Looking for any information of an outdoor wood boiler called Wood Doctor. Went online but would trust an FHC members opinion over anything I read online even though I know that if it's online or T.V. it has to be true. It is the second largest one that they manufacture and heats a home 3150 sq. ft. through a oil furnace with a heat exchanger. My Realtor got me oil bills for this past winter on the home the highest being $51.00 for a month they got a delivery every month plus what I thought strange the oil tank is only 100 gallons. I will take some pictures when I go to the house again. I also requested the Seller's phone number but neither agent will give it to me. I wanted to get an idea of how many cords he burned on average. Any educated guesses would be of some help. The home built in 1994 and seems well insulated from what I could see in the attic, R22.
Thanks for your reply. I don't know enough about them and the home is located where there is no natural gas (the only thing I have ever used for heat) I am getting ready to sell my business and property and retire but I don't want to have to be splitting 20 or more cord just to heat my home, I would rather sell the firewood that was part of my retirement plan taking it easy cutting up firewood and doubling what I already sell to about 60 cord a year.
Oil makes good heat and make more BTUs than natural gas. Problem is its diesel fuel and the price fluctuates like at the gas pumps. A lot of times you'll see houses thT burn oil supplement heat with firewood to offset big heat bills.
Got some pictures of the OWB and have another question. The OWB is about 150' away from the garages doesn't that seemed like it would lose a lot of heat in that distance. This place seems like too good of a deal other then the taxes are $11,500.00 a year. The furnace is located to the left of the picture showing the house. I can't wait to have nothing to do but cut firewood and work outside it does need some yard work and about eight dead trees taken down. The only bad part is mowing the 6 plus acres, oh well can't have everything and the closeted neighbor is about 500 yards away to the left and about 1/4 mile to the right.
My first year is the only year I really have a estimated number on because I bought a load of wood and didn't really get more wood throughout the winter but it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 full cord, and it was all wet (very regrettably so) I would bet last year with dry pine compared to the first year of wet oak I burned 12 full cord. Get 15 ish. Get it drying out as fast as you can and any leftover will be that much more ahead of next year
Already have about four cord that comes with the house and about 18 cord here on this property as I sell firewood but was hoping I wouldn't need to take too from my sales to heat the house.
I can't stress enough about how burning wet wood even in the owbs is a terrible idea. With the wet oak I had, there were never any coals to speak of to keep the fire going, I burned way way way to much wood. Now I burn EVERY kind of wood so long as it's dry and I have it a thousand times better and easier and more enjoyable
I am I think, and if anyone cares to know behind the one picture of the furnace you can see what looks like a small shed and an odd shaped fence enclosed area. Ready for this, the Doctor that owns the house has Peacocks, shed is their home and the fence to keep them in. Says he will leave it, anybody close by interested in it? The pond in front of the house has about 250 to 500 Coy fish so even though I am retiring I think I am going to start selling Coy on Craiglist, guess I will always look at how to make a buck.
Congrats on the beautiful place. Sorry, I know nothing about OWB. Do you have any specific questions? The boiler must have been fired if they were only using $51/month in oil. Are you sure the attic is R22? It should be at least twice that. Be prepared, that OWB is going to eat some wood. My guess is 15-20 cords a year if it carries the heat load.
As for the R22 that's what the Realtor told me. As for the internet it is telling me the boiler will handle the 3150 sq. ft. My question that may sound dumb, are they using the oil furnace to push the heat from the heat exchanger up into the house. The hot water heater looks to be about 200 gallons, couldn't get into the house to take pictures. The agent when I asked was baffled by the size of it saying they must like to take baths. The other question I have does the water running through the system have some sort of anti-freeze? I would think it would have to have but then that's why I am here picking smarter peoples brains trying to learn as much as I can before Monday when I am going to place an offer. As for the taxes lets just say you get used to being taken in N.Y. Ask any New Yorker and you will be shocked my present school taxes alone are just about $14,00.00 a year (commercial property) Then you add on the water bill, county taxes and they don't even pick up your thrash that is extra through a private company.
