All About Outdoor Wood Boilers

An outdoor wood boiler (OWB), sometimes called a wood boiler or an outdoor boiler is a furnace, boiler or stove that is designed to burn wood. The unit is often located away from the residence or business in a self-contained shed. The key aspect being is that the building is not meant to hold animals or people, but rather it is meant to house a fire. Outdoor boilers provide heat or hot water to a home and are often located in rural or remote parts of the country where wood is plentiful.

The typical outdoor wood boiler looks like a small utility shed with a short smoke stack. In reality, the shed protects a water-jacketed firebox where fires burn at approximately 1000 degrees F. The combustion in the firebox heats the water reservoir, which is then pumped to the house, shop, swimming pool or any application that requires heat. The heat is often transferred to the home through flexible pipes buried in the ground.

The fundamental design of an outdoor wood boiler encourages a cooler fire which maximizes the transfer of heat to the water. Cool fires by their nature are less efficient than hotter fires and may produce considerable smoke and creosote. The smoke associated with outdoor wood boilers is making it difficult to purchase, install or operate a wood boiler in many communities.

In fact, an increasing number of regulations are being developed at the local and municipal level to strongly regulate the typical outdoor wood boilers. States that include Vermont and New York are making it more difficult to purchase or operate a outdoor wood boiler, except when the owner is miles from a neighbor. There is an excellent article in the July 2006 issue of Hearth and Home magazine titled, "Smoke Get In Your (Neighbor's) Eyes" that describes pending regulations and paints a rather dire picture for traditional outdoor wood boilers.

Luckily, there are options.A number of manufacturers are beginning to invest in cleaner technologies, although the availaility of these improvements may be long after outdoor wood boiler units become regulated.

There is a bright lining, there are new technologies like the those in the Greenwood Furnace where meeting the standards of the proposed regulations does not pose an issue.

A typical outdoor boiler installation often costs between $4,000 - $15,000 including installation

Several of the more popular outdoor wood boilers inlude:

• Central Boiler
• Northwest Manufacturing (WoodMaster)
• Aqua-Therm
• Heatmor
• Wood Doctor
• Hardy Manufacturing
• Alpha American (Yukon-Eagle)
• Charmaster
• Freedom Outdoor Furnace
• Global Hydronics
• Heat Innovations
• Heatsource1
• Hicks Waterstoves
• Horstmann Industries (Royal Furnace)
• Innotech Development (Pacific Western)
• Johnson Manufacturing
• Mahoning Outdoor Furnace
• Noonan's Welding and Heating (Northland)
• Turbo Burn
• Timber Ridge (Free Heat Machine)
• ProFab (Empyre, Cozeburn)
• SFC Industries (Altimate)