Hi everyone! Hopefully this video helps you make a decision on purchasing an outdoor wood boiler and if it right for you. If you have any questions, we would be happy to answer in the comment section. Happy Burning!
Thanks for the update! Always wondered how much these burn. We burn 10-15 face cords/year with an indoor stove and a well insulated 1700sqft home, so you're actually burning LESS per sq ft. Great information to have!
I have been feeding a Central Boiler for 25 years. At that time it was $5200 total cost, I'm now 70 and it's time to just buy fuel ⛽ oil. I have no regrets, the Boiler has paid for itself many times over. You are still young and the labor is no issue. Best of luck! Great video 😂.
The biggest issue I have with the gassifiers is the the routine maintenance and components. I love that they burn less wood but in 14 yrs with an old school boiler I did one weld repair and dumped the ash pan in a pile once a week. Very low tech. It will be interesting to see what the longevity of the gassifiers are, because one of these days I'll likely have to replace mine.
We have only had it for 3 seasons now and there have been no issues so far thank god. It does come with a 10 year warranty similar to standard units from the same manufacturer if that is worth anything to you. You should watch my video comparing the gasification vs standard unit if you have time. It’s a really good one that has additional info.
Great Video! I spent ten minutes trying to find out the price of this unit. I've been toying with the idea for my new, soon to be built, 980 sq ft, two story home. Thanks for letting us know. It's out of the question. One question I do have is if you do load it twice a day with the amount your wife put in, I am a little sceptical that you've only used a cord and a half so far. Sorry - the engineer in me took over - 😀
Hello, thank you for the comment. I definitely do not recommend a boiler for that small space as it would not be worth the money. Unless you plan to have other buildings in the future, I don’t think you would recover the money. Also my wife loading it was just for demonstration. The final number last year for us was 4.5 full bush cords. This year again very mild winter so far we have barely used any wood at all. Today is 10 degrees Celsius. The boiler barely runs at all. I hope this helps.
I have had a wood boiler for 21 years and love it I’ve saved over 60 thousand dollars and when I hear on the news that oil is going up again, it does not bother me. If you cut the wood into smaller pieces, then the wife can load it too 😅 take care.🇨🇦👍🚜
@@timberstoneranch yes we are and it is called central boiler . I believe it is made in Minnesota. Our only costs per winter are about 30 dollars for hydro and about 50 dollars every second winter for a jug of rust inhibitors
My family has sold outdoor boilers for more than 20yrs, and the bottom line is, it depends on the furnace/boiler you buy.. (the gasification ones are incredibly fickle, the wood has to be extraordinary dry and you can only use certain species.. 15-20% moisture is typically unattainable by outdoor storage, so unless you wish to build and heat a building to hold your firewood it's not a good idea) the shape of the firebox is another point to consider; is the grate far below the door opening or very close to it? The ones where the grate is close to level with the door opening are hard to keep burning, the fire tends to burn through channels in between the logs and go out before all of the fuel wood is consumed.. you want a firebox that is narrow and tall with a good foot or more of area below the level of the door bottom, and V-shaped sides to funnel the wood towards the grate. Also, the open systems typically need rebuilt every 10-25yrs.. pressurized boilers last several times longer and have a much higher thermal efficiency.
We bought this boiler because it is really the only manufacturer to at could supply and service out area. Not much choice. We typically use mostly ash and are able to get it nice and dry buy just keeping the top protected from rain. The shape of the firebox is narrow and tall which is nice and the grate below is a good distance under the door. We have had no issues so far with keeping the fire. As long as the blower holes are exposed, everything is good. Happy with it so far and if it last 20 plus years, I would be extremely happy with such results.
@@timberstoneranch sounds good, used to carry heat master and wood master years ago but it looks like they've went to a different design with yours, the old ones were good, if the new ones are improved then I'm sure you'll be very happy.
The new Central Boiler Classic Edge units can burn extremely wet wood. I load Basswood in that weighs as much as oak and sprays water out onto the splitter often and it burns it just fine. The early gasifiers were very picky though that’s correct.
