Update on Hot Blast Wood Furnace

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Hi,

Just thought I'd update on my furnace. I'd asked if anyone had experience with it...well now I do. Price of natural gas for heating has gone out of sight of my pocketbook so I had to start running this for heat. Especially since we hit another cold spell this week with temps in the low 40's during the day and below freezing at night. This old DW isn't insulated that well.... Works pretty well now that I've figured it out. Need to use larger diameter wood so that it doesn't burn too quick...gets way too hot too quick that way. Actually puts so much heat out we had to open the doors a couple times to cool off! Got it down now to how much to leave the air inlet open and the damper to keep it nice and warm, but not too warm. I'm burning old corral rails I had, untreated, about 7 years old so they're dry and well seasoned. Only thing I had to burn. The only thing that's a problem is if the electricity goes out...so does the fan on the furnace... Guess the next thing on the agenda is figuring out how to rig up pipes thru it to heat the water for showers. Enjoy your life!

-- Deborah (bearwaoman@Yahoo.com), May 04, 2001

Answers

How about like a car battery or two to run the fan if the power goes out? I'm glad you got it going, they can be tricky to figure out, so was our big wood furnance. I have to clean the pipe on ours once a week as it builds up so much stuff. Since ours is outside, we burn all sorts of scrap wood, and the wood hasn't been all good and dry. Where did you end up putting it?

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), May 05, 2001.

We have one. We use 6- 90 watt solar panels and 12 golf cart batteries along with a 1700 watt inverter to power it. It was a y2k prep. With the way gas prices are, it will probably be one of our "smartest" investments. Its on right now ...and its nice and toasty in here. 8^)

-- Lynette (fear_the_bear@webtv.net), May 05, 2001.

Cindy,

It was already installed in this double-wide when I bought it. It is inside, in the middle of the house where it directly heats the LR and kitchen and then vents down the hall to the bedrooms. Works really nice, is set away from the walls far enough, and isn't too obtrusive. Good idea on the batteries! I'll have to rig something up.

-- Deborah (bearwaoman@Yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.


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