Benefits of upgrading old wood furnace

My home is 1500 sq ft and has a wood furnace by Oneida Royal that is thermostatically controlled and tied in to the vents. It's around 25 years old. It seems to have limited control over the burn and will not last the night.

Aside from lower emissions test results, what are the benefits on installing a newer wood furnace? Do they make the wood last longer / get more heat out of it?

Should I get a catalyst stove or try to get a non-catalyst stove before they're gone?

Or should I go with a gasification burner instead?

Dave

 

Are you looking for a stove or furnace?

Not many catalytic furnaces out there. Blaze King Apex is the only one that comes to mind.

There are quite a few non-catalytic EPA furnaces. Drolet Tundra is one of the more economical choices. Huge thread at AS about it.

A new, EPA furnace should definitely save you some wood.

 

Furnace. It's a wood furnace that uses the vent system used by the electric heat pump and central air. We have the thermostats set to keep the electric heat off.

I've also been looking at gasification boilers - which still heat the air for heating, but I guess they circulate water. They are also much larger and more expensive. My little furnace room is well sized for what is there, but won't handle something twice the size.

 

I second the Drolet Tundra. At least once a week I go over to the website and drool over replacing my Daka with it. The Daka works as a heat source but burn control is totally lacking and there's no secondary burn provisions at all. Combined with the fact that the door is way to high on the firebox resulting in smoke spillage (even with a decent draft and the flapper installed on the top of the opening) and it's excessive appetite for wood and it leaves me wanting.

 

yes going to a free standing stove would heat that house easy and use alot less wood.
Have you checked out the thread on here about the Ideal Steel Wood Stove.

 

For stove, the catalytic s are the most efficient .
Burn less wood & longer burn times .

The new furnaces & gasifiers are efficient too.

They all need to be feed wood daily.

Will it be the only source of heat ?
I have NG furnace so we miss a day or two with out worrying about things freezing up.

 

I wasn't being careful used the word stove. I'm only considering furnaces.

We have an electric heat pump and emergency direct heaters. Last winter we had just moved in and had not yet gotten the wood furnace inspected and prepared. Our electric bills were horrific. This year we're using the wood furnace nearly 100% of the time.

We are currently feeding it a couple logs every several hours. I adjusted down the air inlet control a few chain links last night since it seemed to burn too fast. Overall we're not using more than 8 pieces of wood a day but the burns are short and lots of attention. A 8h burn would be fabulous. Our wood is decent stuff too.

I should probably always feed it a full load of wood to get a really long burn but I'm cautious about it burning too fast and overheating. It's not a big fire box - long but not wide or tall. But nearly full sized burns don't go much slower than small ones.

 

Hm under $2k. That's better than I expected.

David

 

You might also want to check out DS Machine furnaces. They are made here in Lancaster PA.

 

Wow, they have a really high efficiency claimed. I'm curious though as to how they advertise fully automatic control yet have 4 manual rotary air control knobs on the front. Maybe they're just for decoration or it's an old "stock" photo?

 

I think it's for decoration. These stoves are primarily built by Amish for Amish, however plenty of their models take electric hookup.

 

When I first bought my house, there was a Summeraire Wood-only furnace in it. The first winter we were here @ Xmas it was -25 and howling snow. We were going away to friends for the day, so on a bed of good red coals, I loaded the furnace full of 3 year seasoned red oak as we were to be away until that night. All was well, the fire was good.............and then with the wind howling, the power went off.
Within 5 minutes the steel was beginning to overheat in the furnace. I peeled the cabinet skin off of it and then decided to put it down with some water as it was realty starting to over fire. Well, it was like the birthday candle that kept re-igniting. Next problem was that I was out of water as we are on a well and without hydro, no well pump-no water. Next move was to start trucking snow in to throw on it. About that time the hydro came back on. Had it been another 15 minutes, we would have been gone and no doubt came home to the ashes of what would of been our home. Needless to say the wood furnace was replaced with 2 air-tight stoves and I never looked back. You couldn't pay me enough $$$$ to ever have another wood furnace. I'll keep and enjoy my stoves, thanks......................

 

Wow, I never thought about that happening before. Do modern furnaces have a safety feature to prevent overheating when the power goes out? How do they default?

 

I have a daka 521 fb, a 1100sq foot house. My furnace has a dial that you dont go over there is no power. Also i never go over that anyways because my house is small. The dampener closes when is get hot. Also know what your burning. I like my furnace. The dial is below the door cant go over the second line when you have no power. I have also had an incert, wife wanted a bigger wood burner so it could go all night. The one room we had stayed warm but that was it. We had an open floor plan too. Floors were cold so we got the 521fb. Put the 521fb in the basment, burns longer and keep whole house warm no matter the temp out side. I dont know everything about wood burners but i can say i like my wood furnace over a woodstove.

 

Daka's are awsome that's what I'm puttin I my house.

 

If you got the cash make sure you get the twin blowers on the daka, it came with one 550cfm, could use another. But i have the blower on the main unit help push the air. Works great 16 out side 75 inside only coals left in it. Love the daka 521fb the second blower help push the air out of the duck work if your ducks are hot then the hot air is in them not you house.

 

I plan on using my furnace fan to

 

I am new to this forum but i like it alot so far if you have any question let me know about the daka i can try to answer them. Looks like you have some sweet gear in your main pick. I dont have wood splitter that works right yet. What do you heat your house with now? Or barn i heat my garage with wood too.

 

I'm goin to use my furnace fan to