@@timberstoneranch well I personally heat my own home which is very poorly insulated 1200sq/ft farmhouse with 1st 2 floors heated 9' ceilings that has a basement and attic as well that doesn't factor in to the sq/ft calculation I just did and I keep it pretty warm during winter (75-77f ) and I burn 10-13 cord per winter.. depending how cold it is. But that's wood like pitch pine and soft maple and all of the reject wood that doesn't get sold if you see what I mean. I also do wood for my step-dad and another old man who both use outdoor stoves and 1 old woman who has an indoor one.. I do primarily wood cutting all spring/summer/fall but I know a lot about outdoor stoves because of the fact I helped design and fabricate a pressurized outdoor boiler for my step-dad and other things along the way as he's sold/installed different brands for the last 25yr or so and I always helped
I've been watching another You-tuber in Michigan - he estimates he will burn 20+ full cords of wood vs. your 3-4 cords. HUGE difference. I don't know if his is a gasifier burner. He loads with 10" x 2'-3' logs which for him means loading once a day and I think his boiler unit is considerably larger.
Hello, so we are using 3 to 4 bush cords which is 12 to 16 face cords. A lot of people get these references mixed up. I believe he may be referring to face cords. There is no way anyone is using 30 bush cords of wood a season even with an old boiler that is not as efficient. These gasifier units used about half or less than half of the old school ones. Also a larger unit will for sure use more depending or how much space he is heating. We are only heating 3000 square feet right now, if he is heating 10,000 or more, it may be a different story. Also highly depends on how the space is insulated, we have a brand new home that is insulated to the most up to date building codes so that will also make a big difference. I hope this helps.
@@timberstoneranch I considered the difference between face cords and bush cords. But given the volume of wood he had, I am inclined to believe he was referring to a full 4'x4'x8' cord. But even if it were 20+ face cords vs 12-16 face cords that is still an incredibly large difference even though his boiler is only 2 seasons old. He is heating 2 residential buildings and a large workshop on an circuit (10,000 ft²?); the boiler is also not a gasifier. Edit: he burned 20 cord not 30 cord last year; my mistake.
That is a big difference. I am honestly not sure how this works, but I know that when we were shopping around, headmaster has regular non gasifier units for half the price of this one but they were clear to me that it would used up least twice as much wood. We elected to go with the gasifier for this reason. If you don’t mind, please provide me with the persons channel, I would love to check it out.
Thank you for sharing your story. Here's mine. I bought a house two years ago equiped with a 2008 Heat Master model. The house with the two garages total 7000 square feet to heat. As this is not a model with a gasification feature, the first year, I burned 28 cords. Former owner told me he was burning 30 to 35 cords. With all this wood burned, the second floor of the house remain cold so we also need to heat with an electric furnace. When it is very cold (-30 celcius) I must feed wood 4 times a day including the last feed before midnight, brrr. With the climatic changes, the headeache comes when the weather is mild, around the freezing point. There is no point to use this monster when the temperature is over the freezing point so I have to alternate from one heating unit to another. Other minus points for me is that seasoned wood is hard to get. Wood price is going up, delivery price is going up. There is no company making the maintenance in my region anymore so I am alone to fix the problems. The Heat Master model I have is very hard to impossible to clean as the path to the chimney got a zigzag patern. Creosote stack there and even with a full day working at it, the path remain partially clogged. So, after 15 years, this Heat Master unit got one feet in the coffin. The main reason that push me to keep it concern the increasing power outages we face with the climatic changes.
Thank you kindly for sharing your story and experience. What will you use to heat all that space if getting rid of the boiler? Have you considered a new more efficient one? Here we process our own wood, but even if we bought hard wood that is well seasoned, it goes for about $350 dollars per bush cord. Also when the temps are about freezing, the boiler still works well and we only need to load it once a day with a wheelbarrow worth of wood.
@@timberstoneranch Our house is already equiped with two heat pumps linked to two furnaces. Also, there is an electric furnace that use the same water lines than the boiler. I just had to figure myself how the valves worked because one system is open and the other is closed. I burned the electric furnace pump because the water entry valve was closed. One remaining problem is that the detached garage have no other heating system and it must be heated because the main water entry is located there. On the "to do" list. Is a bush cord the same thing than a cord ? Here I paid 100CAD per delivered cord the first year but this year I paid almost 150CAD. And yes, I have considered a new heat unit. Who will install it ?
