My father bought and installed a brand new system in a house he built in 1975 or so. It was an combo unit that had an oil burner and a wood compartment. It didn't have a huge volume of water, and it supplied domestic water too. The big mistake he made was to use a masonry chimney and burning chit wood. I think he is still using it, but oil only now. I saw the chimney/stove pipe this guy has and it's a full DW stainless heading out the roof. That unit is going to scare the crap out of home buyers, I bet as they won't even know what to do with it.
Ya probably Dad wanted to stop paying high oil bills. He bought 7 acres all with mostly hardwood. However, he needed wood right away so we were burning unseasoned wood most of the time. He could never get a year ahead. Also most of it was small, so we didn't split. And that chimney was a creosote nightmare. To clean it we dragged a small fir tree through it. Probably Dad wanted to save money. That's how I learned to use a chainsaw helping him.
My guess is there is a storage tank inside of the walled in area in the corner
Oh ya I know. I bought this place, and in the listing it said wood fireplace. Yes I have one, but could not get my insurance without capping the chimney. Too get it certified as it was would mean taking the masonry apart. I just stuck a cheap electric fireplace in the opening and put a pellet stove in the basement. The underwriters have hired a bunch of engineers and they look at every risk now.
OK that must be it as there are pipes going in there, and it was finished with plywood that you can unscrew. You could not circulate all that water just in a unit that size as the water would pass through too quickly
![[Hearth.com] There is a house for sale with this. Hot water system but is that it?](/talk/data/attachments/338/338651-9e567b42fa777315c7ca5cc63ff4ce0d.jpg?hash=HPatpYmfEi)
