Thread: Outdoor Furnace Question's

You have to apply for an exception to rules that don't exist yet?

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

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.

Rant all you want,but the truth is,Burning wood for heat is being banned in alot of states,woodsmoke is a major pollutant.
In reallity,natural gas today is cheaper than seasond hardwood used for home heating.
Felling,cutting, splitting,ricking wood is a great thing,very satisfying work for sure,I have split hundreds of cords of hardwood (not pine and poplar) with a maul and wedge,but I am now 20 yrs older and 20 lbs heavier than back in the day,Thank god My wife can carry a 40 lb bag of pellets into the house and load the hopper

I agree, I'm not sure I get it myself. You try to do thing's the right way and you get the shaft. A "Special exception" for what? if nothing is on the books what exactly am I paying for? I could see if it was on the books and I wanted to have it 5' closer to the property line then what was an all ready established rule.

Both models I'm looking at are phase 2 EPA certified. It seems that no matter what fuel you use, one of them will be more expensive/cheaper at some point. It might not be economical to run a wood or pellet stove some years, you never know.

Why yes, it makes perfect sense doesn't it? wish there was a Devil smiley

Now this whole "Special exception" has me thinking. I built a 22x22 shop last year, I think I might have enough room to house something similar inside the shop and run water lines to my house. Out of site out of mind...right?
The whole idea of this outside furnace was to 1. save some $$ 2. take advantage of the hot water baseboard for even distribution of heat instead of a stand alone unit inside 3. was keep the dirt outside of the house

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

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.

Weight would be the way to compare not volume. A cord of Basswood will not weigh as much as a cord of Oak and the heat value of each shows in that. A good friend has a stove that burns corn or pellets. He mounted a gravity feed bin outside his house for storage. Once in his house he blows it to his stove so no lifting. Corn has been to high cost so he has been burning pellets. He says that the difference of hardwood or soft in pellets makes no difference. The compression in making the pellets makes them weigh the same. I have another friend that has an outdoor stove that can take a pallet of wood at a time. He takes a pallet of wood and loads the stove with his forklift.

Choose your best local source. Just be careful not to spend a Dime to save a Nickle....