Hello, It's a damp rainy day in the Texas Panhandle. I'm watching a few video's on OWB and wonder how much wood is used during a heating season?
I have a friend in the Pittsburgh area with an old farm house and an OWB. The house is insulated but not sealed as tight as newer homes. He told me he goes through 20-25 cord a season. Now before your jaw hits the floor you should know, he gets pine/spruce/fir logs delivered from a local tree company free. They're happy to have a place to get rid of the logs and he's happy to have an almost endless supply of free wood. But it does burn fast.
My brother burns about 10 cord in his. That's heating an 1880s 1500 square foot house with a modern 1000 sq. foot addition. The older part has been remodeled with upgraded insulation, windows, etc. but is still an old house. He also heats his 2100 foot pole barn to 60 degrees. That is insulated. The 10 cord may seem like a lot, but his pre-pay on oil (for the house only) was $4700 in 2008 when he installed the OWB.
My hardy burns 2.5 cords during the heating season. 1700sf plus domestic hot water. Home is insulated to code, but not as well as it could be or I'd like
A lot of people take advantage of heating their domestic hot water as well as providing heat with an OWB. I do not use mine to heat my water in the off season, I just let the water heater take over.
7-10 cord depending on the winter and how much I supplement it with propane,or last year pellets. Just gets harder every year to go out in the blowing snow to feed it! Gary
I have an indoor boiler with 1000 gallons of hot water storage in my barn. Last year was seven cords and year before was six and a half. Neighbor did over twenty each year with OWB, comparable 2500sqft house exposed to north winds. I bring a winters worth of wood into the barn and its nice to not be out in the elements when loading it. Also have a 'boiler shop' that stays t-shirt comfortable throughout the winter.
I use about 8 to 10 cords per year. 3000sq. Poorly insulated farmhouse circa 1790. In SC. Lowest temperature at my house was 5 degrees but usually stays in teens for a low in the winter. I no longer use my Hardy H4 for hot water. It just couldn't keep up heating the house and the water. Nothing much worse than an unhappy spouse needing hot water at 5 am.
My old man is on the same "program" . I have a wood/chip dump on his property and 3 tree services use it regularly . AND yes mostly softwood. Cant tell ya how much he uses but its a chitload!!! All cut to length and delivered free.
Here I have an indoor gasification boiler that holds 60 of its own gallons, plus a 400 gallon storage tank. Last two winters were cold, temps down in the -20s, and I burned 8-10 full cord from beginning of October through beginning of April. Heating 4200 sq.ft. house with an average of decent insulation. 900 sq.ft. well insulated garage. And heating all our domestic hot water(DHW) through an in-direct hot water heater.
I'm tired just reading that. Getting it free and delivered is one thing, but you still have to get 20 cords into the boiler
I burn through about 8-10 cords heating a 26x60 double wide with 2x6 walls which still has just skirting with some osb over it to stop the wind from going right through it .I also have lines going to my 40x44 shop which is heated with forced air through a fork truck radiator.I don't keep the shop heated all the time.I sti;; plan to get Mass storage tanks in the future which should lessen my wood burning totals.
I'm in eastern Ohio, Have an out door Cozeburn and go through 10- 12 cords a winter. Gets harder each year but the old farmhouse is 70 degrees.
In southern VT, have a CB CL5648 that I use year-round for heat and DHW. I burn on average, 10 to 12 cords per year, depending on weather and heating needs. 4300 sf on three floors, including an insulated and finished basement. My consumption will probably increase as I am adding a 24x36 garage to the heat load. If I had a gasifier boiler, I could probably cut my wood use down by quite a lot (maybe 25% or more?).