A bush cord is the equivalent of 3 cords(also known as a face cord) which is 4x8 feet single row. Also looks like you got it all figured out which is good. Lastly, I know it is difficult to get someone to install these boilers. We did a lot of the installation ourselves including the pad, digging, coring through the house, etc. we had to hire a plumber to hook up to the heat exchanger I the furnace.
28 Cords? I would check your heat exchanger and also I would love to know what they used for underground lines. Those are probably compromised if they used the cheap stuff or home made. My Dad uses about 10 cord on 5k sq ft with a conventional unit and I used about 5-6 heating 2200sq. 28 cords sounds like there is an issue with losing heat.
@@justinfloyd9936 The ex owner had the lines done. He did put the whole lines with a cheap material but the installer refused to use them and installed a second set of appropriate lines. So, I think that, at least, this is good. First year, I used 28 cords, facing a very cold Quebec winter. Last two years I burned around 20 cords but also used around 700 pounds of anthracite coal.
The idea of independence from the utility type companies is a great idea but any wood burning apparatus will require more labour than most want to give.
If you want to be independent, you will need to put in the labour, but you are right to a certain extent, especially depending on the persons physical capabilities. Honestly even if you can’t process the wood, buying it will still same a lot of money over paying for propane.
Good informative video though I'm not a farmer or even American. But 4:57 is it OK to load firewood in this manner? I think your wife is doing it wrong in the video. She put the firewood in a pile, as they do on the ground in the form of a hearth. But this is a boiler, moreover, one that produces gas from wood (I have one too, but smaller). Also, I put firewood in such a way that on the first tiers, they are crossed and there is a little air between them, and above I put them so densely that they are only in one direction, parallel to each other. It also increases each load of firewood and makes it impossible for firewood to hang if they are lying on top of each other in such a mess and wedge each other. No fan will be able to blow them so that they will burn if they hang high above the flames below.
We honestly have not had any issues. Please take a look at our other video about how we load it on more detail and how we have tested different ways. Let us know what you think. Thank you.
did you also look into wood chip heaters? Where i live many farmers rent or own the machines to process wood into chips and run their self feeding wood chip heaters.
Unfortunately no I did not look into them before we bought this outdoor wood boiler. I never knew such a thing even existed as all the farms around here only use propane. Looking into them now as well as some of the European systems, they seem really interesting and efficient but I don’t know much about them.
Water coil over forced air as we have a regular propane furnace we use as backup. Putting in the boiler was an afterthought once we had built out house so this is really the only choice we had. The propane cost was crazy. If I could do it over again, I would have put radiant heat at least in the basement floors.
We're also in Central Ontario. Do you cut your pieces to greater lengths than 16" ever? Depending on your model, sometimes HeatMaster recommends bigger pieces, albeit as long as their seasoned. Did you ever think about housing the boiler in a shed or a lean-to? Thanks for your videos!
We do often cut to 18 or even 20 inches and still have room for the firebox to breathe. Also the wood is always well seasoned for these gasification units to run efficiently. It’s funny how great minds think alike, we are actually in the process of building a lean to around the boiler, along with a large lean to in order to store the wood beside the boiler. We will be releasing a video on that too when finished. Glad you enjoyed the videos!
I think a shelter is not necessary but it’s nice to have, especially for the wood. We are in the process of building a shelter around the boiler and a lean to adjacent to store the wood. We will release when finished.
That is a great idea that we are currently working on building. We are also building a nice lean to beside the boiler shed to store all the wood. Video coming when the project is built.
@@timberstoneranch very cool. Your feeling on the wood boiler will change once you get your winter wood supply and your boiler under one roof. A friend of mine has his boiler in a barn where his animals winter the boiler is on one end and has chain link separating it from the animals. It never gets below 60F in there even on -20 degree nights. The cows and goats love it. He even keeps raising chickens over the winter. Good luck
@@tvviewer4500boiler is the barn sounds like an amazing set up. It could probably even do well in a green house if you had a large enough one to grow anything you want since it would not freeze.
