Best way to heat with wood

[Rob30]

So I assume most people on this forum heat with wood. We have an outdoor boiler. Heats well and has the advantage of heating our hot water. Also we can get away with burning a lot lower quality wood in the fall and spring. We burn a lot of slabs from the saw mill. We also have an indoor wood boiler. Good most of the time, but relies on radiant heat. Not good in our old home that is drafty and has many walls that the heat does not pass through easily. Much more efficient on wood though. 
Our boiler sprung a leak, most local boilers are running around $10000 here in Canada. I have to decide if I will replace, repair or look at a different heating system. 
So what are you guys heating with and why? 

[SwampDonkey]

I use a forced air furnace and has a side by electric. When heating in the winter on just wood, the electric bill is only $100 here. 1900 sq feet, two floors. Electric may come on in early morning before I build it up. This spring I ran just electric heat furnace and only added on $90 to the electric. So the plan going forward is electric until temps drop below 20F. Wood to buy is $260-290/cord around here. I do up most of my wood which is aspen/fir/maple mostly and buy 1-1/2 cord of hard maple for Dec-Feb wood mixed in with my own. I like my wood dry and in out of the weather, get way more heat from it and burns clean. I have racks under the porch and a walk in basement, so it isn't that hard to fill up my wood room down there that holds 4-1/2 cords of 16" wood. Moisture meter says 20% MC right now in my stacks. My furnace is the mid-range size from Napolean, model 150. I didn't want to oversize the furnace, because we don't need it hot. I'd rather be on the cool side. The upstairs heats itself by February from the sun in the big dormer window. I do have duct up there and the floor up there is insulated because later in life I will put a door on the stairs and just live on and heat the first floor.

Furnace has glass door

[Pine Ridge]

We have a fire chief forced air outdoor furnace i installed last summer. We were heating with propane before that, prices up and down, usually up. I have several chainsaws, a wood splitter, and access to lots of wood, standing or down trees and logging tops. I'll be 51 in a couple of months and i'll try to heat with wood as long as i have access to wood and am physically able. I also enjoy my time working in the woods, logging or cutting firewood.

[thecfarm]

I myself like my OWB. Will I be able to replace it when it goes bad?? Probably not. I bought mine before things went sky rocket high. I burn just about all dead wood in my OWB now. I pick dead trees off the ground and burn them. Better than riding over a dead tree on the ground a foot high.  ;D  Seems to be a never ending supply of dead wood on my land. 

[Rob30]

Thanks
I don't think I have made up my mind yet. My boiler srung a leak last year, I had it welded, but another developed. I am afraid I will be chasing leaks forever. It is a stainless steel boiler, so welding myself is difficult to impossible. I don't have a respirator and do not want to be welding in the boiler without one. So I am stuck deciding to have it welded, which will get expensive if I have to keep chasing the leak, plus if it develops in the the dead of winter I am in trouble, again. I have to put auxiliary heat in the house anyway for insurance purposes. My crawl space is not big enough for a dual purpose furnace in, or I would go that route. Thinking of building a furnace room on the side of the house, if I can think of how to tie into the existing duct work. Or installing an electric forced furnace and having the air intake draw from the room I currently have my wood stove in. 
My house is a very old, drafty settlers home. Dovetail log. We live in it now, but are planning to build a new log home in the next few years.   

[SwampDonkey]

Scandinavian? Lots of them style are being preserved in North Dakota. I follow an old hermit that visits them once in awhile on the Sheyenne river valley, flows into the Red. He lives along the Sheyenne (not Cheyenne, which is a branch of the Missouri). The great divide happens along there.

A recent stop to one (half way in video) on a bike trip.

The scenic route - YouTube

[Rob30]

Good video, that is about what I figure ours looks like. However we have two small log cabins that were jointed together, plus additions put on. We have debated building new or restoring. The issue with restoring is it is almost as much work as building new, maybe more. Plus we would still have an old house. Someone covered the house years ago with vinyl siding, which may have protected some logs, but there are areas where water has gotten through, I am sure there are some rotten logs I would have to deal with. Plus the sill logs are probably getting rotten. From what I have been told the house is a bout an 1860s house.
 

