Considering Alternatives for a New House

Outdoor boilers are terrible. Our town banned them for good reason.
 
An outdoor wood boiler is better than an indoor one, but it's still nothing I want to deal with at my age. YMMV
Everybody loves burning wood, everybody likes how it smells in the fall and winter. OTOH if you can smell it, that's just air pollution right in your own home.

mm
 
So you boil water with wood and pipe it into the house? We have a neighbor who runs one in the daks. Not really that close, a few thousand feet away.
 
I agree with q. Passive solar is the way to go with grid tied panels. One of my clients has a passive house. The walls are 16” thick. There is a larger construction cost because you are basically framing the house twice. The performance is incredible. It takes very little energy to run the house. They run a heat pump and electric stove and hot water. The solar panels provide more power than they need. They have a propane generator if the grid goes down. Windows, windows, windows. How many, how big and what is their orientation? They are usually the biggest cost.
 
I don't think our design will be considered proper, we are hoping it will be ok or better than bad.

When I get a moment I will remove all this from the vehicle thread. Apologies for the drift.
 
Harvey said:
What happens when you do that?
Click to expand...
A smokescreen 50’ high 100yds long. It drifted across my driveway obstructing traffic on a township rd. He started burning better wood but the acrid smell was horrible, I couldn’t drive out my driveway without choking.
I had an elderly neighbor that had COPD and was on oxygen the cloud drifted directly toward his house and he was literally choking in his bedroom at night.
 
Campgottagopee said:
Really? By a lot of attention do you mean throwing chunks in twice a day? I don't have one but a couple of my buddy's do and swear by them. Obviously the key is to have access to your own source of firewood.
Click to expand...
I know a couple of retirees who took theirs out because they got tired of feeding them. I guess if you’re in good physical shape it’s not too bad. If you go away on vacation you need somebody to babysit the wood boiler.
 
Sbob said:
I know a couple of retirees who took theirs out because they got tired of feeding them. I guess if you’re in good physical shape it’s not too bad. If you go away on vacation you need somebody to babysit the wood boiler.
Click to expand...
Gotcha
It's true you have to toss chunks in twice a day. To me that's a chore I don't mind. That and cutting firewood. The 2 guys I know who use them enjoy that stuff too. One is my age, mid 50's and the other is in his late 80's. The dude in his 80's is who owns the farm our hunting camp is on. He won't take any money, so we all get together and cut/split/stack his firewood in one day. Approx 35/cord / yr.
The nice thing about those boilers is if you have trees you'll have free heat. It doesn't take long to pay for the boiler, and proper tree management makes your woods better. Holds wildlife better and helps the mature trees reach their peak. But yes, it involves labor, but ? beats weed wackin'.
 
Harvey said:
So you boil water with wood and pipe it into the house? We have a neighbor who runs one in the daks. Not really that close, a few thousand feet away.
Click to expand...
Exactly
I'll guess the majority of Dackers with any kind of land heat with these.
If we end up with building on land I'll for sure have one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
© Copyright 2008 - 2024 NYSkiBlog
Join | Subscribe | Advertise | Privacy
NYSkiBlog is for the rest of us: regular people with a sense of adventure, who love to ski.
We zig when they zag. To connect with us, follow us:
NYSkiBlog Facebook.
NYSkiBlog Twitter.
NYSkiBlog Instagram.
NYSkiBlog RSS.
Back
Top