Southern OWB users- wood hog or not.

[Ozark Woodburner]

I just don't get it. Half of the folks around here say thier OWB are wood hogs and they waste a lot of wood and heat, they have to load several 3 to 5 times a day, many using 20+ cord a winter which is ridiculous for our climate. The other half say they don't use an excess of wood and are efficient and only twice a day and come home to a fully warm home.

The OWBs are all basically the same, I don't know of one person using any kind of storage. So what is it?

BTW, most of the homes in question are 1500-2500 sq ft. homes, fairly well insulated 10-25 year old homes.

How much do you use and what about burn times?

 

[Kawliga]

Hey

I dont live in the south, eastern Ontario, Ottawa Valley...its cold here, steady -20 to -25 celcius...I heat 3200 sq ft house, 900 sq ft shop, (all in floor radiant). I also have an HX for my DHW. All of this is run off my Central boiler 6048. I have a 90k/heat loss, casue of lots of windows...so a pretty high load...also exposed to North winds. I feed at most twice daily, with a mix of seasoned and wet hardwoods + a bunch of punky stuff from cleaning up the property. when it gets to 0 or just below 0 c., i will load once a day...yeah it eats a fair bit of wood, but the burn times are nice and long...I anticipate about 9 full cord of wood for this winter.

M

 

[Floydian]

I just don't get it. Half of the folks around here say thier OWB are wood hogs and they waste a lot of wood and heat, they have to load several 3 to 5 times a day, many using 20+ cord a winter which is ridiculous for our climate. The other half say they don't use an excess of wood and are efficient and only twice a day and come home to a fully warm home.

Probably has a lot to do with using green/wet wood vs dry seasoned wood. Most people with OWBs in my area just pile their wood next to their boilers and leave it unsplit and uncovered. Craziness IMO, but I'm sure that green/wet wood gives nice long "burn" times.

Noah

 

[benjamin]

There's a lot of places to lose heat with an OWB, unburned carbon up the chimney, excess air up the chimney, heat loss off of the boiler, heat loss to the ground from the barely insulated pipes, high temp needed for air coils... You can see how much efficiency they sacrifice for convenience, but 20 cords

I've burned almost two, and the passive solar shoud take over in a couple of weeks.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

I just don't get it. Half of the folks around here say thier OWB are wood hogs and they waste a lot of wood and heat, they have to load several 3 to 5 times a day, many using 20+ cord a winter which is ridiculous for our climate. The other half say they don't use an excess of wood and are efficient and only twice a day and come home to a fully warm home.

The OWBs are all basically the same, I don't know of one person using any kind of storage. So what is it?

BTW, most of the homes in question are 1500-2500 sq ft. homes, fairly well insulated 10-25 year old homes.

How much do you use and what about burn times?

If you do the math on the size of the firebox. I am willing to bet that the those people that say they are only filling twice a day are burning 20 cord. I think what you may be hearing is the difference in people, one group is happy or at least say they are with being a slave to their OWB. The other group is not happy with being a slave to a piece equipment no matter what label is on it. BTW I agree 20 cord in your area is unreal, then again we do have a member from Alaska who has posted about burning 50+cord per year in his OWB. He came here looking for a solution to being that slave. Maybe you should ask them (OWB owners in your area) if they would be willing to look at a wood burner that used 50% or less wood than they use now, while doing the same job of heating & would produce far less pollution. Plenty of members here than can help them with that search. If they have had enough time as a slave that is, not all have.

 

[jimbom]

There's a lot of places to lose heat with an OWB, unburned carbon up the chimney, excess air up the chimney, heat loss off of the boiler, heat loss to the ground from the barely insulated pipes, high temp needed for air coils... You can see how much efficiency they sacrifice for convenience, but 20 cords

I've burned almost two, and the passive solar shoud take over in a couple of weeks.

Benjamin has the answer. I live on the Missouri side of the border and OWB is popular. Many are just poor installations. A lot of full size logs just cut to length on the piles next to those things around here. People don't know how to run them efficiently.

Most rural areas in our neck of the woods do not have broadband. If they are on the net, it is a dial-up connection. Hard to go online and learn from the nice people willing to share information. I am glad we have DSL. The telephone company keeps working to extend their outside plant, but technology just runs right away from them and the demand keeps rising. The last party line was taken out of service about ten years ago.

A lot of the phone company guys are my age. We think fiber is what the doctor is always going on about. Copper pairs baby. That is where it is at.

 

[Ozark Woodburner]

Yeah and the guy that comes to mind using over 20 full cord per year has a wood shed (roof only), cuts all year, splits and stacks everything and doesn't use it at all in the summer. He is heating an old house but I just don't see how its even possible, thats a lot of wood. Most stove users burn 3 to 5 cord.

 

[goosegunner]

Ever see the size of the fire box on a CB 6048 or a Heatmor 400?

Fill one of those 1 to 2 times a day and you are going to burn 15 to 20 cords easy. Unless you only count Dec and Jan as the heating season.

I think some people count there cords in 8' rows and don't factor in log length. Remember a face cord is only 16" pieces 4'X8'. Its easy with any OWB to say its a face cord but the pieces might be 24" to 30" long. I can't imagine how many 16" long pieces it would take to fill a big OWB.

gg

 

[forestraven]

I think we believe what we want to but that doesn't mean that its right. I heated with a Classic OWB for the last eighteen years and it was with real regret this January when it sprung a fatal leak. The size of the fire box was huge but the amount of wood that I used was from three to five 22 inch silver birch logs twice, or if it was really cold three times a day. I live in Northwestern Ontario where we get into the low -30 c or colder in January and February. In a really cold winter I will go through ten cords, but most years it is closer to eight. I have a 3000 sq ft house and a small green house that goes on line usually by the middle of March. I am looking at replacing the old Classic with a gassifier stove. I am just starting my research and would be interested in getting feed back about your experience with other brands of stoves. I am currently leaning towards the CB eclassic 2400. Wood that has cured for at least one year, and good insulation and a tight vapor barrier are essential to if you are heating with wood, in my opinion. I am a newbe to the forum and have found that it contains a lot of very useful advice and information.

