Once again I’m about to spend almost $500 on heating oil for a month.
Heating oil is effectively diesel, so right on about $5/gal.
I have a combination closed circuit hot water radiator and on demand hot water heater, so both my house heat and hot water are fired from from the same oil boiler.
I keep my thermostats off during the day, but between the little house heat I try to use and hot water, I’m using just under 100 gallons per month.
I’ve been told that actually that’s pretty good using about 3 gallons per day in winter.
Still I hate the fuck out of it.
Here’s the thing.
I have access to all the free wood I want.
All the free wood I want is used pallets and wooden shipping crates.
I worked in a fabrication shop where our boss burned pallets and shipping crates to keep the shop heated.
It worked, but it wasn’t the best smelling fire.
I want a wood burning furnace that sits outside of my house and blows the hot air into my house with ductwork.
I’ve seen very expensive exterior wood burning boilers that heat water to circulate, but those are clearly primary heat sources.
I want a supplemental heat source.
I want something to heat the house so I don’t have to kick on the furnace at all, or as little as possible. If u can cut my oil use in half, just as a hot water heater, I’ve come out ahead.
Apparently units like what I want existed but have been discontinued.
I don’t know if they have been regulated out of the market.
If anyone is familiar with what I want or has an idea how to set it up, I’d be appreciative.
I have no shame in heating my house with pallets to save money.
Local guy recommended a wood pellet stove.
They are available, but not cheap.
https://www.wood-heating-solutions.com/outdoor-wood-furnaces/
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But, why not get a wood burning stove interior? Any decent one will have little to no smell escaping, as long as you keep the fire reasonably hot. Start it off with decent seasoned wood, and then add the pallets as needed. Toss in the pallet wood, shut the door, and it is practically scent free. Friends of mine did this, put the stove on the lower floor of their house, and they cut their heating (oil) down from over 90%
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There are also plenty of wood burners that can double as a boiler, providing or supplementing the hot water, or if you are on a hydronic system, providing heat to every room.
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https://www.midwestoutdoorfurnace.com/forced-air-furnaces
https://outdoorwoodfurnaceboiler.com/FORCED-AIR-OUTSIDE-WOOD-BURNING-FURNACE.htm
https://www.wood-heating-solutions.com/outdoor-wood-furnaces/
https://centralboiler.com/
https://heatmasterss.com/landing-page-bing/?msclkid=f76dc7fbcf3813ed6a51a42145754d95
https://www.crownroyalstoves.com/
We put one of these in at my cousins. Used a manifold inside to heat both the water for the house and add heat to the boiler. had to add a heat pump for the water heater. The youtube video shows a DYI forced air style. Most cold weather areas use the boiler/anti freeze style because the ducts would cool off too much in the sub zero temps.
The options I can think of off hand are: wood stove (though you probably don’t want to burn pallet wood in that I’d think it would require more cleaning and make more creosote), pellet stove, coal stove, waste oil burner, gas conversion burner (convert oil boiler to gas), outdoor wood boiler (as you mentioned), or something homemade like a gasifier or something else with a homemade heat exchanger (though you probably are loosing lots of efficiency here).
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Sounds dumb also but, if you can get decent electric rates (NHEC is pretty gud but not available everywhere) you can supplement with electric space heaters or install some electric baseboards. The space heaters have been working out well in my house this year. Of course we do not run them unless we are home.
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IDK if you are locked into a contract or not, but I always check fuelwonk.com before buying oil. It might not be super comprehensive but it at least gives you some shopping choices.
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Statistics time! From January to March I burn approximately 190 gallons of oil a month. This has been consistent for the entire time I’ve owned the house. Insulating the attic and basement ceiling and new windows improved things quite a bit, but the efficiency gained encouraged my wife to raise the thermostat so it all equaled out 🙁
A good stove will burn anything BUT some items you throw in will require more maintenance to keep the chimney clean.
It depends what you can change in the house, you rent it iirc, but if you have the place and the money, or know how, you could always go with a tiled stove (masonry stove) and an external chimney. Much better for keeping a house warm than a run of the mill cast iron stove. These also are good for heating but they lack the thermal mass to keep warm over night.
A pellet stove needs external infrastructure to keep running AND it needs electricity to keep running. just a word of advise: in Germany right now heating oil is expensive BUT wood pellets are, based on their energy, more expensive or at least cost the same and they need more room than oil to deliver the same energy.
There are similar stoves that use chipped wood. And I guess you already have a woodchipper… 😛