Need help deciding OWB vs IWB

[brmzr]

Hi all,

I am in northern VT. I've got a cape of 1.5 stories, 1100 sq ft, and a full walk-out basement of about 700 sq ft. The property the house is on is 18 acres of mostly softwoods.

The house is currently uninsulated, has no running water, and is set up with a woodstove in the middle of the 1st floor.

I am planning on having the house sprayfoamed and was told with insulation the existing woodstove can heat the whole house.

What I'm asking about a boiler for, then, is hot water. I'd like to rely on the wood on the property to heat everything. I know burning softwoods in a woodstove is a no-no, but I've heard OWBs can burn them.

It seems most OWB/IWBs I've seen are for heating both one's home via forced air and one's water. Is there an existing, smaller sized boiler, either outdoor or indoor, that I can use to supply hot water?

[Redoverfarm]

With any code requirements set aside you might considering some problems with an outside boiler furnace.

These require regular maintenance with cleaning the tubes (heat exchanges between the firebox and the boiler tank.  They have to be fired almost twice daily.  If you live in a colder climate they cannot be allowed to go without heat or they will freeze.  So intermitent use is out.  They require a large amount of wood to operate in a heating season.  This is dependent upon the particular size stove but on average you can look at 8-12 PU truck loads of wood. 

On the upside they can be used as hot water heat or forced air heat(air exchanger).  Most can be adapted to serve several purposes.  Forced air heat, hot  water baseboard,  domestic hot water and even pool or hot tub heat (size dependent).  If a constant supply of wood is available and you are going to be living there full time then it might be a viable alternative.  It also requires power.  Depending on your off grid/grid arraignment they need to operated with a circulator pump and fan draft.

[MountainDon]

I'd like to rely on the wood on the property to heat everything. I know burning softwoods in a woodstove is a no-no,

In an ideal world we'd all have acres of hardwoods. And when we cut the trees they'd fall and self split too.  But there are a whole lot of people who don't have that ideal.  Most of the folks here in the western mountains have forests of predominately conifers. We burn that just fine. And clean the chimney a little more often perhaps. Whatever you burn it must be seasoned well; damp hardwood is bad too.

[Don_P]

They require a large amount of wood to operate in a heating season.  This is dependent upon the particular size stove but on average you can look at 8-12 PU truck loads of wood. 

I was talking to a logger friend yesterday, his comment "If we get a few more of those outdoor boilers around here there isn't going to be a stick of wood left in the county" I've seen folks go through several log trucks full of wood in a winter, I just don't enjoy cutting and splitting that much.

[Redoverfarm]

I was talking to a logger friend yesterday, his comment "If we get a few more of those outdoor boilers around here there isn't going to be a stick of wood left in the county" I've seen folks go through several log trucks full of wood in a winter, I just don't enjoy cutting and splitting that much.

Yep Don_P it didn't take me but a couple years to realize that I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life.

[brmzr]

Thanks for the comments so far, guys.

Does anyone know of a small, hot water only IWB?

[brmzr]

Please consider this thread dead.

I started a new one here http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=13573.0