I recently joined the site, but I've been reading the forum for a while. With oil prices getting out of control I'm looking to heat with wood. My wife is strictly against adding a wood or pellet stove inside the house, so I need something outdoors. My home was built in 2005, its a 2025 sq ft colonial. We have hydro air (2 zones) and a very efficient oil furnance around 87% and and my wife likes to keep the heat low for some reason, so we use approximately 800-850 gallons of oil a year. With our second baby here, I expect the oil usage to go up to 850-900 gallons of oil year. When we built our house, oil was around $2.00 a gallon so it wasn't that big of deal. Well this year we locked in at $3.99 a gallon. I don't see it getting any cheaper, only more expensive so this is why I'm considering a OWB. At the current trend, I'll be paying $5 dollars a gallon in 3 years which is crazy.
I live in a very wooded area so alot of the wood I could get would be free, however initially I would probably buy the wood until I get set up (wood shed and splitter). Right now whatever I cut up, I give away. I do plan to use my oil furnance to heat the water in the warmer months, so I would basically heat my house and water from Nov through April with the wood boiler. I figure 5-6 cords of seasoned wood per year would be a good estimate.
In MA, the current owb are legal for sale:
Central boiler E classic 1400,2300,2400,3200
Garn 1500 (indoor boiler certified for outdoors)
Portage and Main Optimizier 250
Heatmore 2000 SSR II
Emprye Pro 200 and 400
Wood doctor HE8000
I don't have room for the Garn in my basement and I don't want to build another shed for the boiler so I pretty much eliminated that one. I'm leaning towards the Eclassic 1400. The dealer told me that I may need to step up to the 2400 if I decide to heat my 24x24 garage which i plan to insulate in the near future. The Portage and main boiler and Emprye pro 200 are also both boilers I'm considering as well, but I have no idea how much they cost. I really don't know to much about the wood doctor or heatmore boilers. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I live in a very wooded area so alot of the wood I could get would be free, however initially I would probably buy the wood until I get set up (wood shed and splitter). Right now whatever I cut up, I give away. I do plan to use my oil furnance to heat the water in the warmer months, so I would basically heat my house and water from Nov through April with the wood boiler. I figure 5-6 cords of seasoned wood per year would be a good estimate.
In MA, the current owb are legal for sale:
Central boiler E classic 1400,2300,2400,3200
Garn 1500 (indoor boiler certified for outdoors)
Portage and Main Optimizier 250
Heatmore 2000 SSR II
Emprye Pro 200 and 400
Wood doctor HE8000
I don't have room for the Garn in my basement and I don't want to build another shed for the boiler so I pretty much eliminated that one. I'm leaning towards the Eclassic 1400. The dealer told me that I may need to step up to the 2400 if I decide to heat my 24x24 garage which i plan to insulate in the near future. The Portage and main boiler and Emprye pro 200 are also both boilers I'm considering as well, but I have no idea how much they cost. I really don't know to much about the wood doctor or heatmore boilers. Any thoughts would be appreciated.