Using outside wood furnace for heating greenhouse

18 years ago

We are installing an outside wood furnace and was wondering if anyone has used theres for heating there greenhouse. The installer has said that it works great.

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Comments (4)

lamedicineman
18 years ago
With the price of fuel sky rocketting, your idea of a wood burning furnace sounds great. What type are you using? I am considering doing this myself. Best of luck!
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barrie2m_(6a, central PA)
18 years ago
I know of a few people using them and the outside furnaces are not limited to wood or coal. I priced one at a Ag trade show that was burning soybean hulls and could burn corn,wheat, barley or most other grains. The heaters can usually be used to heat 2 or more greenhouses. The catch for me was the price of the exchanger units which mount inside the GH and the circulation pumps and insulated lines needed to carry the exchange fluid to and from the GH. You can easily double the cost of your GH with one of these units.

I heat my smallest GH with wood but it is an internal unit. Its no small task to start a fire every night and then tend to it every 5 hours but then it cost under $20 for the stove and I usually only need it 6 weeks in the spring.

Wood heat is usually considered cheap but if you need to buy the stove, a heat exchanger, pump, run electric line, pour a concrete base and pay a hefty installation fee it may not be worth it. If you don't have free wood or need to purchase a chainsaw, splitter, solar dryer, truck and wood storage shed then you better rethink the idea.
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I have a central boiler with a maximum 500,000 BTUs. The firebox is 5'x4'x3' and the 400 gallons of water surround the firebox. I am only heating the ghs with this stove. I am in zone 3 and the coldest morning of the winter is often near -30 and only rarely -40, but I am quite sheltered from the wind and we usually have enough snow for some insulation around the bottom. Yes, I have poly on both the inside and outside of 4" walls. A 30'x30' pyramid is 900 square feet and the cubic feet is found by multiplying 1/3 of the 20 ft. height. So the volumn of air is much less than a building with vertical sides. The 51,000 BTU figure is something I can work with. I'll see what the 8' finned tubes are rated at or what a plentum in a furnace blower is. A was going to try the first one with manual ball valves with a bypass and the second one I was going to try to make it thermostatic and automaticly controlled with a pump or zone valve.
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Heat only comes out the back when the thermostat kicks on and the unit is making cool air. When the room cools and the thermostat kicks off, the air coming out of the back of the unit will no longer be hot air. So when it is cold outside, even if you turn on the AC, it won't be making much heat out of the back, so you won't have heat when you need it the most. And on sunny days, you won't need heat at all, but will be stuck with basically a big heater on all the time. Sorry to be a downer. You have the right idea in using something that is being wasted. But capturing heat energy and storing it for later is very challenging. This post was edited by Cole_Robbie on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 12:54
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You should definitely be pricing with just heat pump. I live in NC which probably is a bit colder in the winter. We get down to the teens but only 15 nights a year maybe. Our winter average low is about 30. Under 10 degrees is definitely a news story. I have 5000 sq ft. I'm looking at my NG bill of $30. I have dual fuel and seer 16 heat pumps. Last winter was very cold and I spent about $700 with $200 being gas. This winter is going to be $120 in gas. My electric rates are similar to yours without the first 1000 discount. What is my point? Your gas usage will likely be $100 a year. Even if that were replaced with all heating strips, you'd be saving $200 a year or so. Since it would probable be 80% heat pump still, the dual fuel is only saving you $40 a year. So a $2500 furnace to save $40 a year seems a little crazy (on dollars alone). Turns out for me, it is probably worth it but only marginally so. I have a 90% (which you should be able to do as mine is basement with horizontal PVC exhaust). It probably saves $60-$70 on an average year. Probably cost $2000 (new house - I can't remember). What is that a 30 year payback (or never if you count interest or NG rates increase)? You do get some flexibility and you can setback at will with dual fuel. That is worth something.
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I want to thank everyone for their responses. I got a lot of information that I wasn't expecting. We made an offer on the house we were looking at and it got turned down- too big a difference between what we thought it was worth and what the seller thought it was worth. I'll still keep all of these suggestions in mind as we look at other properties. Of all the ideas we were given, I think the masonry stove is still very interesting- yes I know it takes more work than the other heaters take, but I just like the idea. I think we'd need to build a house to get something like that to fit in it in a way that makes sense. I also liked the other ideas- I never considered coal and will look into that more. I never heard of mini-split heat pumps, and they sound kind of intriguing. Also the wood furnace looked good (especially if retrofitting in an existing house). For reasons I can't explain, I'm not a big fan of the outdoor burners. I couldn't have pictured it in the neighborhood we were looking at anyway. If something happens that's worth reporting on, I'll put in more comments. For now, thanks again.
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aleta47
Original Author
18 years ago
The outside wood furnace is a Woodmaster.It will heat 5000sq.ft. This will heat our house, the Saw sharpening shop and the greenhouse. It cost us $7,400 installed.We already have a wood splitter,and we buy our wood by the 10 pulp cord load. What will be so nice about this heating system NO MORE HAULING WOOD THROUGH THE HOUSE! We only need to fill this stove every 8 to 12 hrs. Our furnace in the house is forced air, at$2.08 cents a gallon for propane, it figures that we will have this outside stove paid for in about 5 years on the savings. The greenhouse will be heated by baseboard hot water heat., this only added 400 dollars on to the price of the stove. I will let yu all know next spring how it worked. I`m excited to be able to grow veggies all winter .
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brother_martin
15 years ago
I have turned an old 12'x12' shed into a green house. The super structure (rafters,studs and plywood floor) is covered with 6mil plastic. I am using a 1500 watt electric heater and another heater that looks like a radiator and is filled with oil the is heated, also using 1500 watts. I have plenty of wood to use as alternate heating. I would like to have an outside wood stove and convert a bathroom exhaust fan to blow the heat in. The power for the blower will be supplied by my 45 watt solar panel array. Any ideas, help would be MUCH appreciated.
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Using outside wood furnace for heating greenhouse

Comments (4)

lamedicineman

barrie2m_(6a, central PA)

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Using outside wood furnace for heating greenhouse

Comments (4)

lamedicineman

barrie2m_(6a, central PA)

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aleta47Original Author

brother_martin

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aleta47
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