Article about Outdoor Wood Boilers

[Toolman]

We had an article in the Bangor Daily News up here about Outdoor Wood Boilers. It was a front page, over this weekend.

Here is a link:

(broken link removed)

Interesting comments: "My neighbors love wood smoke," "When burning wood, they are fine."

 

[Corie]

What I don't get in this whole situation is the lack of involvement of the EPA?

In that article it says that the EPA is working to get cleaner boilers on the market.

How about some friggin' regulations and let the manufacturers worry about getting the boilers to the market.

 

[Henz]

yes it is funny. here in Upstate NY there has been a boiler boom of sorts.. they are popping up ib nackyards everywhere..What is happening is that the local municipalities are starting to regulate them..meaning, where zoning is present, municipalities are allowing the use of them in particular areas and not in others..Very interesting topic. Its a tough call. Prior to the installation of my wood stove, i was 99% sure that I was gonna have one..Until I relized how much wood they burned.. There are definately plus's and minus's with them that is for sure..If you have the room to stack the wood needed for a winter plus the stand of timber, they are nice..

 

[iceman]

yes it is funny. here in Upstate NY there has been a boiler boom of sorts.. they are popping up ib nackyards everywhere..What is happening is that the local municipalities are starting to regulate them..meaning, where zoning is present, municipalities are allowing the use of them in particular areas and not in others..Very interesting topic. Its a tough call. Prior to the installation of my wood stove, i was 99% sure that I was gonna have one..Until I relized how much wood they burned.. There are definately plus's and minus's with them that is for sure..If you have the room to stack the wood needed for a winter plus the stand of timber, they are nice..

over here in western ma they are causing a lot of problems! i wanted one but there is no way my neighbors would go for it...... and after seeing what they are capable of putting out i would be pissed if one of my neighbors put one out in their yard
however if they can change the amount of smoke that comes out of those things i will reconsider

 

[Henz]

yeah, thats the problem, particularly at startup..Its like a coal-fired locomotive! I really dont know what could be done limiting the amout of smoke, you really fill those things with fuel. For farms or other properties located in the rural areas they are fine if you ask me..

 

[Jay H]

The article mentions people burning trash.... TIRES???? whaaattttt??? I see a bunch of these when I go hiking in the catskills and in other parts of upstate NY...

I could imagine zoning requirements to raise the chimney up X feet, but then you have visual polution of smokestacks which is probably frowned upon too..

Jay

 

[Henz]

yes, increasing smoke stacks is one way to limit, but, its still pumping out the smoke. on any given day, depending on the weather conditions the smok still may hang low. I am woundering if the manufacturers are considering secondary burn chambers..there is plenty of room in them..I would expect, and it is my prediction that you will see the major manufacturers coming out with a solution in the next couple of years..they must be working on it as we speak.

 

[Jay H]

(broken link removed)

That is the company mentioned in the Bangor News article...

(broken image removed)

That is the crosssection of their wood boiler, so they do have a Secondary Burn area which I imagine is similar in design to a wood stove...

Jay

 

[elkimmeg]

The nature of the beast is doomed to start with. they accomidate a 4 to 6' log. does any know how long a 4 to 6' 10' log taked to dry equal to a split 16" round
It could take 5 years or more for that 6' log to dry. we all know in modern wood stoves wet wood does not work very well and next to impossible to achieve secondary combustion
we also know the amount of emmissions wet wood produces. These boilers are made to burn wet wood I doubt some one has 12 cord piles prepared 5 years in advance so that hese
stoves can burn clean The technology exist to make them effecient but practicality is not there Imagine spending 12k for a boiler and waiting 5 more years for your wood to season before you can burn it?

one by one as these boiler present a nuisense t towns are adopting regulation that all but outlaw them even states are looking into regulations some have already.

The martket share is shrinking all the time. By the time they become acceptable there may be no market or past laws have outlawed them. It is quite an effort to repeal past laws and never done in a timely fashion. Then there is the vollume of wood required, processing 12 cords a year takes considerable time . That old wood pile has to be re-plenished every year

why did so many former wood stove burners convert to pellet stoves? It was the effort required to process fire wood a 40 lb bag is so much easier to pour int a hopper a day
As we age so does the will and desire to keep processing wood. multiple that by 4x feeding an OWB Its get old quick

 

[stangds]

the outdoor burners are a good idea, but it sure would be nice for them to be a bit more "eco-friendly"

My dad has one. He heats their domestic hot water, his shop, and the house. fires it twice a day. It does belch smoke and stink, though.

the idea makes a lot of sense, it gets the fire out of your house, and is safer (provided you get it plumbed up right). they definately aren't good when you have a lot of neighbors.

 

[Henz]

yes, I would recomend to anyone interested in getting one to really do their research and even visit someone who has one.
What I found when I did the research is this:

If you have your own stand of timber, and alot of it that you may be ok

If you have a large are to stock pile the bucked up lengths you may be ok

You only really need to buck up poles into the desired length and split them once so that you can handle them

They are really meant for a specific person if you ask me. I know a guy who swears by them. wouldnt think of anything else, heats his house, large garage and inground pool with it..But, he is also a full time logger with all the equipment

 

[Eric Johnson]

To me, the boiler vs. wood stove comparison is kind of like comparing a motorcycle and a car: both will get you down the road at 70 mph, but at much different rates of fuel consumption and operator comfort. Sure, I burn twice as much wood as the guy with the stove, but I'm heating my whole house (evenly), all my domestic hot water, and getting all the other the conveniences of zoned hydronic heat. The downsides are: higher upfont capital costs, more complex physical plant, higher fuel consumption and higher emissions.

I agree that OWBs are inappropriate for heavily populated areas, just as I believe that some vehicles are inappropriate for some roads.

People tend to see OWBs and think of them as a woodstove gone bad, but it's a lot more complicated than that.

And as for OWBs producing unacceptible amounts of smoke, I drive all over rural New England and New York and the vast majority of smoke that I see and smell is coming out of conventional chimneys, not OWBs.