Englander 28-4000 furnace
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Highbeam
Minister of Fire
I wouldn't do it. The englander has no automatic draft control. It's just a stove with a shell around it and a blower that turns on when the firebox is hot and off when it's colder. Inside the "furnace" shell is a regular old NC30 which is a fine stove but what makes a furnace a furnace is automation and high output. You'll get much more output, automation, and safety from a modern furnace like the heatpro.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
No, the Englander furnace is just as safe as the stove but not nearly as safe as the "modern" furnaces. See, the modern furnaces have a little motor that opens and shuts the air intakes to automatically operate the furnace at temperatures somewhere between low/clean/safe and the high limit of what is deemed safe by the manufacturer. All automatically without you even being there in the basement with this thing. Even better is most are controlled by a thermostat up in the living space. Some ramp up the blower speed as well as the intake air to maintain safe and efficient extraction of heat.
The Englander is just a manually controlled stove with a thermostatic on/off blower and a shell to route that heated air into the ducts.
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lost in the woods
Burning Hunk
i have the predecessor to that; the good old shw-28-3500 ? I think that's the model number. ANYWAY we really like it! I understand having convenience of automatic draft controls and the such, but I like to go down in the basement and molest the draft controls in the evening after work, and HEY! the basement is where my mancave is! and the beer fridge
What would be equivalent to your Princess among wood furnaces? I know its a silly question , but...
I have Travis Flush insert , which is a looker and good heater , but would like something in a basement that I can load once a day and not ask wife to go and look at it while I am at work
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Only pellet burners right now.
At one time there were catalytic furnaces that had burn times of well over 24 hours but today they are all noncat with 12 hour cycles. Even the ultra expensive kuuma must be loaded twice per day to keep it running. If you are willing to load twice per day then there are several options. Some people still load once per day and just let it go out each day, then recover when they restart the furnace.
You can always just put a big blaze king in the basement. It's not ducted but many folks heat from their basement and the bk is really good for that since it has the thermostat and long burns.
The good furnaces currently available from caddy and drolet are pretty cheap to buy.
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
You do realize your heat load will have to be VERY low (talking shoulder seasons) in order to keep any house warm loading a 2.85CF firebox only once a day. Wood only has so many BTU's to give, regardless of how it's being burned. I can load ~60-70 lbs of seasoned oak into my ~4.0CF firebox. So assuming one can load 50lbs of oak into a 2.85CF firebox. A lb of seasoned wood produces roughly 6,000-6,500 BTU's. So you'd be producing ~312,500 BTU's over 24 hours, or 13,000 BTU's/hr at 100% efficiency....or 10,000 BTU's/hr at 80% efficiency. Hardly enough to heat most homes outside of the shoulder seasons.
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