Post
by SteveZee » Thu. Jan. 05, 2012 5:06 pm
franco b wrote:Joanna wrote:Can someone explain the appeal of an outdoor wood furnace? My dad sold the cattle portion of his farm a couple of years ago and now he's replaced the daily silage feeding with furnace feeding. I don't get it.
The appeal is that all the mess stays outside and because it has a large fire box large amounts of wood can be loaded for hopefully long burn times. That's the appeal, but in an effort to avoid burning up all that wood at once and overheating, the air is restricted resulting in lots of smoke and creosote and a very inefficient burn.
Quite right and the majority of the designs (with the exception of the higher tech wood gassification units) will never be efficient. You have a water jacket surrounding a fire box! It can never get to efficient cumbustion temps without boiling the water. It's a design loser from the get go.
