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If you live in the suburbs or a rural area
near a source of cheap (or FREE) wood, you could heat your home for
the
entire season for less than one month's electric heat bill. An
outdoor furnace eliminates respiratory
problems caused by burning wood indoors, and keeps the wood
burning mess, ashes, wood scraps and bugs outside. The burn
times are also MUCH longer so it requires less frequent fills.
There are a surprising number of new and old outdoor
furnace manufacturers with a wide range of styles and designs to
accommodate different homes and the varied heating requirements,
such as adding a garage or shop, etc. Many are Jonnie-come-lately
manufacturers who think they can weld a bunch of metal together
(like Morris Furnace tried to do) and build a furnace!
Shaver Furnace has been building furnaces
since 1972 - 34 years!. Now that is longer than all the ones that
CLAIM that they have been in business the longest.
One of the nice selling points of an outdoor
furnace is the convenience of locating it near the wood fuel
source. Since the water heated by the furnace is pumped to your
home through insulated, underground piping, the furnace can be
set up as close as 10 feet, or as much as 200 feet plus from your
home.
Our outdoor furnace is designed to work
with any existing system and is thermostatically
controlled. If you have a forced air system, you can use the
existing duct work. You will simply need to install a
water-to-air heat exchanger in your furnace duct. Your furnace is
always still available as a back up or for use while on
vacation..
If you already have radiant floor heating, you would connect
the underground feed from the outdoor furnace to the existing
circulating pump. SImple.
For radiant baseboard heat, you can connect the piping
directly to an existing boiler or install a water-to-water heat
exchanger to transfer the heat.
You can receive the
added benefit of free hot water - saving $30-60 a month - simply
by adding another pump and an $8 thermostat.
An outdoor boiler can even be used to heat your garage, barn,
swimming
pool, driveway, work shop, greenhouse, or other multiple buildings.
While many manufacturers recommend a stainless steel firebox,
they still use a mild steel water box. So what good is that? The stainless
steel is also welded to the mild steel. Not good, because welding
ruins
the qualities of the stainless steel, making it of no additional
benefit. Stainless steel is also prone to stress cracks and also
doesn't transfer heat as well. A lot of stainless steel can't be
welded or repaired either. YIKES!
Our firebox is so thick, just shy of .400", that we have
NEVER had one rust through and we have furnaces that have been
in service for over 30 years and are still going strong. I'd
like to see that kind of lifespan with a regular furnace!..
Normally, outdoor furnaces are loaded twice a day at the most. Burn times
per load vary from 12 to 18 hours is typical, depending on what
you're burning and what you're heating, the outside temperature
as well as how well your house is insulated.
As a test, the owner of Shaver Furnace took the thermostat
off his 25 year-old furnace, so that the fire would rage at
maximum burn 24 hours a day. Yet he still only has to load it
every 12 hours. Otherwise he goes as long as 24 hours without
loading it.
One thing that all outdoor furnaces have in common, is versatility.
Whatever your heating needs are, or the type of fuel you burn,
it's possible to design a system for any heating system you can
imagine.
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