On 1/24/2010 12:46, FBWNDR wrote:
I'm trying to determine the pros and cons of having a wood boiler
installed on my property. If you haven't heard of these, the boiler
is built to circulate water around the firebox. The water gets pumped
into a heat exchanger which is located in the main heating duct of the
house. The existing indoor furnace pushes the air around the house.

Anyway, I'm looking at a Heatmor boiler, and I'm now looking for
people who have experience with these. The website says that the
boiler has a forced draft fan (75 cfm). It also says that the boiler
can heat a 3000 square foot house. I know a little about combustion,
and I calculated that with 75 cfm, you cannot burn more than 10 lbs of
wood an hour. And if the wood is 45% moisture, then the available BTU
is around 40,000 BTU. A 40,000 BTU furnace is very small for a 3000
square foot house.

So, has anybody dealt with these Heatmor furnces? Can you tell me
anything about performance and maintenance?

thanks,
FB

Friend put a heatmor in last year. That one is probably the best of
those style units available. Most of them are low quality very poorly
designed units (no firebrick etc) which means you get lots of stinky smoke.

I did a heat loss calc for his house but as you stated they simply tout
ridiculous meaningless specs such as "heats 3,000 square foot house". I
don't remember which version he has but I can ask.

There is even better technology available which uses wood gasification
for even higher efficiency and more complete combustion (lots less smoke
too).