be pretty awesome!
@@TheSeasonalHomestead I am a plumber in New Jersey. We use a standard boiler that runs on natural gas for snow melt. Even if you do a high efficiency model your bill will double running a snow melt system. Parts of Jersey there is no room for a outdoor boiler. I live near nyc very crowded and small property lots. But south ,west Jersey it’s possible. Also amount of snowfall makes a difference. In your area it would definitely pay off fast.
Great idea
My brother has an outdoor wood stove. I’d actually classify it as an incinerator. It’s tremendous. We live in upstate NY and he heats his 5000 square foot house and garage. He also has a concrete driveway that’s heated by it so it’s the one place he doesn’t have to plow😂… additionally it’s connected to his central air and water heater. Runs his entire house! He happens be a contractor so he did everything himself and has an endless supply of wood…but I envy his almost non existent electric bill! It’s awesome if you can do it that’s for sure.
Sounds like your brother has a pretty awesome setup!! When you decide to get one, you'll for sure get the family and friends discount, right?!? :) We love our outdoor stove!
Lol…yes he sure does! It’s so efficient for him maintenance wise and very minimal cost to run. He works such long hours it’s a blessing for him to have something that does most of the work for him now. He also only loads his twice a day in the winter. Once a day during the warmer months. It’s definitely something we plan to do in the future. We have an indoor one that is our main heat source for now with a furnace as back up, but for the most part we are wood only. Grateful considering the price of fuel. Kerosene is $7.99 a gallon here right now. Ridiculous. We have to use it because fuel oil, even with additives still gels. Winters are brutal here. The last few years we keep getting slammed with back to back nor’easters dumping almost 2 foot of snow on us at a time. We had snow banks at least 20’ + high . Absolutely crazy. You’re Dad is right…nothing like heat from a wood stove. I’m probably not getting the luxurious heated driveway though…I’ll just keep making him plow it😅. Love watching you’re videos. You have a beautiful family!
I see them all the time up here in Canada. How long are they rated to last?
From talking with the company, and reading lots of online forums regarding wood boilers, they should last between 15-20 years if maintained properly, before any major maintenance is required...
How long doe's those three logs last,before you have to refers the boiler?
I typically restock the boiler twice a day- once in the morning and once again before bed 👍
We've been getting hosed by the local propane company and are now looking into a similar setup. We have plenty of our own wood too.
Definitely worth checking into. Propane is our backup source, and nothing ever points to energy prices going... down. Not ever...
At the beginning, you are sharpening your chainsaw. Can you please do a video on how to maintain a chainsaw? Thanks!
I am passionate about sharp tools...and keeping them sharp. I'll consider doing that sometime in the future.
Loved this video!
Glad you liked it!!
Where did you get the plenum piece for you furnace to make to boiler water go through it?
I ordered my heat coils from:
altheatsupply.com/heat-exchangers/water-to-air-heat-exchangers.html
Thanks, would love to heat with wood but my wife is allergic to wood smoke. Our 1971 house, on our half acre, is all electric; so propane is my next choice. God Bless and stay safe.
Maybe a wood boiler is your solution then!! Put a tall chimney on this, and the smoke will never reach ground level!! And, if far enough away from the house, you'd hardly see it anyway!! Thanks for tuning in!
Interesting. Never heard of this - it sounds very efficient. I wondered if you considered green options for energy, especially since you were building from scratch? PVs or geothermal heating for example?
We priced geothermal heating, and quickly realized we'd need to nearly win the lottery to afford a complete system for our home. We do plan to slowly add solar panels with the goal to eventually be 95% off grid.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Oh gosh. Budget is everything! You've done loads already. I wish you much luck in your future endeavours - I'm sure you'll get there!
Some people in my area who built houses with floor heating put those outdoor wood burners in after they started getting their heating/gas bills.
My grandparents liked using wood in their furnace during the depression. Coal was too pricey. Wood gave a moister heat than coal. The trees on their farm were bountiful in those days. Corn cobs were burned in their stove for cooking.
Very cool system. Thanks for sharing :)
You are welcome! Thanks for watching!
I may have missed it, but does the wood boiler also heat your water for showers and sinks? Thanks
Yes, it is used to heat our domestic water as well, via a sidearm heat exchanger.
How much wood does it take in a season? Seems like a cool off grid thing to have. But i imagine you'll need more than a couple trees to get through a winter.
Looks great, i'd hate carrying the wood around the door, personally id keep the wood on the other side
Shoulda poured the pad so the stove was to the left . Every load of wood is at least 4 more steps around that door. I would tire of that in one day, and pour another pad or somehow get the wood on the other side of that open door.
Is there a way to also use it as a hot water heater?