But you pretty much have to cut your own wood to make it pay which makes it a non starter for me. Chain saw, splitter, tractor and maintenance on all that plus time and labor is very significant.
You make a good point but if you live in a rural property you already have a tractor and chainsaw like any man should. Splitter yes is an extra and should be added to the cost. Also yes if included my labour it would be a different story but doing firewood is a labour of love and relaxing, definitely not for everyone.
The smoke is present yes but i would say it is very minimal. These gasifiers are not big smoke producers as they use very dry wood and actually bake the wood to use the gas for heat rather then burn wet wood like you would in a conventional unit. Also it is advisable to install it at least 50ft away from the house to avoid any issues.
Wow 25k buys a lot of propane, and as for ROI break even you are talking 10 years at best if nothing goes wrong. Also, not every building benefits from the lack of mess of an outdoor wood burner. The more I research these things the more I think a propane boiler with radian floor heating is the better option and I can heat my extra buildings with a wood burning stove. Thanks for the video.
They are expensive to begin with and they do come with really good warranty from different manufacturers, however they are definitely not good for everyone and every situation. Our propane bill was just under $6,000 a year to heat everything so this is working out for us so far. It also depends on propane price in different geographic locations. The rate in our area is over a dollar per litre once you include the carbon and other taxes. It would equal out to around $4/gallon in US.
@ironsales5669 • Yeah , but he said that he heats MULTIPLE buildings with it , not just his house , and can also heat the swimming pool water which gives you a extra month of swimming in the spring and a extra month in the Fall , Propane doesn't do that ! I have a inside Wood Furnace 150,000BTU and my heating bill is around $75 dollars . Not a month ! But for the entire Winter ! or around $7 to $10 per month
Yes we were paying over a dollar a litre as we did not have a locked in contract. All our other appliances are propane too. Plus add the bs carbon tax and sales tax it was ridiculous. We still spend about 150 a month now that we have the boiler just to run everything else. Our boiler could not be hooked up to our hot water as its tankless.
@@timberstoneranch I just dont see the savings from the insurance worth the amount of extra work from retrofitting all the plumbing lines. You guys have radiant heating, I presume? If it were a brand new construction, maybe worth it.
We are are forced air. We use propane and backup. The boiler is connected to a heat exchanger I’m the furnace. It works to create heat similar to how the air conditioner unit has a coil in the furnace.
Rich city people use propane.......regular people who love living in the country figure out how to save money with a little sweat and hard work......Rich city people go to the gym, our properties ARE our gym.
I guess it kind of depends on where you live, but I can't believe people still burn wood. I switched from wood to burning anthracite coal about 5 years ago. It is a way better option
Hi everyone! Hopefully this video helps you make a decision on purchasing an outdoor wood boiler and if it right for you. If you have any questions, we would be happy to answer in the comment section. Happy Burning!
hi there nice show , i have one i made about 35+ years ago , Have a Great Thanksgiving and best to all John
Thank you kindly! Happy thanksgiving!
Thanks for the update! Always wondered how much these burn. We burn 10-15 face cords/year with an indoor stove and a well insulated 1700sqft home, so you're actually burning LESS per sq ft. Great information to have!
I’m really glad you found the information helpful.
I have been feeding a Central Boiler for 25 years. At that time it was $5200 total cost, I'm now 70 and it's time to just buy fuel ⛽ oil. I have no regrets, the Boiler has paid for itself many times over. You are still young and the labor is no issue. Best of luck! Great video 😂.
Yes you have probably paid for it many many times over. Glad you enjoyed the video.
The biggest issue I have with the gassifiers is the the routine maintenance and components. I love that they burn less wood but in 14 yrs with an old school boiler I did one weld repair and dumped the ash pan in a pile once a week. Very low tech. It will be interesting to see what the longevity of the gassifiers are, because one of these days I'll likely have to replace mine.
We have only had it for 3 seasons now and there have been no issues so far thank god. It does come with a 10 year warranty similar to standard units from the same manufacturer if that is worth anything to you. You should watch my video comparing the gasification vs standard unit if you have time. It’s a really good one that has additional info.
