Forced air wood furnace

[Pnystuen]

Hello all,

Just moved into an old farm house and will be renting for a few years with the potential to purchase at some point. House is old and poorly insulated so I am looking for a way to add a wood furnace to help with heat costs some. We are currently using LP. I have looked into wood boilers and they are fairly expensive and most likely more than I want to spend at this time. In my searching I ran across a fellow with an Energy Tech outdoor forced air furnace. Said he doesn't use it at all and I could probably buy it for a couple hundred bucks. I haven't seen pictures of it yet, but thought it is in pretty good shape and is currently stored in one of his sheds. I've done the research on this site already and it seems Energy Tech was based out of Wisconsin and has been out of business for a number of years. Assuming the furnace itself looks to be in okay condition, my only concern then would be the fan motor(s) and the thermostat wiring etc. I do not see anyone selling any replacement parts for Energy Tech, so my question really boils down to this..... Are the fan motors and thermostat brand specific making the unit useless if a part ever went out? Or would I be able to find a generic part to replace it? If I am able to at least find replacement parts that will work for it somewhere I think I am willing to gamble a few hundred bucks and see if it will go for a few years until I can decide if we are buying the house or not and what we want to do long term. Also, any other parts of the furnace that are prone to failure that should be inspected? Thanks in advance.

 

[laynes69]

Grainger or similar sites will carry parts. It's highly unlikely to have proprietary parts with an older woodfurnace. It's very important to inspect the unit, for a large crack in the firebox could introduce carbon monoxide into the home. I dont recall ever seeing an outdoor woodfurnace from energy king. If that's the case, insurance .at not cover you if theres a claim.

 

[salecker]

You will want to check to see what you can actually install,especially if you are renting.
It would suck to have an old POS burn the place down and you have to buy the foundation because you installed a POS that nobody recognizes or will cover for insurance.
Or worse kill you with Carbon monoxide

 

[Eureka]

You will want to check to see what you can actually install,especially if you are renting.
It would suck to have an old POS burn the place down and you have to buy the foundation because you installed a POS that nobody recognizes or will cover for insurance.
Or worse kill you with Carbon monoxide

I’ve seen this exact thing happen to somebody. Homemade barrel woodstove in a wrencher’s garage chugging out of a piece of single wall black stove pipe cut through a piece of OSB in the place of a double hung window slider. Guy got the stove going really well while he ran to the parts store and came home to a burning garage, house, and cans of brake cleaner shooting out of it like fireworks.