Wha–? What is that?
No. It can’t be. It’s….
…the OUTDOOR WOOD FURNACE! Nooooooooooo!
Take it away! I can’t look at it! The fierce italicized letters taunt me.
One of these mornings very soon I’m going to wake up and see my breath. Which means June and I are going to have to suit up in our lumberjack gear, hoof it outside and build a fire in that thing and keep it burning until April. Noooooooo!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Maybe you said a long time ago before I was a reader, but is there a reason why you heat that way? Even if there aren’t natural gas lines nearby and you don’t want all electric, many rural people use propane. Big tank in yard. Delivery man comes once a month or less. The end. Our area has gas lines, but I don’t have to go far to see propane tanks. My husband says the propane companies usually have sales in the hot months, and you can go ahead and fill up for winter and beat the winter price. Are you working toward being off the grid?
Hi Paula: We have an outdoor wood furnace because we, um, bought a house without a central heating system. It only came with a propane stove in the kitchen. I don’t know what I was thinking. I think I was looking at it with “city eyes,” captivated by the picturesque aspect of our new rural surroundings without thinking about freezing my butt off come January. So we installed a fireplace in the basement, which helped somewhat but it sucked so much wood and was dirty and didn’t keep the house truly warm. So last winter, Jake finally installed an outdoor wood furnace, figuring it’s a much more economical way to heat a house — propane keeps going up and up — because we have a ready supply to free wood. But what we save in money, we more than make up for in manual labor. THere’s a reason I let my YMCA membership expire!
When we were looking for a house last time, one of the ones we looked at had no central unit, either. It had a pellet stove in the corner of the living room. I will say the house was warm, though.
We are moving to New Hampshire next month and creating our own small farm/homestead. The house we are buying has an outdoor wood furnace. We have never used one before and I can honestly say I am a LOT more than intimidated. We will also be installing a wood stove in the house to us on the days I am certain we will lose power. Good luck to us all.
Jessie, I hesitate to write this, but in those pictures it resembles a tombstone. Must the manufacturer put the furnace in such a menacing-looking structure? The black box with fiery red lettering makes it look like satan’s outhouse…
Satan’s Outhouse!!!! That’s exactly what it is!!! Thanks for the choice moniker, Suz. If I end up writing a horror story about it, I’ll send royalties to you.
Take it– it’s yours, no royalties necessary. But I liked scumsucking redneck piece of crap better….
My goodness – the things we learn in blogs. Jessie, I have never seen or heard of such a thing – I guess I lead a sheltered life. I am assuming it is fairly close to the house and that you have plenty of firewood already cut. Its too bad it can’t be painted or otherwise disguised – it certainly needs some decorations. Perhaps some fencing around it might improve its appearance.
I’m with Bob, as a native Texan I have no clue what that is. I’d like to know more though. I don’t want to embarrass myself asking the questions in my head
Jessie,
If anyone can do this, you can. Blessings and peace in the process!
Marietta
An out door wood stove is easy. Just crack open the door to allow the fire to “catch up”. Then chunk it full of wood, shut the door and that’s it for 24 hours or longer. The stove operates on some type of controlled draft system. When the house isn’t calling for heat, the stove shuts off the air flow into the fire box. Oxygen is a necessary component off combustion, so shutting off the air flow until more heat is needed conserves wood. That is also why you should allow the fire to “catch up” prior to fully opening the door, a smoldering fire suddenly flooded with oxygen can be fairly interesting. There should be a sight glass somewhere to make sure there is enough water in the tank before firing it up.
While the lettering on yours does make it appear more imposing, you should see the one my Grandfather-in-law built. Yep, built himself, like everything else on the farm. Because what else does a 75-year-old farmer have to do in the off-season but machine his own parts to built full-size sawmill he designed himself? Anyway, he scrounged up a huge metal tank of some sort and re-purposed it along with a bunch of other metal into a wood heater that takes 6-8′ logs. He loads it once every 3-5 days. That sucker pumps out so much heat that Grandma complains all winter long she wishes she could wear her nice sweaters inside. She’s never warm in the winter, but Grandpa fixed that!
Highly impressive, your grandpa.
Yes, yes, he is. I married into a family full of many incredibly skilled men. If they can’t afford it, or could build a better one in the shop, they’ll build things themselves from the ground up. Makes this farmhouse “remodel” (rip down to the studs and put it all back together again) we are doing much easier and nearly affordable.