100% Correct. More Work, but way less money. . Great Video. God Speed, Thank You. 🦒🦒🦒🦒🦒🦒
Thank you kindly! Cheers!
I love how my house feels super warm and cozy when Im using our wood boiler rather than propane ☺️
The boiler definitely provides a nicer heat. You would have to experience it to know exactly what you mean.
Great Video! I spent ten minutes trying to find out the price of this unit. I've been toying with the idea for my new, soon to be built, 980 sq ft, two story home. Thanks for letting us know. It's out of the question. One question I do have is if you do load it twice a day with the amount your wife put in, I am a little sceptical that you've only used a cord and a half so far. Sorry - the engineer in me took over - 😀
Hello, thank you for the comment. I definitely do not recommend a boiler for that small space as it would not be worth the money. Unless you plan to have other buildings in the future, I don’t think you would recover the money. Also my wife loading it was just for demonstration. The final number last year for us was 4.5 full bush cords. This year again very mild winter so far we have barely used any wood at all. Today is 10 degrees Celsius. The boiler barely runs at all. I hope this helps.
I have had a wood boiler for 21 years and love it I’ve saved over 60 thousand dollars and when I hear on the news that oil is going up again, it does not bother me. If you cut the wood into smaller pieces, then the wife can load it too 😅 take care.🇨🇦👍🚜
That is amazing. That is a lot of money to save. Are you still using the original unit after that long?
@@timberstoneranch yes we are and it is called central boiler . I believe it is made in Minnesota. Our only costs per winter are about 30 dollars for hydro and about 50 dollars every second winter for a jug of rust inhibitors
That is amazing. That is true independence right there. You have to love it.
My family has sold outdoor boilers for more than 20yrs, and the bottom line is, it depends on the furnace/boiler you buy.. (the gasification ones are incredibly fickle, the wood has to be extraordinary dry and you can only use certain species.. 15-20% moisture is typically unattainable by outdoor storage, so unless you wish to build and heat a building to hold your firewood it's not a good idea) the shape of the firebox is another point to consider; is the grate far below the door opening or very close to it? The ones where the grate is close to level with the door opening are hard to keep burning, the fire tends to burn through channels in between the logs and go out before all of the fuel wood is consumed.. you want a firebox that is narrow and tall with a good foot or more of area below the level of the door bottom, and V-shaped sides to funnel the wood towards the grate. Also, the open systems typically need rebuilt every 10-25yrs.. pressurized boilers last several times longer and have a much higher thermal efficiency.
We bought this boiler because it is really the only manufacturer to at could supply and service out area. Not much choice. We typically use mostly ash and are able to get it nice and dry buy just keeping the top protected from rain. The shape of the firebox is narrow and tall which is nice and the grate below is a good distance under the door. We have had no issues so far with keeping the fire. As long as the blower holes are exposed, everything is good. Happy with it so far and if it last 20 plus years, I would be extremely happy with such results.
@@timberstoneranch sounds good, used to carry heat master and wood master years ago but it looks like they've went to a different design with yours, the old ones were good, if the new ones are improved then I'm sure you'll be very happy.
The new Central Boiler Classic Edge units can burn extremely wet wood. I load Basswood in that weighs as much as oak and sprays water out onto the splitter often and it burns it just fine. The early gasifiers were very picky though that’s correct.
How much do you burn per winter and how much space do you heat? Thank you.
@@timberstoneranch well I personally heat my own home which is very poorly insulated 1200sq/ft farmhouse with 1st 2 floors heated 9' ceilings that has a basement and attic as well that doesn't factor in to the sq/ft calculation I just did and I keep it pretty warm during winter (75-77f ) and I burn 10-13 cord per winter.. depending how cold it is. But that's wood like pitch pine and soft maple and all of the reject wood that doesn't get sold if you see what I mean.
