Chincoteaguer

I have a forced hot air system with humidifyer but am not satisfied with system. It works as advertised and I have had no system problems since installation 11 years ago. But there are several other problems: my wife has allergies (hot air just churns up allergens); the humidifyer helps but house is still too dry; and we do not have natural gas access and must burn expensive propane. The past two months we burned $1,800.00 of propane

I hope to install supplementary baseboard heating that uses a wood burning source. I would keep the gas heater and ducking but would install baseboard in the kitchen, dining room, and living areas. I have burned wood in an older house (space heaters) and have a lot of standing hardwood on the property. Also, there are many sources for reasonably priced hard wood in the area.

Is this a project that requires more than a "shade tree fixit man's expertise"? Are contractors for this work available and should I pay to have it done? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

kok328

The answers to your questions can't be answered by anyone here unless they know your skills, knowledge and abilities.
For starters, you will need a wood burner with a heat exchanger, a pump to circulate the water and plumbing lines with baseboard radiators, safety cut-outs/controls for over temp and low flow. I'm sure you can find the wood burner and heat exchanger as a package.

nealtw

found this site have a look
I can't set up link so just copy and paste in your search
http://www.houserepairtalk.com/f8/want-wood-burning-baseboard-heat-10615/

nealtw

sorrey try this one

Hydronic woodstoves by Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #105

paul52446m

Hi paul here. is the areas that you want to heat with this wood burner on the ground level.? Do you have a basement or a crawl hole under your home. If you get back with me i can tell you how to do it... Paul

Chincoteaguer

Just finished reading the article from your link. Thanks a bunch! It is a good start. Looks like the article covered exactly what I would like to do. The only negative is that a qualified installer is recommended. I don't mind paying to have the work done but it might be hard to find someone with experience with wood burning boilers.

paul52446m

The out door wood heaters are just that. They are not a wood fired boiler.
They are not under the rules of a boiler. They are not a pressured vessel.
They are just a wood burning heater. Paul

nealtw

talk to the plumbers in your area. this is not new.

Chincoteaguer

yes, area is on ground level. Have good clearence in crawl space. My home is on what we call a point (surrounded on three sides by water). We have about 30 feet on one side of the house before sloping to the water and about half that on the other side. Can't put the burner in the back. Wife would be unhappy to obstruct view of water. Can these burners be placed on a slope (hoping to put on the short slope - not 30ft side). I know they have to be level and I could grade and slab to accomplish this but worry that this is not safe.

Chincoteaguer

Thats a good piece of information. The article seemed to suggest that if you got the wood heater that the boiler came with it. Thanks for the insight.