New guy needs help with forced air furnace decision

Welcome. I assume with central heat and ac that you have a forced air system. Since your concern is using the system in a power outage, what is your plan for running the furnace blower and other systems depending on electricity for your heat. Tackle that problem first. I have no opinion on the Yukon. I am a strong proponent of wood gasification using a Tarm or similar system.

There are limitations to running a wood furnace with no electricity. Most furnaces state to run with a low air setting and a smaller charge if this happened. As far as 9-12 hour burns, how well is the home insulated, built? The biggest variable with burn times will be the call for heat, the greater the need, the shorter the burn. Also to achieve these long burns on a unit that's not EPA certified will allow for a greater risk for creosote to form. Also take note of duct clearances and flue requirements.

We heat with a 1950 hotblast (Caddy) which is EPA certified. The combustion system is more complex, but theres no moving parts just like a standard wood furnace. The firebox is fully lined in firebrick which promotes combustion, and the secondary burning system is made of stainless steel. Unlike a standard steel baffle in a furnace, the baffle of a caddy is made of c-cast. It's a lightweight durable material that can withstand 3000 degrees, it won't warp or crack. So quality is much higher. Once our furnace is loaded and up to temperature, when the damper closes the secondary system takes over and we get a clean burn. We also have a secondary heat exchanger to extract more btus. You would pay more, but theres many advantages.

In order for a system to operate off of gravity, the ductwork must be setup for it. If there's restriction or bends then it may not work. We get long burns, but it's based off of the heat load. Currently with lows in the mid 20's to 30's we still aren't loading full loads. Our firebox is only 3.5 cu ft. but it's a nice size for a EPA unit.

How well is the home insulated, do you know the heat loss? This will help you find something thats sized correctly. The only thing finicky about a EPA unit is they require seasoned wood. But also any unit whether certified or not should burn well seasoned wood.

We see between 8-10 hours sometimes more. It depends on the weather and load size. We rarely load a full low each time, someone is always home. Our old furnace had a 6.5 cu ft firebox that would be cold at 8 hours. We had to burn hot to have it burn clean. I could pull off a 10 hour load but it would produce alot of creosote. There is a solar site that has a heat loss calculator. I've used it and based off our furnace ratings, the calculator seemed close.

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/HeatLoss/HeatLoss.htm

I really lucked out and bought old stock on our furnace. I got everything for 2000. After the tax credit and store credit I paid around
1200. Our chimney liner was 500. I did the install. I think the furnaces with blower are around 2800, but not sure. Frank on here is a dealer, maybe he can give you a better idea.

I had a yukon superjack (I moved and sold the house a year ago). I believe the superjack has some sort of secondary burn, I think it's way inefficient, you will burn a lot of wood. On the flip side, unless you just fill it with water and let it rust, it will probably last longer than you. Mine saved me a lot of money on propane, I was heating over 4000 sq ft from an un-insulated garage (lost a lot of heat to the garage). I backed up the electricity with a gas generator, but I had to be home to run that. It will run without electricity, just open the door air control wheel, it will have a fairly good fire (maybe even the secondary burn). If the furnace was in the house, and if you took off the side panels during a power outage you could probably keep the pipes from freezing (depends on where the furnace is, where the pipes are, how big the house is ......).

If I was in your shoes with the experience I have now, and if I was totally stuck on wood heat, I'd buy the usstove with the real secondary burn and buy a generator and have it ready to feed my fridge and furnace.

On the other hand,what I really decided is no more wood cutting for me, I bought a small house with a gas fireplace, glad to be rid of the time-robbing wood heat.

mike, now that you're done with time robbing wood heat, I'll gladly take these space robbing hunks of metal off your hands: Makita DCS6401 20" bar / Stihl MS 290, 20†bar (muffler mod 08) / Stihl 270, 20†bar (muffler mod 09) / Kubota RTV 500 - the used to be fun way to gather firewood / Swisher 22 ton log splitter.

Sorry, sold them all last year, for about the same $ I bought them for. I guess I need to change my profile.
I guess time robbing could sound a little insulting, sorry if I insulted anyone, it was just time robbing for me.

mike, actually it brought me a bit of a chuckle. I see nothing but trees out of our house window in north central MN, and I would be a few chain cutters short if I didn't take advantage of the wealth of free energy surrounding our home, except of course for the time, danger, and general wear and tear on an ever-aging body. Cheers, watching the Vikings football and wondering why. But also just cleaned the 7mm STW which downed a very nice buck last week. Freezer is full.

Hey mike, I wondered where you were at. Hadn't seen any posts in a while. It's easy to feel that way when your feeding alot of wood into a unit. Since we upgraded the furnace and insulation theres alot less stress. It's much easier to get ahead. Just like you had, we have a decent sized older home. If I want to burn wood then it just takes time. We purchased most of our wood this year, but I will still go out on our property and cut. All that matters is your happy. Now there's more time for other things.

i bought a used big jack last fall for a cheap price, i have a ~2000 sq ft victorian era home (1873) with lots of leaks in ohio. I hooked it up in parallel with 90% ef gas furnace. has its own dedicated cold air return (8x16)with a dedicated reused old furnace blower in the cold air return hooked to side pannel, and a 8x16 plenum into the furnace plenum. It is roughly 8 feet from furnace due limitations to chimney. it has a barometric damper but isnt tuned up yet.

couple weeks ago it was 19 out and it would keep the house 68, but would eat the wood. with secondary induction blower going. With the induction blower off, and just natural it will burn 8hrs and able to reload in morning no problem.. (i am new to it and still learning but i think 8hrs is about max to just toss in wood relight with big jack) Over all for the price it was great buy for me and it will work good. I dont think it is the most efficient by any means. At my last house i had a epa wood stove which used much less wood. But this house is larger and older with less insulation. Im in the process of insulating the whole house.. the attic is now at r60 cellulose. If you have the budget i would get a caddy, if not the big jack is a good stove and will keep you warm just might use more wood doing it.