I also do wood for my step-dad and another old man who both use outdoor stoves and 1 old woman who has an indoor one.. I do primarily wood cutting all spring/summer/fall but I know a lot about outdoor stoves because of the fact I helped design and fabricate a pressurized outdoor boiler for my step-dad and other things along the way as he's sold/installed different brands for the last 25yr or so and I always helped
I've been watching another You-tuber in Michigan - he estimates he will burn 20+ full cords of wood vs. your 3-4 cords. HUGE difference. I don't know if his is a gasifier burner. He loads with 10" x 2'-3' logs which for him means loading once a day and I think his boiler unit is considerably larger.
Hello, so we are using 3 to 4 bush cords which is 12 to 16 face cords. A lot of people get these references mixed up. I believe he may be referring to face cords. There is no way anyone is using 30 bush cords of wood a season even with an old boiler that is not as efficient. These gasifier units used about half or less than half of the old school ones. Also a larger unit will for sure use more depending or how much space he is heating. We are only heating 3000 square feet right now, if he is heating 10,000 or more, it may be a different story. Also highly depends on how the space is insulated, we have a brand new home that is insulated to the most up to date building codes so that will also make a big difference. I hope this helps.
@@timberstoneranch I considered the difference between face cords and bush cords. But given the volume of wood he had, I am inclined to believe he was referring to a full 4'x4'x8' cord. But even if it were 20+ face cords vs 12-16 face cords that is still an incredibly large difference even though his boiler is only 2 seasons old. He is heating 2 residential buildings and a large workshop on an circuit (10,000 ft²?); the boiler is also not a gasifier.
Edit: he burned 20 cord not 30 cord last year; my mistake.
That is a big difference. I am honestly not sure how this works, but I know that when we were shopping around, headmaster has regular non gasifier units for half the price of this one but they were clear to me that it would used up least twice as much wood. We elected to go with the gasifier for this reason. If you don’t mind, please provide me with the persons channel, I would love to check it out.
Thank you for sharing your story. Here's mine. I bought a house two years ago equiped with a 2008 Heat Master model. The house with the two garages total 7000 square feet to heat. As this is not a model with a gasification feature, the first year, I burned 28 cords. Former owner told me he was burning 30 to 35 cords. With all this wood burned, the second floor of the house remain cold so we also need to heat with an electric furnace. When it is very cold (-30 celcius) I must feed wood 4 times a day including the last feed before midnight, brrr. With the climatic changes, the headeache comes when the weather is mild, around the freezing point. There is no point to use this monster when the temperature is over the freezing point so I have to alternate from one heating unit to another.
Other minus points for me is that seasoned wood is hard to get. Wood price is going up, delivery price is going up.
There is no company making the maintenance in my region anymore so I am alone to fix the problems.
The Heat Master model I have is very hard to impossible to clean as the path to the chimney got a zigzag patern. Creosote stack there and even with a full day working at it, the path remain partially clogged. So, after 15 years, this Heat Master unit got one feet in the coffin. The main reason that push me to keep it concern the increasing power outages we face with the climatic changes.
Thank you kindly for sharing your story and experience. What will you use to heat all that space if getting rid of the boiler? Have you considered a new more efficient one? Here we process our own wood, but even if we bought hard wood that is well seasoned, it goes for about $350 dollars per bush cord. Also when the temps are about freezing, the boiler still works well and we only need to load it once a day with a wheelbarrow worth of wood.
@@timberstoneranch Our house is already equiped with two heat pumps linked to two furnaces. Also, there is an electric furnace that use the same water lines than the boiler. I just had to figure myself how the valves worked because one system is open and the other is closed. I burned the electric furnace pump because the water entry valve was closed.
One remaining problem is that the detached garage have no other heating system and it must be heated because the main water entry is located there. On the "to do" list.
Is a bush cord the same thing than a cord ? Here I paid 100CAD per delivered cord the first year but this year I paid almost 150CAD.
And yes, I have considered a new heat unit. Who will install it ?
A bush cord is the equivalent of 3 cords(also known as a face cord) which is 4x8 feet single row. Also looks like you got it all figured out which is good. Lastly, I know it is difficult to get someone to install these boilers. We did a lot of the installation ourselves including the pad, digging, coring through the house, etc. we had to hire a plumber to hook up to the heat exchanger I the furnace.