Surely the realtor is wrong. If not, I'd double it at least. Blowing attic insulation is usually cheap and easy. I don't doubt the OWB will handle the heating, if you can keep wood. The furnace shouldn't have to run, only its fan. No idea about the huge water heater. Yes, should have antifreeze. My taxes are less than 1K a year on 10 acres, 2012 house, barns, timber, 7 vehicles/boats/motorcycle/etc. I guess I have it lucky.
Chopy, I can't understand why there would be a monthly oil bill with the OWB? I have a different brand OWB with a nat gas forced air furnace and as soon as we light it, we stop using nat gas for the duration. I heat the domestic water with the OWB also and have never run out of hot water. Every couple of years, the gas provider wants to change out the meter due to no gas usage during the winter!
Not sure that's why I am here I figure if anybody knows about anything to do with using wood for heating it would be you ladies and gentlemen. I do know he is a Doctor so maybe he didn't come home every night or he got stuck at the hospital making a hell of a lot more then he was burning up in oil. Talked to my Realtor a few moments ago and one of the questions I had for her was if the Home Inspection company had any knowledge when it came to the Boiler. She assured me he did and if it doesn't work they would be held liable if they say it is in working order. Not sure how it works in other states but a Home Inspection company hired by me checks the roof, heater, hot water tank, checks for mold, rodents and as well as a bunch of things and I get the report to use so the Home owner fixes any problems before the closing.
Just thought about this. I would love to have supplied him with firewood as I just can't picture a Doctor cutting up that much firewood (15 or so cords) when he could easily afford oil heat. He is selling because he bought a bigger place.
As far as anti freeze goes, if you are going to be there keeping it fired why would you put anti freeze in? Keep a second water pump handy in case the one you have breaks down. If you are going to be out for a week every month it's worth looking into, but it is expensive and you lose heat transfer with anti freeze. My water temp the whole winter was never set lower than 155. even on super cold nights when the firebox ran out of wood the water temp was still 100+ degrees, (not that I like that) but to freeze that water that is being pumped you would have to go a very long time with no fire, not to mention your oil furnace (my back up lp is set at 60 degrees in the house) will blow hot air over the heat exchanger further prolonging your time to get a fire going again, same goes with your water heater. It will also reverse the heat transfer from your domestic hot water to your owb hot water (if your fire ever goes out). With the 50 dollars they spent on oil every month maybe that's a service charge? Or they used it on super cold nights or long days they were out of the house that's what I do, it just helps keep the fire going longer.
Power outage? Vacation? I been wondering, will a power outage overheat your boiler due to lack of circulation, or boil the water in the jacket around the firebox? How do OWB users heat their homes during outages?
With the power being off, of course non of the heat of the stove will be circulated so there would be no heat transfer to the home. But to answer your question as to how the homes are heated during power outages, it would be the same answer as to how your homes is heated during a power outage if you didn't own an OWB. No matter what type of gas, oil, solar heating system you have, your home wouldn't be heated. And that is one of the reasons I added a little "kicker" wood stove in the basement here. The first time I bought an OWB (93) I too thought I needed to put in anti-freeze just as a precaution. Never did and never had problems, even during power outages. Most recently, we had an extended power loss and I was concerned about the OWB's fire/temp lowering to a too cold level. (This happened a couple years ago.) AS the power had been out for a number of hours (over 12 at that point) I checked on the "fire". There were plenty of coals and since I have a digital readout aquastat, there was no telling what the temp of the water was. I left the door cracked open to provide airflow to re-ignite the coals and just top off whatever temp the water was at. Then I started shoveling snow. About 15 minutes, I look over at the stove and see water boiling out the top of the stove!! It is an open vent system meaning it is non-pressurized. Wow, what a surprise that was! Of course I shut the door immediately and as soon as the power came back on, replaced what little water had boiled off.