Yes, you can easily hook these up to a domestic hot water heater, via a sidearm heat exchanger or a plate heat exchanger.
How much wood you burn a year to heat the house? What temp you keep house in winter? Thank you.
House is set at 70degrees during winter. We burn around 5 cord of wood each winter.
That was a really good video.
Thank you Cody. Glad you liked it!
How do you heat your water in the summer (out of season)?
In the summer our propane tank becomes the primary heat source for domestic hot water.
Hello I'm your new subscriber,and I'm from Philippines 😊
Thanks for subscribing! Glad you enjoy the videos!
Can you figure out some way to use the hot ashes to heat an outdoor bathtub ?
My wood stove is in the basement w/ an awning over the sliding glass door where I back my trailer up and a woodshed along side my house.. I stay dry getting wood all winter..
Mine burns wood or coal, wood burns at 500F, coal 1500F, when I add air the Temp. doubles..
I could forge metal in my woodstove, but I never need it that hot... I can't use coal till the Temp. drops below 20F or I have to open windows to let out the heat - It happened twice.
wow very interesting to hear your reasons for choosing a wood boiler! I'd never heard of such a device, but after hearing your logic, I agree that it's the best option especially because of your free fuel. I don't know how big your land/forest is, but I'm curious to know the growth rate versus your burn rate. Thank you for all the information you share with us!
That's definitely a good question, and something I'll have to encounter 20 or so years from now. For now this works great. By the time I need to consider other/easier alternatives, the system will have already paid for itself so that either repairing it or replacing it altogether are two equal options in my book.
Curious as to why you had the insulated pex pipe come out of the ground outside the house and then in through a wall? Wouldn't it be more efficient if it went under the slab and up through it directly into the house? That way the pipe is within the envelope of the conditioned house and not exposed directly to outside air even if it's only for a few feet.
yep i did mine through foundation wall and then up through floor. im in nc so not to cold here. im a plumber hvac by trade so i did all the connections and duct work. saved me thousands
Awesome video Cam, I could listen to the dulcet sounds of your voice talk about cutting and burning wood all day long. 😂
Can you burn unseasoned wood in your boiler? I had issues burning unseasoned wood my first winter in our fireplace and got a good amount of creosote build up. I’m trying to plan better by splitting my wood a year in advance to make sure it’s seasoned well.
You're awesome Kyle!! I'll make sure Becky gives me more speaking parts in thee videos, lol! The boiler "can" take unseasoned wood, but I'm trying hard to use fully seasoned wood. No matter what, you'll get some creosote when burning wood. Burning wet wood simply accelerates that buildup. You're the best!
very cool!!!
What water treatment are you Using?
We are using the treatment that Portage and Main recommended to us, based on our water test results.
Don’t forget a forth time: when you stack it.
Yes, that one too :)
I love a wood burner
Does the boiler have a catalytic converter ?
Can you regulate the temperature in your house?
Yes, it's connected to our wall thermostat, so it's all regulated the exact same way any other system is regulated in the house.
Outside wood stoves are stupid. You have to go out when it's freezing to add wood. I use to heat with wood coal and oil, 4 years ago I got geothermal total cost $15000. All I have to do now is just change air filter. I no longer have to carry coal, and then the ashes, not more cutting wood, no more oil. Cost about $50 a month to heat my house in the winter and I live in western NY. Best investment I ever made.
I would LOVE to do geothermal here. $80,000 was the quote given for a 5-ton system to support our place. Can I pay you to come install a geothermal system down here for perhaps closer to your $15,000 price? I'll even fly you down here :) 🙌
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Total bill was $35,000 , got a rebate of $10k from NY State and $12k from feds. $80K is a lot
Hi, Cam,
You say that wood comes free. Do you own some part of the forest there, or how?
Would it be cost-effective if you were to by that would?
And do I get it right that there is no need for the logs to get dry?
Nice set-up anyway
Glad for you
We have 25 acres of forest on our property. Plenty of deadwood that is already seasoned. I haven't run the cost if I were to buy that wood, but if mine ever runs out, I have plenty of neighbors that would love to have me start cleaning up their deadwood as well. Weeding the forest, I call it.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Thahks for your feedback. Good Luck and stay Warm!
I love it 👍
hi there nice show john
HAVE HAD A PORTAGE AND MAIN WOOD BOILER FOR SEVERAL YEARS. WE'VE HAD OTHERS BUT THE PORTAGE AND MAIN USES LESS WOOD THAN THE OTHERS WE'VE HAD. GOOD DESIGN I GUESS. ARTER 30 YEARS OF USING OWB. I STILL DON'T LIKE GOING OUTSIDE FOR THE LAST FILL OF THE NIGHT WHEN IT'S BLOWING SNOW AND 20-30 BELOW ZERO F. NICE VIEO
This makes me happy to hear you like the Portage and Main boiler you have. I did TONS of research before landing on this one. So far, super happy with it, but only 1 season in. I hope to still be raving about this one ten years from now :)
How awesome!