28 Cords? I would check your heat exchanger and also I would love to know what they used for underground lines. Those are probably compromised if they used the cheap stuff or home made. My Dad uses about 10 cord on 5k sq ft with a conventional unit and I used about 5-6 heating 2200sq. 28 cords sounds like there is an issue with losing heat.
@@justinfloyd9936 The ex owner had the lines done. He did put the whole lines with a cheap material but the installer refused to use them and installed a second set of appropriate lines. So, I think that, at least, this is good.
First year, I used 28 cords, facing a very cold Quebec winter. Last two years I burned around 20 cords but also used around 700 pounds of anthracite coal.
The idea of independence from the utility type companies is a great idea but any wood burning apparatus will require more labour than most want to give.
If you want to be independent, you will need to put in the labour, but you are right to a certain extent, especially depending on the persons physical capabilities. Honestly even if you can’t process the wood, buying it will still same a lot of money over paying for propane.
I think that those people that don’t want to put in the labour and time will never truly be independent.
@@timberstoneranchpelette boiler is a good option. Less hussle i think
I have looked at some of the pellet European ones. They are quite slick and very efficient too.
Good informative video though I'm not a farmer or even American. But 4:57 is it OK to load firewood in this manner? I think your wife is doing it wrong in the video. She put the firewood in a pile, as they do on the ground in the form of a hearth. But this is a boiler, moreover, one that produces gas from wood (I have one too, but smaller). Also, I put firewood in such a way that on the first tiers, they are crossed and there is a little air between them, and above I put them so densely that they are only in one direction, parallel to each other. It also increases each load of firewood and makes it impossible for firewood to hang if they are lying on top of each other in such a mess and wedge each other. No fan will be able to blow them so that they will burn if they hang high above the flames below.
We honestly have not had any issues. Please take a look at our other video about how we load it on more detail and how we have tested different ways. Let us know what you think. Thank you.
did you also look into wood chip heaters?
Where i live many farmers rent or own the machines to process wood into chips and run their self feeding wood chip heaters.
Unfortunately no I did not look into them before we bought this outdoor wood boiler. I never knew such a thing even existed as all the farms around here only use propane. Looking into them now as well as some of the European systems, they seem really interesting and efficient but I don’t know much about them.
60 granf for a wood chip boiler would take a long tim for a ROI@@timberstoneranch
Are you using it for radiant heat or a water coil over forced air?
Water coil over forced air as we have a regular propane furnace we use as backup. Putting in the boiler was an afterthought once we had built out house so this is really the only choice we had. The propane cost was crazy. If I could do it over again, I would have put radiant heat at least in the basement floors.
This is an interesting concept.
It’s really worth it!
We're also in Central Ontario. Do you cut your pieces to greater lengths than 16" ever? Depending on your model, sometimes HeatMaster recommends bigger pieces, albeit as long as their seasoned. Did you ever think about housing the boiler in a shed or a lean-to? Thanks for your videos!
We do often cut to 18 or even 20 inches and still have room for the firebox to breathe. Also the wood is always well seasoned for these gasification units to run efficiently. It’s funny how great minds think alike, we are actually in the process of building a lean to around the boiler, along with a large lean to in order to store the wood beside the boiler. We will be releasing a video on that too when finished. Glad you enjoyed the videos!
Amazing it turns it into gas and the other commenters pressurization boiler is interesting too.
OBSERVATION i bought a boiler, not expecting to now having to build another house on top of it for shelter and wood storage
I think a shelter is not necessary but it’s nice to have, especially for the wood. We are in the process of building a shelter around the boiler and a lean to adjacent to store the wood. We will release when finished.
Why aren't you insulating the boiler by putting it in a shed or even shelter it with a wind break? You are giving up a lot of BTUs
That is a great idea that we are currently working on building. We are also building a nice lean to beside the boiler shed to store all the wood. Video coming when the project is built.
@@timberstoneranch very cool. Your feeling on the wood boiler will change once you get your winter wood supply and your boiler under one roof. A friend of mine has his boiler in a barn where his animals winter the boiler is on one end and has chain link separating it from the animals. It never gets below 60F in there even on -20 degree nights. The cows and goats love it. He even keeps raising chickens over the winter. Good luck
@@tvviewer4500boiler is the barn sounds like an amazing set up. It could probably even do well in a green house if you had a large enough one to grow anything you want since it would not freeze.