Unicorn, My first OWB was back in '93 and absolutely loved it! Bought another in '08 (different residence/life situation). Same brand also. In both cases, domestic water was also heated by the OWB. By rights, a mixing valve should be used but in both cases I did not. Also, in both cases, the heat transfer for the house was into a forced air system. One house was insulated a bit better than the other, but neither house was insulated the way it should/could have been. All that being said, it seems we currently go through around 8ish full cord a year. Two winters ago was a very cold winter and of course we used more wood. This year so far has been quite mild and I actually didn't start the OWB until just last Friday evening! About a month later than normal. I try to have the wood cut and stacked for two years before it goes into the fire and this helps enormously with the smoke that is more common with these burners. So much that one friend that hates the OWB (bad experiences in his neighborhood) stopped over during last winter and asked why wasn't I using mine? Told him that's what happens when you don't burn green wood. In the early and late burning season, the load of wood I burn in it is reduced to just one side (L or R) of the firebox. This creates the same heat but uses less wood of course. As stated above, it can be a pain to go out into the dark of night during bad weather but if you are thinking of one, I'm thinking you will never have to experience the 30 to 40 below temps with the added wind snow and dark of night! I think the mornings are a bit more of a pain than the evenings actually....at least on the weekends. Another huge advantage is never having to haul wood into or out of a building. The wood can be processed near the OWB and stacked accordingly. I have only split the largest and heaviest rounds so there is less processing involved. Ussually only fire up twice a day during the cold months. On the most severe weather days, I will check it three times a day, though.
I installed a Woodmaster 5500 in the fall of 2004. I like it a lot but it likes wood A LOT. The unit has been great and I have only replaced two inexpensive parts at the 10 year mark. A thermistor and a rubber air intake flapper. I think I paid $35 bucks for both and did the fix myself in a half hour. I also replaced the existing thermistor wire with some new heavier gauged wire. That took the most time fishing that. I averaged between 8 - 10 cords of wood per heating season. The thing heats my home, barn, garages, and hot water heater during the cold months. Summer I let electric handle the HW. The 5500 will do 10,000 SQ FT. It is a PIG. It is simple and a no frills OWB but well made IMO. I still have it and will use it once the brutal cold settles in some this winter. I went to pellet stoves last fall because it was easier for my wife to manage while I was out of town for work. She is pretty much so done with it unless I am home to feed it. I have no regrets and it has more than paid for itself. I did most of the install also so I did save some money back when I decided to buy one. It is a smoke dragon but I am not interested in replacing it yet since it works fine and I have it in place. I do like the fact that I have no neighbors to complain and live in the woods out in the country so it is a good fit and more than welcome here. I like the fact that I can heat for next to nothing excluding processing wood and a bunch of time there. Not a big deal if you have the time but believe me it can get laborious and old at times. Just being honest. I have no problem throwing some cash out for pellets right now nor last year. All in all they do heat well but many eat a bunch of wood. Mine has long burn times and I would much rather have the OWB than wood stoves requiring numerous fills to stay warm. Everything has pros and cons. I understand that at the end of Dec in another 6 weeks or so dealers will no longer sell them per the EPA but newer more efficient models are out. I like my old school pig for numerous reasons. The idea with pellet stoves was primarily to heat during the shoulder seasons and reduce wood consumption. Last year I heated 100% with my P68 pellet stove only with the exception of one week to exercise the OWB and run it. The way pellet prices are climbing I may be back to wood. We shall see. Good Luck and check out all of your options and make an informed decision.
Another thought is how much space you need or want to heat. There are much smaller OWB's that I would say use less wood in a heating season. As I have said you need access to wood and the time to process said wood or a very cheap option for getting some. I can heat a lot of SQ FT and my unit can do 10,000 as mentioned It has ports to plumb multiple buildings so I gather it is a hog vs. smaller units say that are intended for 2,500 SQ FT or so. Just to clarify.
Indeed, last 2 winters have been brutally cold. 37 below zero here a few times and 20 below so often we lost count. I hear OWB in these parts use upwards of 30 face cords per winter. We ran a Napolean 1400 (ordinary type wood stove) flat out all winter and used 10 cords. (most ever by far) I suspect the newer OWB are far more efficient than the ones around here. We're now using a new larger hybrid stove and will mess around with it before passing judgement.
Did you use 10 face cords or 10 full cords? If you used 10 face cords that is really good! It gets cold here in NY but not nearly as brutal as up there and my brother used 7.5 full cords in his gasification outdoor boiler last year. I used 5 with an indoor gasification wood boiler and a similar size house.
