So, it's the dead of winter, and the power goes out.

[MaineShark]

I wanna burn wood as my primary energy source for heating.  I grew up in a wood-heated house, and have lived in and owned wood-heated homes many times during my life.  Cutting/transporting/stacking wood is a chore I'm used to and acclimated to.  It does suck to be a slave to the wood burner so some sort of back-up source would be great.  Usually, the back-up source I've been used to has been electric baseboard heat set very low to keep the pipes from freezing.  Cheap to install and used only rarely.  I think as a last-ditch level of defense such a system will still have a place in my future home.  But I'd rather have an oil/gas/electric-fueled water system to suppliment the wood.  Maybe being able to burn coal/corn would be good too.

That's why a storage tank is nice.  You don't have to slave yourself to the wood burner every day.  With a decent tank, you can get several days of heat from one burn.

I'm actually working in my spare time on a design for a wood boiler that should be much more efficient and flexible than those currently on the market.

Joe

[polyanarch]

When I build my house I am SO hiring you!

I don't mind loading the burner once a day.  Lighting it is a pain too -but a slow controlled burn fed once a day or let go down for 2 days but with good air control so there will be embers yet to start the next burn after that would be nice. 

My last house I heated with a nice wood stove with good air control and a fan blowing air through the stove.  I could heat my entire tri-level home of 2200 square foot with the one stove if it wasn't too cold in WI winters.  If it got REALLY cold I could light the stove in the finished basement too or if we were using the finished basement it would be a bit cool down there if we only used the one on the level above.  I had to feed the stoves 2 times a day to keep the house warm but if I let it idle down I could throw wood on nearly 48 hours after the last stoke and not have to relight. 

I had a Nat-gas conventional furnace so if I didnt' want to deal with the wood (especially if it was not that cool out!) I could just let the furnace do the work and pay more for the gas bill.  I also would just run the furnace fan sometimes to help move the air around when I was using only one stove.

Loading the stoves 2 times a day wasn't bad.  Took 10 minutes in the morning before I went to work and again in the afternoon as the sun went down.  Night burn didn't last as long as the day burn did as it was colder.  After a while one gets good and just "knowing" how much to put in and what to set the air intake on for the stoves.  My X-wife was home most of the time and could keep an eye on it.  I was REALLY  nervous about those damn wood stoves when they were left unattended.  An outside wood boiler with the door facing into a poleshed filled with wood 100' away from the house would make me feel MUCH BETTER! although a last-ditch wood stove like the one I had in my last house would still be installed into my home.  Most of the time it would be just for looks or maybe burned for ambiance but would easily keep the home warm if the boiler was broke/blew up and burned down...

Back-ups are my middle name.  I'm a little bit paranoid about being cold...  I grew up in Wisconsin!