That sounds like an excellent idea, both to prevent heat loss and keep the animals warm.
@@tvviewer4500that is a really good idea!
👍👍👍
Thank you!
But you pretty much have to cut your own wood to make it pay which makes it a non starter for me. Chain saw, splitter, tractor and maintenance on all that plus time and labor is very significant.
You make a good point but if you live in a rural property you already have a tractor and chainsaw like any man should. Splitter yes is an extra and should be added to the cost. Also yes if included my labour it would be a different story but doing firewood is a labour of love and relaxing, definitely not for everyone.
Oh Lordy! I hope those coals were cold at 5:57 when shoveling them into a plastic tote.
They were cold haha. I try to do a good clean out every time we get some good weather and I am able to shut the furnace off for a day or two.
You didn't mention about constant smell of smoke. If there is no wind for a day or two it is really annoying and unhealthy.
The smoke is present yes but i would say it is very minimal. These gasifiers are not big smoke producers as they use very dry wood and actually bake the wood to use the gas for heat rather then burn wet wood like you would in a conventional unit. Also it is advisable to install it at least 50ft away from the house to avoid any issues.
What State are you living in?
We are in Ontario Canada. Similar weather to Michigan.
Wow 25k buys a lot of propane, and as for ROI break even you are talking 10 years at best if nothing goes wrong. Also, not every building benefits from the lack of mess of an outdoor wood burner. The more I research these things the more I think a propane boiler with radian floor heating is the better option and I can heat my extra buildings with a wood burning stove. Thanks for the video.
They are expensive to begin with and they do come with really good warranty from different manufacturers, however they are definitely not good for everyone and every situation. Our propane bill was just under $6,000 a year to heat everything so this is working out for us so far. It also depends on propane price in different geographic locations. The rate in our area is over a dollar per litre once you include the carbon and other taxes. It would equal out to around $4/gallon in US.
@ironsales5669 •
Yeah , but he said that he heats
MULTIPLE buildings with it , not just his house , and can also heat the swimming pool water which gives you a extra month of swimming in the spring and a extra month in the Fall ,
Propane doesn't do that !
I have a inside Wood Furnace 150,000BTU and my heating bill is around $75 dollars .
Not a month !
But for the entire Winter !
or around $7 to $10 per month
That is awesome. That is what you call real independence. Love it.
You were spending 1000$ a month on propane? No way.
Yes we were paying over a dollar a litre as we did not have a locked in contract. All our other appliances are propane too. Plus add the bs carbon tax and sales tax it was ridiculous. We still spend about 150 a month now that we have the boiler just to run everything else. Our boiler could not be hooked up to our hot water as its tankless.
imagine waking up at night in -28 just to reheat your house.
Typically we just load it once a day in the morning but on really cold days, we load at 6 or 7pm. That does the job for the night.
@@timberstoneranch I just dont see the savings from the insurance worth the amount of extra work from retrofitting all the plumbing lines. You guys have radiant heating, I presume? If it were a brand new construction, maybe worth it.
We are are forced air. We use propane and backup. The boiler is connected to a heat exchanger I’m the furnace. It works to create heat similar to how the air conditioner unit has a coil in the furnace.
Air to water heat pump with off peak rates
That works well from what I understand but I’m not familiar with heat pumps.
Rich city people playing pioneers .
Low IQ take
I wish.
Rich city people use propane.......regular people who love living in the country figure out how to save money with a little sweat and hard work......Rich city people go to the gym, our properties ARE our gym.
Who needs a gym when you are out there slugging around the farm 12 hours a day. Not me. Haha.
I guess it kind of depends on where you live, but I can't believe people still burn wood. I switched from wood to burning anthracite coal about 5 years ago. It is a way better option
It all depends where you live. We don’t have such a thing available here is communist Canada.
@@timberstoneranch o harsh. Yeah wood is the way to go then
Owww. Communist Canada.
Hmmm, coal doesn't grow on trees where I'm from .
@@lokirussell5891 me neither I am about 400 miles from it. But it's still a better option for me.