Outdoor wood furnace/boilers, anyone using one?

My buddy lives in NY on the border of PA. The small towns are just starting to crack down on outdoor burners because of the smoke , Just something to look in to.

My brother used one for a number of years. He nicknamed it "Woody" for it's appetite. Get ready to cut, stack, load and burn ALOT of wood. He ran it for about 10 years and got tire of it, went back to an interior oil furnace.

Worked good while he used it, so long as you're comfy with the additional workload. Nothin's for free....

I'm in NW PA. A lot of my friends have gone to pellet stoves. All of them say they don't miss the headache that burning wood brings. I'm not sure of the cost off pellets but my one friend says it cheaper than fuel oil or propane.

Pellet stoves are a good, relatively inexpensive way, to heat your home. A base unit can be had for 1500 bucks or less. But those come with a few inconveniences...no thermostat, just on or off. You have to continually load pellets and they only burn pellets.

High end units, 5k or so are thermostaticaly controlled, have an external hopper that holds a winters worth of fuel, capable of burning pellets, wheat, corn, rice...etc, and can be connected to your central duct work. The ash from either unit is negligible.

If I had the money I'd go with geo-thermal. Up front costs are high but once the savings are realised...it's as close to free heating/cooling as you can get.

They still allow coal heating in rural areas here although they're getting fewer. Outdoor boiler and hot water heating systems mostly. Cheapest way to heat with some caveats. Around $45 cdn a tonne here with an average house burning about 15 tonnes per year.

My parents bought and refurbed an old farmhouse. Installed geo-thermal. Total electric bill less than 50 bucks a month. I think they calculated the central heat/air was 15 bucks a month. The rest was dishwasher, washer dryer, air compressor and welder in the shop. Just can't beat it.