# Interest in outdoor wood boilers grows



## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

Here comes the Nanny State to our rescue!



> *Interest in outdoor wood boilers grows*
> 
> By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer
> Thu Nov 22, 5:24 AM ET
> ...


read more at: _http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071122/ap_on_bi_ge/wood_boilers_


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

Sounds like a boiler that was already in operation should have been "grandfathered" in, as far as use is concerned. I think that I would seek some legal help on this matter.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

If you have ever lived near people with an outdoor boiler that is way oversized for their heating load (which seems to be typical), and who burn anything that will fit through the doors into the firebox, you may wish that they had been outlawed years ago. Many of the older units are not efficient burners at all, and using fuel other than properly dried quality firewood means that there is lots of nasty smoke, way more than a smaller unit produces, because these outdoor boilers are typically so oversized that the fire just smolders for hours instead of burning efficiently.

Even so, it is surprising that an existing, formerly legal, installation wasn't grandfathered in.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

About a year ago, I was reading a survey of the active lawsuits around the nation over these things. There was like 70 active law suits, it is not about grandfathering, it is about smoke flowing into people's homes.

Whenever that firebox smolders, it will crank out smoke, and they are all doing it.

I spoke with two salesmen at the fair this year. I was not convinced that any of them are 'efficient' when smoldering.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

(Maine)I was a child of the 70's and now we are facing similar economic strains (oil)...we supplemented with wood (dry hardwood) when I was a young. I married a master oil burner....guess what? we heat with wood. That said, we do not want a wood boiler as power outages can create problems circulating heat.....our $600 brand new woodstove heats our 1700 sq.ft house on 5 cord wood w/o electric.....although I use a 30w fan to push heat and dry laundry...I could live w/o fan....did just so in '98 for 11 days during ice storm. Its about 77.7 degrees on average.


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

mpillow said:


> (Maine)I was a child of the 70's and now we are facing similar economic strains (oil)...we supplemented with wood (dry hardwood) when I was a young. I married a master oil burner....guess what? we heat with wood. That said, we do not want a wood boiler as power outages can create problems circulating heat.....our $600 brand new woodstove heats our 1700 sq.ft house on 5 cord wood w/o electric.....although I use a 30w fan to push heat and dry laundry...I could live w/o fan....did just so in '98 for 11 days during ice storm. Its about 77.7 degrees on average.


I agree with you. We considered one of those boilers and rejected it partly because of the cost, but mostly because it was useless in a power outage. One of the reasons I like the idea of heating with wood is that it doesn't require electrical power. It seems like it would defeat the purpose.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

A friend trying to be y2k self sufficient off grid installed a burner.
He ended up running his gennerator way too much because the FIVE pumps required so much power.
If the wind wasn't blowing enough it got smoldering stinky around his place.


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## Clifford (Aug 14, 2004)

I've got an outside Central Boiler and it heats over 5000 sq ft. with garage and basement included. My closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away, so I do not anticipate and complaints about smoke (and have not had any). Out here in the country, wood smoke is sort a way of life. I cannot imagine that people who have close neighbors would think of using one of these boilers.

Regarding power outages: They are rare, but nonetheless devastating with no electricity. I use a small generator to solve this problem when it happens. It's a trade off I feel good about. With the fire and smoke outside, there is no danger of fire, or carbon monoxide poisoning in the house.

It's been working for us for years now, and saving us about $3,000 plus in Liquid Propane every winter season.

Now, I have to go and cut some wood...


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

We've had a Central boiler for about 14 years. Our nearest neighbor is a mile away. We started a trend because those furnaces are popping up all over!

We live a mile from our neighbor's sawmill. We heat cheap.


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## mink (Feb 10, 2005)

ive had a woodmaster outdoor furnace for 3 winters now and i have 2 neighbors on both sides of me from 300-500 feet away and 2 of them have wood stoves , 1 burns coal and the other oil. ive never had a complaint of the smoke. alot of morning i will look out at the neighbors houses and often times they have more smoke coming from the woodstoves. when mines running all i have is heat waves and when its not calling for heat it doesnt smoke that much. i burn all hard wood , maple, beech , cherry and birch....maybe that makes a difference. my house averaged 1000 gallond of fuel oil a year so i save over 3000 dollars a winter id guess........mink


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

I saw something in Mother Earth News tonight about improvements to outdoor furnaces that reduce the emissions.


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## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

I have an Empyre boiler. I can't see why anybody would want one if they have to BUY wood, but since I'm logging every year anyway I have all the tops, butts and cull trees that aren't worth selling to burn so I'll keep right at it. I believe the bylaw here is that you have to have at least 12 acres to put one in.


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## georgec (Jul 9, 2007)

I have been looking into buying one of these. An indoor wood stove is not an option because my wife does not want the mess. Another advantage to the outdoor burner is that we would be able to heat our greenhouse along with the house. Won't have to worry about the smoke, the wind is always blowing, and the closest neigbor is 1/2 mile away. The only problem is the initial cost. Winters aren't that cold here in SE OK, the payoff would take several years.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Man, they do smoke badly. I guess thats how people want to operate them, slow and low. Let a little air in there!


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

My Empyre 450 heats almost 4000 square feet and doesn't smoke any worse than the two wood burners we had heating half that. We use a bit more wood but if we bought 100% I'm pretty sure it would be around $1500 in 8 foot lengths. As opposed to the 4k+ we spent on oil. I've looked at other instals and find (true in oil furnace instals too) most have insufficiant cold air returns and poor air flow. Most have not been set up (use the let'r-rip method) to get a useful delta T or temp rise. Seriously most of the smokey set ups are people buying big outdoor boilers with way way way too much capacity so they hardly ever run hot and then they get loaded with poor quality wood instead of good wood or at least a mix of poor to good wood. It's the out door boiler salesman who've pushed this crap and done sloppy installs that will kill the outdoor boiler market. Polticians are using legislation to bandaide the problem off thier desks.


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