First of all to anyone that reads this thank you for taking the time, I know questions from the uninformed can be repetitive and annoying.
I would like to purchase the highest efficiency exterior wood burner/gasification furnace to heat my house (5000+/- sq ft) and possibly some day a pool.
I am absolutely and totally clueless. Is there a manufacturer that is considered to be the "cadillac" of wood furnaces? There is so much info on this site it is hard to digest and any help would be greatly appreciated. I want the cleanest burning and most efficient equipment, I don't mind paying a little more if it is well made and will last. Central Boiler was recommended to me but again I have no idea if there's are actually decent furnaces or not.
thanks in advance!!
A Mahoning can burn both wood and coal and they are very popular.
The issue is a CLEAN BURN AND MAINTAININGA CLEAN BURN.
This will allow you to use less wood because there will be little to no smoke
The Garn is a very good unit but it must be indoors in an insulated building.
You have not discussed how much in funding you are able to spend AND HOW MUCH TIME YOU HAVE
TO MESS WITH ONE OF THOSE BLOODY THINGS
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Save your money;
For the existing load you have or additional load you plan on having a coal stoker
is the only thing that will handle it.
Anthracite is clean burning with no smoke and produces little ash in a stoker.
THE coal stoker will not piss off the neighbors ever and cause problems.
There is a reason outdoor boilers are called smoke dragons Natasha.
these boilers spend a lot of time idling once the water temperature is reached and
you lose all that heat energy in the wood because the fire is smoldering.
AN EFM coal stoker will cycle on and off and run at a minimum burn to keep a coal fire going
and will not smoke at idle-high limit temperature which shuts the damper off.
For one example.
The EFM coal stokers have been in use for many years and are very well built and
have a closed hydronic system.
They work the year round if you have a domestic loop installed, and even the smallest
one could handle your heat load and a pool.
A coal stoker like the EFM has an auger feeding the coal into a burn pot which has a
fan blowing combustion air into the burn pot via the auger tube.
AN outdoor wood boiler will burn a tremendous amount of wood if you are not right there to tend it by
regulating how much wood you throw in there every once and a while to keep a hot fire going.
Do you own a wood splitter or chainsaw or are you able to buy wood locally?
IF you purchased even the smallest EFM Coal Stoker you could buy a tractor trailer load of pea coal and
it would last you at least five and possibly ten years with your heating load.
coal does not rot or decay as quickly as wood does.
YOU have to decide how much time you are willing to spend feeding a smoke dragon.
if you have close neighbors you will want a coal stoker because it burns clean.
A closed system will also not require water treatment like an open system.