 

[Duetech]

I just don't get it. Half of the folks around here say thier OWB are wood hogs and they waste a lot of wood and heat, they have to load several 3 to 5 times a day, many using 20+ cord a winter which is ridiculous for our climate. The other half say they don't use an excess of wood and are efficient and only twice a day and come home to a fully warm home.

The OWBs are all basically the same, I don't know of one person using any kind of storage. So what is it?

BTW, most of the homes in question are 1500-2500 sq ft. homes, fairly well insulated 10-25 year old homes.

How much do you use and what about burn times?

I have what was listed as a ceramic style OWB. If I load to the top I get about 16 hours (1700 sq ft home and dhw sidearm). If I load just over half I can get around 14 hours. Lowering my circulation gpm extends my burn time though and I don't have the actual times down yet but like I said the times have been extended. The better variations you are hearing with people with "like systems" are probably from people who have taken the time to experiment and find what works best (dry wood vs wet, hardwood vs soft, btu properties of their wood etc) and not just assume that "this is what it's supposed to do". Handling wood equates to labor whether you like it or not. Make a list of all you know with OWBs then you need to get close to those that are getting the best results and "pick their brains" for their reasons of success. Then if you have the time perhaps you could do a comparison analysis of those less successful.

 

[hokiefan]

I HAVE A " HOMEMADE" OWB VERY SIMILAR TO THE CENTRAL BOILERS. I HAVE NO STORAGE AND HEAT THE FIRST FLOOR OF A 6 YEAR OLD HOUSE THAT IS AROUND 1900 SQFT. THIS IS THE FIRST YEAR OF USE.. I HAVE USED AROUND THREE CORDS SO FAR OF DRY WOOD SPLIT STACKED SOME PINE SOME OAK SOME GUM. LOAD TWICE A DAY, BEORE WORK AND IN THE EVENING, HAVE BEEN AVERAGING 12 HOURS BETWEEN LOADS WITH NO PROBLEMS. MY WIFE KEEPS TSTAT ON 74 DEGREES. WE HAVE HAD PLENTY OF CLOD WEATHER SO FAR, I LIVE IN SOUTHEAST VA ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF FROM VA BEACH.
I HAVE A GAS PACK WITCH WAS PRIMARY HEAT BEFORE USING WOOD. DURING THE WINTER MONTHS NOV THRU MARCH I AVERAGED AROUND 100 GALLONS OF PROPANE A MONTH. SO FAR I HAVE USED ABOUT 70, ONLY FOR HOTWATER AND COOKING THE ENTIRE WINTER!
i AM SURE THERE ARE MORE EFFICENT BOILERS OUT THERE AND I HAVE LEARNED A LOT ON THIS SITE OVER THE PAST 2 YEARS BUT I HAVE AROUND A THOUSAND DOLLARS IN MY SETUP AND IT WORKS WELL!
I PLAN TO PUT IN LINES AND A HEAT EXCHANGER IN MY UPSTAIRS UNIT SO I CAN HEAT THE ENTIRE HOUSE ( CURRENTLY USE HEAT PUMP ON SECOND FLOOR).
I REALIZE THAT OUR WINTERS HERE ARE NOT AS COLD AS OUR NOTHERN FRIENDS BUT WE HAVE HAD ONLY TWO DAYS WHERE IT WAS OVER 50 DEGREES SINCE THE FIRST OF DECEMBER.
IF I CAN USE AROUND 6 OR 7 CORDS I FEEL LIKE I WILL HAVE DONE PRETTY GOOD.

 

[pulse]

I heat with a hawken 1000 owb, my underground pipe is logstor. I live in SW lower Michigan, my house is 2800 sq ft (kept at 73* when we are here, 69 when we are not), I heat my dhw and my 600 ft garage ( but only to 50*). My house is insulated quite well and has good windows. My heating season goes from October thru April. I am 3 years ahead on wood so I am fortunate to burn only well seasoned wood. Last year I burnt 8 full cord, but March and April were warm. This year I am on track to burn 10. I used 2 cord per month in both Dec and Jan.

As far as filling the stove, it is never filled to advertsed capacity. The firebox is round. There is always a coal/ash bed that takes up the bottom 15-20%. I cut my wood 24"-30" long and varies from 6" to 12" in diameter so there are always air gaps both between the logs, and in front or behind them. The firebox in my boiler has 4 large tubes that run perpindicular across the top of the firebox to add heat exchange area. This takes up the top 15-20% of space. So if you add the top to the bottom to the air gaps and space left in front or behind logs when I "fill" my boiler it is propably 50%-60% of the total advertised space.

Typically if hi and low temps are 30 and above I "fill" once in 24 hours.
If lows are in the teens and hi's in the 20's I "fill" 1.5 times in 24 hours.
If we go below zero and hi's don't get above the teens I "fill" twice in 24hours.

With the seasoned wood I don't see smoke during a burn cycle. During the off cycle the is vapor/white smoke coming off the stack. In contrast there are several owb's within 2 mile radius of me. I watch alot of these guys cut their wood in the fall, pile it next to their boiler, then burn it in the winter. As I drive by you can see the blue smoke and smell it in your car. It is too bad we (owb owners) all get lumped into the same group.