subject: Becoming Environmentally Conscious With Hydronic Wood Furnaces [print this page] If you're anything like me, then you have probably been doing some serious thinking about reducing your energy bill, and looking for the right ways to implement cost savings. If so, then you might want to consider the benefits of using hydronic wood furnaces. This is a device that will burn wood in order to heat your water used in the forced air, or hydronic - "water" radiant heat system.
These outdoor wood furnaces are a wood boiler which mostly operate under zero pressure to only produce hot water. The term hydronic relates to a cooling or heating system which transfers heat by circulating fluid through pipes in a closed system. A wood fired boiler burns the wood and produces hot water which then heats your home. These wood fired boilers are generally known as wood fired hydronic furnaces.
The benefit of wood furnaces is they provide hot water used in combination with an existing forced air heating system. The outdoor furnace is a good choice since carbon monoxide can build up with an indoor unit and using an outdoor one completely eliminates that problem. It also eliminates possible gas explosions if you are currently using gas heating for hot water.
This type of heating will lower your utility bill dramatically because wood is cheap and depending where you live, you may even be able to get if for free. Plus, the outdoor furnaces burn larger pieces of wood which are typically less expensive (up to $60 less per cord)
Putting the hydronic furnace outside the home is cleaner and healthier, since there would be no smoke, ashes, bark, soot forming on the walls, or other things associated with indoor fireplaces or wood burning units inside the house. The boiler will stay outdoors, near the wood thus eliminating all the mess and bugs that come with piling wood indoors.
An outdoor unit eliminates any problems that would cause respiratory or allergy problems, which is common to burning wood or even LP or oil and gas indoors. These units can come with thermostats to control them, giving you reliable, steady heat.
Hydronic wood furnaces can be used for heating your home and the are also great for heating hot water with this type of furnace can save up thirty to sixty dollars monthly alone. It will take care of all of your hot water needs and you won't ever have to worry about running out of hot water.
