wood add on furnace

[squib]

we want to install a epa approved wood burning addon indoor hot air furnace to the existing duct work, but i do not know where to get the listings.

can someone tell l me where to look.?

thanks, herman

 

[laynes69]

We heat with a Caddy woodfurnace thats EPA Certified. As of right now its the only furnace thats certified with the EPA that I know of. There are others on the market that aren't certified yet, but are very efficient. Those include the Blaze King Apex, the Kuuma Vapor Fire furnace, and the Energy King 385EK. Here is a link for the furnace we use.

http://www.psg-distribution.com/product.aspx?CategoId=15&Id=325&Page=description

Whats the square footage you are going to heat? With any EPA certified unit its important to have the correct size chimney and well seasoned wood for them to operate properly.

 

[squib]

total 2700 sq. ft. chimney is good. we are considering buying a farm with all the wood i`ll ever need & yes dry wood is the key.

what are you heating & what do think of your furnace overall.? i see you have a us stove , story on it. ? were not to far away from you were in guernsey county, ohio

herman

 

[FyreBug]

Hi Herman, before you look at any furnace you should first determine a few things. If you can afford it do a heat loss test on the house. It will tell you much about if the house is reasonably air tight or if you will need to add insulation. Then you need to look at other factors, what is your average temp in the winter? What is your sun/wind exposure? Do you have cathedral or high ceilings? How many windows. Basically you are trying to determine 2 things: how well can your house hold the heat and based on this how much furnace do you need?

Also a good indicator is what is the current furnace BTU rating? Was is sufficient?

Finally, when you look at wood furnaces dont just look at "input BTU" this basically tells you the caloric (BTU) value of the wood you put in unburned. So if your furnace is 75% efficient, and you put 100,000 BTU worth of wood your 'real' output BTU will be about 75,000 BTU on high-burn.

Since no one stokes a furnace and keeps it on high-burn all the time and that wood is not like gas or oil (instant heat), Some vendors will list 'average BTU" which is a more useful value. Typically this value is about 2/3rd of output BTU. You should try to match your current furnace BTU it it was sufficient with the prospective wood furnace 'average output BTU'.

These are rule of thumbs of course and every installations might be different but at least it gives you a starting point.