I need a good new stove......

But would really rather build a outdoor boiler type stove. Has anyone here do such a thing?

 

Good luck with that.

 

Welp, I live in a very rural area where there are no rules against it....

 

You may want to start this post in the OWB room.
By the time you make a safe, economical OWB, you might as well buy a new one.
No matter how rural, unless the manufacturers get them to burn cleaner to keep up with EPA standards, they are getting banned more and more.
You do realize the avg OWB heating a house and shop eats about 20-24 cord of wood a year?
If you must have one, your best bet is to find a real one local, or in Craigslist etc.
Your going to be relying on this for heat, building one off the cuff may not prove dependable when needed.
Just some things to think about, Even they, are more than just throwing wood in a box.

 

All new OWBs are banned here now in OR and WA. Really. So are IWBs, except the Greenwood in WA.

A non-EPA Central Boiler costs about 5-7 grand new. 'EPA' ones are 2x that. We had a non-EPA one at my ex's place. Worked great, it ate about 8 cords a year heating a large 2800 sq ft house with many windows and skylights. The cost of fab'ing one would likely be way more than just buying a used one. The one we had hardly smoked at all. But all the flap against them, its an uphill battle.

 

I've got a 500 gallon tank.......and all the pumps and controls.

I've built three different forced air wood fired furnaces.......

Right now we are just using an old wood stove in the breakfast room......the wife would love to be rid of it.

 

There is nothing like hydronic radiant floor heating. Far better than burnt air systems or stoves. I loved having the boiler outside. All the wood, smoke, and crap was outside.

 

Build yourself a garn
http://www.garn.com/

Here are some pics from a homemade one

 

Holy chit.

 

Looks more like the core of a nuclear reactor.

 

Should be no more than an afternoons work for a monkey with your skills.

 

That's a chimp (or a bonobo). How many times do I gotta say it? A chimpanzee/bonobo is not a monkey, and vice verse.

A monkey with a welder? Never happened. A chimp with a welder or a Colt .45, on the other hand, would be like, "Shaken, not stirred".

 

From another site, many years ago... another chimp with a Glock:

 

I've seen a nature show about Bonobo's once. They quite the aaahhh... frisky critters!

 

Here's a link to a home built version of Professor Hill's design...

https://sites.google.com/site/mywoodfiredhydronicboiler/

...and a PDF of the design...

http://www.vtwoodsmoke.org/pdf/hill-79.pdf

This is the same design as Campinspector posted in this forum as "the principles of...."

Keep in mind, this is fairly old technology at this point.

 

Old tech suits me just fine.

 

Well then, it should be right up your alley! If you need any help sourcing refractory materials and such, I can give you some guidance if you need it. The only thing I don't like about these types of systems is that they require external power inputs to run, so if you have a power outage or a looking to not rely on electricity, they can be a bust. I can give you a passive design that will do way better on efficiency, but only if your BTU needs are small. Once you get into these high output systems, it's hard to do passive.

 

I wonder what the EPA will do if they ever get ahold of you?