To burn or not to burn....

[KATO]

Hi all,

I stumbled across this awesome site looking for information on OWB's and I have been educated. The problem with eduation is that it raises more questions....

First a little background.

I designed and built our house in the middle of the woods (all of which is red oak) 10 years ago never thinking that wood would be a viable fuel source that is until the cost of oil went through the roof!! I have a few friends who installed OWB's a couple of years ago and they never looked back. I want to do the same but the install space is limited. Despite living on 20 acres, the house is on a very steep slope with rock cliffs and drop offs. The unit would only be about 50' from the hosue with a 20' tall cliff behind it. The wind always blows but never in the same direction so smoke is a definite concern (The wife does not want to get smoked out!!). I looked into the gasification units and while they are nice, they are money. We have no room inside the mechanical room for an indoor burner either.

We have a masonry fireplace that gets used a couple times a winter, which I seriously considered converting with a wood insert. Although the floor plan is fairly open, I am conerned about heat distribution.

Call me crazy but has anyone ever heard of a radiant loop installed in an insert? The reason is we heat the house with a hydro set up. The mechanical room is directly below the fireplace and I was thinking that if I could tie a loop into the existing side arm I would keep the oil burner off and evenly distribute the heat to the far away rooms.

Any thoughts?

Thanks a million,

Kato

 

[savageactor7]

I take it you already have baseboard hot water? If so then talk to you buddies with the OWB's and solicit their opinions on siting the OWB... nothing beats previous experience.

If you don't have the baseboard hot water system then reconsider getting just a free standing stove...they're all most like an entertainment system now.

 

[KATO]

My friends have ripped me to no end about not installing on OWB the day I built the house. Friend "a" has a heatmor which seems to smoke pretty good. Friend "b" has a woodmaster and the sense to burn only seasoned hardwood (no smoke). I like the woodmaster, he swears by it.

The system in house is a hydro-air set up. It has an air handler up in the attic and one in the basement. Basically, hot water runs through a radiator in the ducts and a fan pushes the warm air to the rooms. The setup is nice because in the summer the same system cools the house by running it through the condensers outside.

I want to tie into that setup with something to keep that oil burner off

I thought about solar too but we are on the wrong side of the mountain to get any real good winter sunlight.

Kato

 

[cmonSTART]

I'm not sure about a production insert with water coils in it, but here is a link about doing such a thing to an existing unit:

(broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/dhw/dhw.htm)

Search hearth.com also. There's a great wealth of information here on the site.

 

[begreen]

Lots of folks heat their whole house without an OWB. It's far from the only heating solution. If you can do it with a well located woodstove you are not only going to spend less, but you are also likely to consume less wood than your buddies. And without a doubt burning a lot cleaner.

How about posting more info on the house so that we can catch up with you? The stove may work fine if distribution is not a big deal. Describe the house, insulation, floorplans, and the location of the fireplace in the house and we should be able to narrow down the options. As to the water coils in the insert, I wouldn't worry about that. First things first.

 

[KATO]

Thanks and excellent reference These set ups are very interesting and dangerous without the right equipment. It seems that the water heating option is is not a simple one. If the system had a safety sink like a snow melt system or radiant floor it could be OK. I am not a mechanical engineer and I certainly do not have the time to figure it out. Oh well, it was an idea.....

If I go back to the OWB option, a friend suggested that I get a 55 gallon burn drum and try it in different spots to figure out the prevailing winds. Has anyone ever mocked up a unit before?

 

[KATO]

Be Green,

The house is a 2,400 sf post and beam with sips panels. It is a t cape with the center open all the way to the roof. The fireplace is in a family room in the front corner of the house. If I could figure out how to reduce the size of my pics I could upload some (any ideas?). I will try to dig out some of the CAD drawings of the floor plans and convert to PDF's. The sips panels are super insulated and the windows are all High-R glass. It has a walk out basement with radiant heating in the floor (not hooked up yet).

 

[KATO]

I found some floor plans. They are pretty close to the real deal. There are a lot of windows on the first floor but they are not shown. I am still trying to find a format to release them in. PDF's aren't allowed?

 

[begreen]

For posting pictures, check out the green information (i) links at the top of the forum page. I think this is the one you are looking for.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewannounce/27_2/

If it still is a problem you can PM me with the attachment and I can fix it for you.

 

[KATO]

I HOPE THIS WORKS

 

[KATO]

THANKS BE GREEN. I WILL PLAY WITH THE OTHER STUFF IN THE NEAR FUTURE. I HAVE TO GET BACK TO WORK. SUBMISSION IS DUE TOMORROW.......

BTW THE OWB WILL BE JUST OFF THE PIC TO THE RIGHT NEAR THE DRIVEWAY. THE CLIFF IS ALSO RIGHT THERE.

SEE PIC TWO. THIS STUFF IS ADDICTING!!

THE OWB WILL BE BEHIND THE BASKETBALL HOOP.

 

[begreen]

Great. The house and location look beautiful. Are you in the Catskills? The pictures are coming through fine, but the caps lock key seems to be stuck on.

The way you have described the house I'm not convinced an OWB is the best solution. With SIP panels and good glass it should not be hard to heat. The only big challenge is the exterior wall fireplace. (Old homes always placed the chimney and stove in the center of the house. Is this an option??) If you can post a picture of the floor plan that would help. Otherwise you will have to describe the 1st fl plan in detail.

 

[KATO]

Sorry about the cap lock. I am working on some CAD drawings and I draft text in caps. I will figure out how to convert the CAD drawings to an image file and send them along. Funny abou the center fireplace option. I had originally designed the house with that set up but I was out voted by the wife.

 

[begreen]

She was dead wrong on that one. This is clearly a case of function trumping form. Is there a possibility of running a metal flue up in the middle somewhere?

 

[KATO]

not in the catskills but here is a view of them (looking northwest) from my daughter's window

 

[KATO]

She was dead wrong on that one. This is clearly a case of function trumping form. Is there a possibility of running a metal flue up in the middle somewhere?

jump in threads?

 

[begreen]

Beautiful. It must be painful to see that forest replaced with homes.

 

[KATO]

We are surrounded by state and federal land (+2,000 ac) which for around here is a lot. The low landers have built out just about everything they could. The rest is protected.