Sorry if this has been beaten to death. Does anyone have any opinions of info on wood/coal furnaces

[JoshF]

Fuel oil is just getting to high and I have been wanting to become more self sufficient. So I have been exploring alternative heat sources.
After weeks of research I really like the idea of a wood/coal furnace that can blow through my existing ductwork as well as heat water.

Unfortunately I can find no one who has experience with such a thing.

I can get this particular unit locally for about $1200.oo plus $200 for the water heater.

(broken link removed)


Any thoughts

 

[cmonSTART]

A coworker of mine has a wood/oil forced hot air furnace. I don't know much about it though. He likes it. I've heard such units have relatively low efficiency.

 

[webbie]

That's not a bad looking unit - BUT, any central furnaces which uses manual control is going to be very difficult to take care of. This one appears to have a spin draft control.....central heaters should have a system which responds to the upstairs thermostat setting and make the furnace turn up and down. Check further into this (download the instructions) to see if I am missing something.

 

[JoshF]

If I understand you correctly you mean a thermostatically controlled draft. I was not sure if I need it or not. It is not listed as an option on this model on US stoves website.

One of my concerns is how accurate is this system. Meaning if I set the thermostat at 70 how much will the actual room temperature fluctuate?

Here is what it says about what purpose the room thermostat serves.


How Your New Furnace Works
Unlike conventional heating (gas, oil, electric), wood or coal
heating requires more user attention. Your furnace, with
its automatic combustion air blower, alleviates the constant
need for adjusting the burning rate common to other units
on the market. The fire, however, must be started and
subsequent fuel added by the user.
Conventional heating system produce heat only when the
thermostat calls for heat. This way of heating is inefficient
and often leaves part of the home either too hot or too
cold. Your furnace is designed to deliver heat as long as
there is a fire in it. The fire intensity is regulated by the
room thermostat, high or low, the fire continues to produce
heat. This heat is continuously distributed throughout
the home by a distribution blower. This constant supply of
heat is uniform and prevents drafts.

 

[webbie]

Sounds like it has a draft blower then - that usually means it is not for coal, since blowing on a coal fire is not a good thing (melts iron).....

But it should work well for wood.

 

[JoshF]

What sort of difficulties,other than feeding this thing,would you guess I will encounter?

 

[Hanko]

I beat my brains out for 4 years trying to burn efficiently with wood forced air furnaces. My situation was less than ideal cause I dont have a basemant, there fore the furnace was set in my garage ducted into the crawl space to pick up the duct work. It did heat the house, but it took close to 24 face cord for the season. Compare that to about 9 face cord with a Jotul F-500 in the main living area. I tried two different types of furnaces thinking the first one was no good. A Fire chief model 1100, than I got conned by a good sales man on the Charmaster. I think both were decent quality furnaces, Charmaster being the better of the two. Possibly in a good situation, meaning a small square basement so all the heat can gravity up to the other levels, they will probably work ok. But I can without a doubt tell you that compared to todays free standing stoves and inserts, forced air wood, coal, stoves will not preform on an equal bases. save your self time, wood, money, dont do what I did. Leave the furnace you have for a back up and go get a good EPA stove and chinmey and stay warmer, and cut less wood

 

[ccwhite]

Hi josh this is an old thread and I don't know if you made your move yet or not. If not I'd like to recommend a woodchuck furnace for you. I installed one for last winter and I love it. Here's the info on my setup with photos. I'd be glad to talk to you more if you're still deciding. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/31660/