Thread: Outdoor Furnace Question's

I'm torn between Wood and Pellets. Wood I can probably get for free with a little work. I work for a Hydro Electric Dam and they are required to remove debris backed up behind the dam. So they pull quite a few trees out of the river, with a little time I'm sure it would dry out....and I could use it.

Pellets, I like the idea of that. Pricing seems to be the same across the board vs. wood (if I wood (punn) need to buy it)
Plus pellets come in a bag, storage shouldn't be to bad to deal with it and maybe even less work in the long haul.

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

I'm torn between Wood and Pellets. Wood I can probably get for free with a little work. I work for a Hydro Electric Dam and they are required to remove debris backed up behind the dam. So they pull quite a few trees out of the river, with a little time I'm sure it would dry out....and I could use it.

Pellets, I like the idea of that. Pricing seems to be the same across the board vs. wood (if I wood (punn) need to buy it)
Plus pellets come in a bag, storage shouldn't be to bad to deal with it and maybe even less work in the long haul.

A ton of pellets will give the BTU output of 3/4 of a cord of hardwood. Wood pellets stove are a great supplement heating solution but if your looking for 100% is really not the solution. With pellets you need to store them in a totally dry enclosure, and buy a lot in advance since many places run out in the middle of winter.And the most annoying part of a pellet stove is the constant running fan and pellets clinking in the fire pot.
With a regular woodstove you also have the option to buy green wood at usually half the cost of seasoned wood. To say that its the best bang for your bucks, perhaps in Kali but around here where we have real winters perhaps not the best solution.

I heated a 3400 sq ft house for 24 yrs with nothing but a vermont castings Woodstove and a forced air Quadrafire pellet stove,no noise, thermostaticley controlled,no smoke,a ton of pellets,40 bags was $220.00,stove hopper held 60 lbs,fill it once a week.
The pellets come in heavy plastic bags which can be left out in the weather,wood on the other hand needs to be kept dry.
I also burned 4 cords of Almond and Madrone each year,storing and hauling wood was a PITA.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

I heated a 3400 sq ft house for 24 yrs with nothing but a vermont castings Woodstove and a forced air Quadrafire pellet stove,no noise, thermostaticley controlled,no smoke,a ton of pellets,40 bags was $220.00,stove hopper held 60 lbs,fill it once a week.
The pellets come in heavy plastic bags which can be left out in the weather,wood on the other hand needs to be kept dry.
I also burned 4 cords of Almond and Madrone each year,storing and hauling wood was a PITA.

You live in Kali coldest temp ever recorded in Roseville is 17 degrees in january around here we go to -10 to -20 at night and dont even reach 17 during the day. Pellet stove users around here use one bag or more a day on a long heating season at 250+ a ton, easilly over 1g for pellets.

So wood puts out more BTU per ton? This is were I'm getting confused, trying to find comparison charts, nothing seems to be straight to the point.

So as I'm writing this I find 1.5 cords of wood equals 1 ton of pellets, so to me I need this to be in the same terminology to make any sense to me, either Cords to tons = BTU or lbs to lbs = BTU

A cord I would pay by it's dimension's 4x4x8 (and hopefully lack of air space), pellets I pay by how much it weighs.
Now looking down the road, I'm 40 now, would you rather be dealing with pellets or wood at 50 - 60 or 70 yrs of age?
Good question ehh? I feel pretty good right now at 40 in pain but good, felt better a 30, and great at 20. so what will 10 more years bring.....who knows, so I;m trying to look at this from all aspects.

BTU output is totally dependant on the wood type and the moisture content.airtight Cast iron stoves with blowers put out a tremendous amt of heat for sure,But for me the other upside of Pellet stoves is I would rather remove a cup of debris from the pellet crucible once a week Verses cleaning out the woodstove every couple days.

With a decent grate shaker and collection system in an outdoor furnace cleanup isnt really a problem. I can easily see the difference if it were an indoor unit. My grandfather cut, split, stacked and burned his own wood into his eighties, and could out work most of the people here. If it is spread out over the year, it is very therapeutic work, if you wait till the last minute to "get 'er done" you have screwed yourself. I myself cut next winters wood over the course of this winter. Plenty of time to fell, cut, split, haul, stack and dry.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

With a decent grate shaker and collection system in an outdoor furnace cleanup isnt really a problem. I can easily see the difference if it were an indoor unit. My grandfather cut, split, stacked and burned his own wood into his eighties, and could out work most of the people here. If it is spread out over the year, it is very therapeutic work, if you wait till the last minute to "get 'er done" you have screwed yourself. I myself cut next winters wood over the course of this winter. Plenty of time to fell, cut, split, haul, stack and dry.

Absolutely, my wood shed holds a few cords, every spring it gets filled up to the max. I really enjoy splitting and stacking the firewood time well spend in my eyes.Comes early summer i have a kindling party, i save a bunch of pine logs of the same size, invite a few friends, pick a number choose your log, a froe and a splitting log and the one with the most full lenght piece wins. You really dont win nothing, you just dont take part of cleaning hundreds of pieces of kindling and have some burgers etc.

So I talked to the township Zoning officer today, apparently my township does not have any written requirements for an Out door furnace. They're planning on visiting this subject later this year. Now with that said I have to apply for a "Special exception"? If I want to move ahead, in the mean time, that will cost me $500 for application whether they say yah or nay to an installation on my property.

What a bunch of crap! But honestly you should not have asked if it was alright to live your life. There is no way on earth they need $500, they dont even know what the heck they are looking at and yet they are the authority? Please excuse the rant, I dont mean to offend, but these kind of burueacrats are worst than their puppet masters.