[goose63]

SwampDonkey that park and Lisbon is in my back yard 8)

[E Yoder]

You don't want to be chasing leaks in January, that's for sure.
I'm burning a outdoor boiler (GS100) heating my house and rental, plus small shop occasionally.
Seems like to me with the existing install putting a new OWB on the same lines would be the least headache. Maybe not the cheapest though. ?

[hedgerow]

Rob30
I have been going through the same problem. In the middle of my season nine my Garn started leaking. Garn likes to say there units last 20 to 30 years. So when I spent $15,000 on the unit and another $15,000 to get my house and shop hooked up and I did all the work I figured it would last as long as I was going to live on this farm. I kept adding water my unit holds 2,000 gallons and made it threw until I shut it down in May. I have had two shoulder surgery's so I had to have someone else clean it and finding a welder that would do the job. The Garn is mild steel so welding is no problem. Finally got a welder out here got the patches made and he spend a day welding it up. Cleaner guy came back Sat finished cleaning. I filled it fired it up and put the cleaning chemical in it and have been running it since. Shut it down this A.M. and started draining . Looks like no more leaks. Cleaning guy coming back today to do the final power washing . I will refill and get back on line this week as we heat our domestic water with it. I will still have around $3,000 in the repairs when all is said and done. Wife says if it leaks again we are done with wood. We do have propane furnaces in the house. I sure wouldn't buy another new unit. 

[Corley5]

Best way to heat with wood...  Cut and sell the wood to those who heat with it and use the money for another source of heat.  That's what we're working towards.  We're over burning wood.

[Pine Ridge]

Corley5 thats what i did when i was heating with propane.

[SwampDonkey]

Your a neighbor to the old hermit then. :D I do know his full name, his last name is Bernstein and I know where his place is on Google Earth, up near Walcott, Highway 18.

[J 5]

We have been heating with an OWB since the fall of 1999, 2 houses, 2 garages, totalling around 4500 sq ft . Before that both houses and one garage (shop) all had newmac wood furnaces, which were great ,except for having wood in your basement and the upkeep on 3 chimneys. Not sure what the insurance company would say about them today, I'm sure there would be lots of inspections.
              I bought a used OWB last fall (empyre 450 thread) to have as a backup ,just in case . I'm not sure what we would do without this setup, propane ? , definitely would be more expensive, walking into the shop(1800sq ft) in feb , with a temp of 68f would be $$$$$ , right now I don't think about it. We have the wood  and the manpower to cut it, what's down the road who knows.     J 5

[SwampDonkey]

Anything fossil fuel based for heat up here is way too expensive. The guys that got onto the natural gas kick are paying through the nose. Distribution cost is the nail in the coffin. The Canadian government back in the day, made sure gas lines never came east of Quebec. Irving probably said no to it and they bought up all the propane companies in New Brunswick, probably NS and PEI as well,  to kill off competition.

[Al_Smith]

I burn the stuff for several reasons .First the insert was already installed when I bought the place .I have an abundance of firewood .One of my many interests is restoring,collecting and in some case souping up chainsaws .It's a no brainer .
I'm usually two or three years ahead in what I might need so I cut and process it any time I feel like it which I might add is not the last week in July .It's just a tad bit hot you know . 

[quilbilly]

We've tried a free standing stove and an insert. Don't like the insert at all. One thing that interests me but you might have an issue with insurance is a rocket stove. Oh I also know someone with a masonry heater that's very satisfied

[Klunker]

I have a masonry heater.
I think its the most efficient way to heat with wood.

I don't know if in OP's mind best=efficient.

I use a minimal amount of wood (less than 3 cords for 2800sq ft well insulated house),
typically lighting 1 fire/per day using approx 50 lbs of quality hardwood (shag bark hickory, sugar maple or Ironwood).

No messing with dampers, wide open till the flames are gone then shut off the air completely.

No messing with loading wood into existing fire so its much safer. Burns much cleaner so no creosote.

No electricity required. Nice even temperature in house, no swings up or down if its not stoked with wood for hours.

Big downside is initial cost. But used properly it'll outlast you. One time cost only.

That and you'll need to learn to anticipate the weather/heat requirements.