Yes, we like it 👍 Thanks for watching! -Cam
Why not put anti freeze in instead of water? The heat values between water and anti freeze?
I have considered putting a bit of antifreeze in. At the moment, anti freeze is a lot more expensive for 100 gallons.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead what about windshield washer fluid? A lot cheaper. Not sure what happens when you heat it.
How many cords of wood would you say you go thru in a season, and how many sf are you heating with this?
5-6 cord of wood. Heating 3900 sq for house. Same wood volume needed to heat our old house that was 2300 sq ft
As a daughter of a lumberjack you need to wear ear protection, face screen, and you need to wear chaps that will protect you from the blade and steel toe boots. Because I'm going to tell you this right now your family needs you and you need your body. Please be more protective because my father was cutting down a tree and it kick back and it cut him. And this is back in the late '70s. Everyone I know up in northern Maine where is protection so please wear protection
Chain saws are perfectly safe..right up to point it finds something in that log it doesn't like and will do a very good job at removing body parts
I'll stick with my woodstove. It heats a 1200sq' cabin really well
What is the brand/model of the wood stove in your living room?
Hi Patrick It's a KozyHeat 42. We LOVE it! We primarily use it in the shoulder seasons, and it works fantastic!!! -Cam
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Thank you so much! We're putting a Quadra-Fire Pioneer III with the rectangular front into our new construction home and looks very, very similar to yours. Could you also tell me about the materials you used for the surround and mantel? Love your videos! Thanks again!
@@patrickcenter your Quadra fire, at least on the web, looks pretty awesome!!! Good choice 👍🏻. Our fireplace is wrapped in soapstone that we got from a local dealer. Good luck with your build!!! -Cam
when splitting wood with an axe try put the wood in 2 or 3 old car tires. that way you split the logs and dont have to pick em up again for the next split.
I seen something like that in Lithuania - old farm homes. People built them.
How in the world do you finance this operation?
No financing. Just cash.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Well done!
They have been around for a long time. Way back at least 1970s.
How many trees have to be cut down for this?😞
I harvest trees from our land that are already dead, and a risk if left standing. No need to worry, by "weeding" the forest of dead trees to allow for new growth, I'm likely helping the environment more than I'm hurting it 👍
Get yourself a pulp wood hook grippo made in Canada great tool if you cut a lot of wood and for loading stove run a central boiler for 13 years now for my new house
You have probably figuren that yourself, bit i were you I would have buildt a shed or something around that boiler. Could work as heat source for a greenhouse or likewise
I was going to get an outdoor wood boiler, but my state has some ridiculous requirements for getting one. I have a neighbor who is within 200 feet of me, therefore i can't install one of these. But I have a wood stove and that's totally fine apparently. Go figure.
New to the channel. Why don't you have any insulation in your stud bay?
I pulled it out to fix the pipe, then put it back in before patching the sheet rock
Contact your local Dpw tree department and ask if they could deliver downed trees they clear off the roads as they take up a lot of room in the town dump and they usually are overjoyed at a local resident who wants and heats with wood.
Great idea! I will start asking around. Anything to bring the logs to ME would be a big bonus!!
Are you cutting trees for fuel or are you using just trees that have fallen.? Do you track your costs for all expenditures and actually know what you expenses are?
how many cords of wood do you go through a season
5-6 cord typically
In regards to the plumbing leak That's why you add strapping over exterior insulation that nail into the studs and siding nails only into strapping not sheathing. Also risk of hitting eletric and starting fire. Also the strapping behind the siding gives both an air gap and rain screen, siding shouldn't be nailed onto the house wrap and sheathing
And Why is their plumbing in your exterior wall in the first place. You should have gone through foundation hole below frost line then go over to an interior wall and go up from there
check out heatmor boilers. im on my 18th winter with mine. clean out is an auger and very easy to go into a bucket to cool. no shovel or slide bin to worry with
Just a tip. Don't leave the ash pan in the boiler. Just open the door and push it in. It's like a shovel.
Tony! This may be the best tip ever!!! It totally makes sense. And here I am trying to carry this burning hot ash pan to my dump pile, seconds away from a major/minor emergency! lol! You don't know how happy I am now 🙌🥇🔥
We have had a central boiler sense summer of 2006 saves thousands of $$$$ each year. Only thing I seen I would of did differently is run the underground through the foundation. Less heat loss that way.