Posted by Tony Conner on November 18, 2001 at 07:42:13:
In Reply to: wood fired? posted by Jim Humphrey on November 17, 2001 at 18:35:48:
Companies like Heatmor make wood-fired hot water boilers that are designed to be outside in their own little structure (it's like a steel garden shed). I'm not sure their cost effective for a lot of "normal" residential applications. The ones I've seen installed are heating big, 100 - 150 year old two story brick farm houses, and a large shop or two on the farm. The people that buy them are typically farmers with lots of area to heat, plenty of trees on their land, and flexible schedules that allow them to cut, split & stack wood, as well as toss some on the fire as they're walking back to the house for lunch.
These boilers work well, but I don't think they're for everybody. There have been cases of them being installed in more built-up areas, and neighbors downwind complaining about the smoke to the point where by-laws have been enacted.