[curved-wood]

My son has a masonry heater and I am impress with the performance. On cold day he does one fire in the morning and one in the evening and that is it. His 2500 sq.ft house is full heated with a few cords per years. No creosote cleaning. Same as Klunker. If I have to change my free standing wood stove that is the way I will go.

[SwampDonkey]

And soapstone is right up there for heat retention like firebrick. You can touch it and not be burned on exterior surfaces. Some of these stoves now are all soapstone.

Google "Tulikivi masonry stove"

[DMcCoy]

x2 on the soapstone stove.  Ours is a Hearthstone, secondary air type-EPA certified. They are still in business.   Has a glass door so you get the fire place ambiance. I think ours is roughly 20 yrs old and doesn't show any signs of wear.  It wasn't inexpensive but I would buy another one in a heart beat.  Nice even heat and because of the glass door you can with a glance see if it needs more wood.

Making and handling firewood from tree to stove is a process that deserves intense scrutiny.  I quit stacking a few years ago and will never go back.

The long term viability of non-wood heat is questionable at best for anyone willing to look under that rug.  Hopefully I will be gone before it gets ugly.

[BluenoseLogger]

To original poster, I realize you already have outdoor boiler experience (and very possibly wood stove experience), so my comments that follow are not aimed at you.

I've gotten a good feel for free standing wood stoves over the decades, in everything from un-insulated cabins to insulated houses, in typical Canadian climates, and currently have a modern free standing wood stove as a primary heating source (an oil furnace is the backup that came with the house). It was my decision to install the wood stove and initially I didn't propose to have it as the primary heat source even.

The wood stove became the primary heat source pretty quickly, our house is old (over a century) and the insulation needs an upgrade, and for me wood is cheap and furnace oil ain't. One estimate I've seen is that one cord of seasoned hardwood produces the same amount of heat as 500 litres (132 US gallons) of oil. At least in Nova Scotia that means that wood is considerably cheaper than oil, even if you buy split.

Even with house insulation deficiencies (which aren't that bad) it works out to about 3-4 cords of wood per winter. With that the oil furnace rarely kicks in: 4 or 5 AM when it's -20C outside is when it might.

So I am happy with a wood stove. I like felling trees, I like bucking logs, I like cutting to length and splitting and stacking, I like tending the fire, and I truly enjoy having a wood stove with a cheerful fire in the living room. But that's me. Even if you buy split, you still need to be happy with moving firewood around, tending the fire, and cleaning. As anyone with a wood stove knows tending the fire is an acquired skill - you don't want your house to be a sauna, you don't want to be wasting your firewood, you'd prefer not to be reloading the stove every 30 minutes etc. You also need to know that the stove will adequately heat all living spaces with not too much variability.

So I am disinclined to recommend a wood stove as primary heat to anyone who doesn't already have experience with doing just that. I won't discourage them either, but I'll essentially repeat what I said just now, and if they are basically keen on wood (but not wedded to a stove idea) I'll urge them to research the other systems mentioned in this thread.

[rjwoelk]

Anything fossil fuel based for heat up here is way too expensive. The guys that got onto the natural gas kick are paying through the nose. Distribution cost is the nail in the coffin. The Canadian government back in the day, made sure gas lines never came east of Quebec. Irving probably said no to it and they bought up all the propane companies in New Brunswick, probably NS and PEI as well,  to kill off competition.

yup and JT is related to the irving or one of his members were, so I understand from the Norman case.

[Firewoodjoe]

I'm on my second season now of making a decision🤔 I log full time and used to sell a lot of firewood. To say the least I get burned out on wood cutting. My boiler had been patched many times and finally pulled it out. Burnt propane last year. Glad I did really did nothing but enjoy it and the the overal price was great I thought. But a fairly new house. I have a new wood boiler nearly built but filled both my propane tanks up with cheap summer gas and will burn it agin this season. I also have a chimney in my living room that I used to use a stand alone stove. Man I love wood heat in the house but messy and fire hazard. And I have a finished basement. Heat don't go down well. So I don't know what to do. I'm thinking a better stand alone stove with a water heater. 1) im a wood cutter so I have wood 2) direct wood heat I love 3) water to pump down stairs to my already installed water system from the boiler and 4) way less wood to cut than boiler. I'm just hoping a better stove will be cleaner and safer. Who knows