Wood consumption with a wood furnace.

[blakesavage20]

Hey all, I am currently in the market for a new wood burning device, and am trying to cover all areas before making a decision.

My questions is approximately how many chords of wood will I go through in an average Illinois winter while using a lower model wood burning furnace like a Firecheif or a Norseman? I plan on using it as suplemental heat, burning anywhere from 12-24 hours a day. I know there are a lot of different factors that go into this, but lets say I have good dry hard wood, and a well insulated house.

I guees I am asking this question because I have heard that the wood burning furnaces are not as efficient as a wood burning insert, and I will use more wood then a more efficient wood burning insert. Approximations will work fine here, and I really appreciate your help and suggestions.

 

[lexybird]

in your case i would guess 7-8 full chords of split seasoned hardwood for the furnaces mentioned ,sure a wood insert is going to be more efficient in terms of wood use per charge it will likely have secondary burn tubes and other modern features but it has a limitation ,it wont have a giant firebox blower/ airjacket system (ability to burn coal )and the ability to push out massive amounts of dry hot air into your duct work heating a large home thats several thousand square feet on the coldest of days

 

[Gooserider]

Hey all, I am currently in the market for a new wood burning device, and am trying to cover all areas before making a decision.

My questions is approximately how many chords of wood will I go through in an average Illinois winter while using a lower model wood burning furnace like a Firecheif or a Norseman? I plan on using it as suplemental heat, burning anywhere from 12-24 hours a day. I know there are a lot of different factors that go into this, but lets say I have good dry hard wood, and a well insulated house.

I guees I am asking this question because I have heard that the wood burning furnaces are not as efficient as a wood burning insert, and I will use more wood then a more efficient wood burning insert. Approximations will work fine here, and I really appreciate your help and suggestions.

I suspect that the reason why a furnace is accused of being less efficient is that it's an apples - oranges comparison... Inserts are space heaters, that are basically intended to just heat the room they are in and maybe the few rooms immediately adjacent... A furnace is a "whole house" heater that does the entire house. Since the insert is heating less area, it will probably do so on less wood, but if one was to compare them on the basis of BTU's out / amount of wood in, or possibly Sq Ft heated (by how much?) / amount of wood they would probably be pretty close...

Next question is how does this fit in with your house and lifestyle... If your house is small enough that an insert gets all the major parts of it, or your activities are centered around the insert heated rooms, to the point where you don't mind that the rest of the house is colder, then the insert will probably keep you happy on less wood. OTOH, if you use the whole house, and find it annoying that the insert only warms part of it, then the more even heat distribution of the furnace would keep you happier - though you might burn more wood doing so....

Of course if you want to do the ultimate in getting the most heat out of every stick of wood, look at tossing the entire hot air idea, and go with a gasification boiler and in-floor radiant heat, or radiant panels. That way you get the most efficient wood burning, and the lowest energy consumption heat distribution method. Downside is a BIG up front installation bill...

Gooserider