Wood furnace with pellet backup?

[ccjumper]

I am doing some research to figure out what the best setup would be for my house and realized this is what i need. (cordwood furnace with pellet backup) LOL not sure if it is even made, but i work 60 hours per week and dont have time to load a wood furnace, so one with an automatic pellet backup would be perfect. I just moved into a 3200 SF home that is being heated with a heat pump and each room has separate electric heat as well if needed. A few months during this last Ohio winter my electric bill got to $1200, not cool so was thinking of wood or pellet furnace add on. preferably a single unit that does both....
The only thing I have found is a Woodmaster flex fuel boiler which is over $10,000.
Has anyone heard of such a furnace? I have 165 acres of wood to cut so i cant bring myself to buy a pellet only stove but the pellet backup would be perfect...Thanks for any help...

 

[bags]

I'm not familiar with that particular Woodmaster unit but installed a 5500 wood unit about 14 years ago. It has been a good and reliable unit and system. I have since switch to heating mainly with pellets just for ease of use.

You could go pellet and also a wood stove etc and heat with wood when you are home.

That said I was gone a lot and still heated with the 5500. The wood units have very long burn times if you get a good one. Same holds true with ease of use with a pellet stove.

 

[johneh]

I heat with a combination wood/oil furnace . I also use
a pellet stove as a space heater. witch it is designed for
My Insurance company insisted on a fully automatic
system that's why the oil . In the last 20 years I have
not bought a drop of oil . my tank is 10 years old and
never seen oil .
If for some reason I have to replace the unit I will go
to a propane/wood furnace that way I could use the tank
for a BBQ and whole house generator
That said buy the system that will work for you

 

[brenndatomu]

What about a BK King stove? Long burn times...might not heat your house 100% all the time, but even on the days where it can't quite keep up, it would sure take a huge bite out of the heat bill!
Or a Kuuma furnace...no need to spend a lot of time foolin with it...they are pretty much load n go...almost anybody can do it (read: wife, kids)

 

[ccjumper]

I looked at both stoves, but 5300 dollars before install is a hard pill to swallow. I'm starting to lean more towards a pellet furnace just because of the long burn times. I guess I would just sell the firewood that I would normally burn every year to pay for the pellets. I know I don't want an OWB, been there done that in another house. Really wonder why nobody makes a cordwood furnace with pellet backup. It would really be the best of both worlds, doesn't seem like it would be that hard for them to build? I dunno, thanks for all the help so far...

 

[brenndatomu]

$1200 per month seems a lot harder pill to swallow than a 1 time $5300...would pay for itself in 1 winter.
Pellet furnace would work too...just make sure to do your homework on model, I don't know much about them, but I do know some are better than others for sure...I don't know that there are any cheap ones worth having...maybe the pellet boys can enlighten you on that...

 

[maple1]

Around here, pellets cost about as much as oil to heat with - so I just can't see the point in going with pellets. Just from my localized point of view.

I think I would go with a nice wood furnace - that should cover 90% of your heating, easily. IMO you get what you pay for with the Kuuma.

Heat pump to help fill the gaps.

Although we don't know much about your system - like what you have for ductwork. Or heat pump. Or chimney situation. Or potential furnace & wood space. If you still want to use pellets, I would likely just do a stove instead of a furnace, but I don't know much about or haven't seen much about pellet furnaces - thinking if there were good ones out there, we'd be reading about them here?

 

[Highbeam]

Around here, pellets cost about as much as oil to heat with - so I just can't see the point in going with pellets. Just from my localized point of view.

I think I would go with a nice wood furnace - that should cover 90% of your heating, easily. IMO you get what you pay for with the Kuuma.

Heat pump to help fill the gaps.

Although we don't know much about your system - like what you have for ductwork. Or heat pump. Or chimney situation. Or potential furnace & wood space. If you still want to use pellets, I would likely just do a stove instead of a furnace, but I don't know much about or haven't seen much about pellet furnaces - thinking if there were good ones out there, we'd be reading about them here?

On that other forum, the pellet furnace guys love their Fahrenheit pellet furnaces. Made in America, not even as expensive as a harman!