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The
realistic Outdoor Furnace FAQ
for
Furnaces and Boilers
FAQ Forced-Air (Water-less Furnace);
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Send
me YOUR question, to be included here!
What is the
Shaver outdoor wood furnace?
How can the Shaver
heat my home and water?
What are the advantages of the
Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace?
What do the experts say?
What is the BTU rating of your furnace?
Is burning
wood bad for the environment?
How long will the furnace last?
What
about Stainless Steel Wood Furnaces?
How long is the
warranty?
What can I expect to pay for an outdoor wood furnace?
Why is the water jacket so
big? 170 gallons is a lot more than others!
How heavy is your
furnace?
Won't the firebox burn out eventually?
Antifreeze as a Rust Inhibitor
Is this furnace (boiler) pressurized or non-pressurized?
Is there a lot of heat loss when the unit is outside and it's below
32° F?
Can I connect the
Shaver to a forced air heating system?
I only have baseboard electric heat, how can I use the
Shaver?
Can I heat my domestic water with the
Shaver?
Can I connect the
Shaver to a pressurized heating system?
Should I consider radiant heat?
Can the
Shaver heat my pool and/or spa?
Can I heat more than one building?
Can I use an outdoor wood furnace if I live in town?
How often do I have to fill it up?
Does the furnace come fully assembled?
Can boilers explode?
Do these furnaces need to be near the house?
Do I have a choice of colors?
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According to the UL (Underwriters
Laboratories) our furnace needs to be 5 feet away from flammables. The
ThermoWind units cannot generally be more than 15 feet from your home
because the temperature losses and airflow losses but in no case can be more
than 30 feet away from your existing ductwork.
Water models can be
up to 300 feet away.
Shaver Outdoor Wood Burning Furnace
is one of the leading and oldest manufacturers of outdoor wood furnaces in
Northern America. We have been building quality wood furnaces since 1972 -
40 years!
We have a simpler, nicer looking furnace that's made to stand the test
of time. We use our own tried and true 40 year old
design. We believe we have the best - and certainly
the best price by far.
We are located in north Arkansas and know all about
cold temperatures. We heat our own 5,000 sq ft home with a Shaver Outdoor
Wood Furnace.
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| What is the Shaver
Outdoor Wood Fired Furnace? |
| It is a safe and efficient way to heat your home with wood. The Shaver furnace is designed to look like an attractive storage building and is
installed outside, away from the home or building being heated.
Having an
outdoor furnace eliminates smoke, pollution and wood debris within
the house. A water jacket surrounds the huge furnace firebox and the heat
is transferred from the wood fire to the water.
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| How can the Shaver Wood
Furnace heat my home and water? |
| The heated water is pumped to the home or building through insulated
underground pipes (Pex pipe). A water-to-air heat exchanger or direct circulation
conveys the heat into the home's forced-air furnace, boiler, or radiant
floor heating system.
It can also supply potable hot water to the water heater to provide
domestic hot water. This allows for normal thermostatic control of
temperatures for safe, even, comfortable heat.
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| What are the advantages of the Shaver
outdoor wood boiler? |
| The Shaver furnace removes fire hazards from your home or building because all
of the burning takes place outside.
An outdoor wood furnace also helps your indoor air quality and can alleviate respiratory and allergy problems
caused by burning wood indoors . No more dark sooty walls and bugs either!
Thermostatic control provides your home with even, steady heat.
Current owners of the Shaver Furnace are also using up to 25 to 50 percent less
wood compared to other heating alternatives. Since the Shaver can burn
larger pieces of wood it will dramatically reduce time spent preparing the
wood. Costs for large round timbers are also dramatically less than for
smaller split wood. You can get this type of wood for $45-90 a cord compared
to $120+.
The Shaver Wood Furnace means easy maintenance and few parts requiring
service. You don't need costly electrical gadgets and features to cause
problems down the road. This is a proven design of over 38
years! Keep it
simple and efficient, is our motto.
The house will be less drafty when heating with the outside boiler, because there is no combustion device operating inside drawing in cold outside air to replace that used in combustion.
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First and foremost the
firebox thickness is the most important factor. We have the thickest
firebox in the industry at just shy
of 1/2" (optional) - compared to 1/4" from our nearest
competitor. That's 100%
thicker and that's important because the firebox is always the first thing
to fail. Most furnaces are only .125 to .1875" thick, with only 2
others that are .250" thick.
We have a 20 year parts AND labor warranty. Most others just cover parts
or their warranty is much shorter - read the fine print!!
There is a blower in back that feeds air into the firebox, below the
grate, to feed oxygen to the fire. Feeding the fire from the bottom (just
like a blacksmith would) is the best way to get complete combustion from
the wood. This is infinitely better than a fan on the front door blowing
air into the side of the fire - or a manual draft. The fan is
thermostatically controlled to keep the water at a set temperature and is
adjustable.
The grate is made out of 3/4 inch bar stock. We have NEVER had one burn
through!
The ash pan is approx. 16" wide x 34" long and is 8" high.
Many furnaces don't even have one, requiring you to let the fire die down
in order to clean it.
We also have a 50 foot POTABLE water coil (for your water heater) made out
of 50 feet of coiled 5/8" OD copper tubing!
With our built-in heat exchanger don't need a separate heat exchanger for
the hot water heater, often called a side-arm exchanger. We have 3 water
outputs. One is potable water using a sealed copper tube and lines to your
water heater. The other outputs give you the whole 170 gallon tank of
water that is circulated with a pump to the inside heat exchanger.
We have a 170 gallon water tank! Many manufacturers only use 90-125 gallon
tanks! The size is critical when heating a larger home. DON'T BELIEVE IT
when they say they can heat 4,000 sq. ft. and have 300,000 BTU from 100
gallons. That's impossible without heating the water to over 300 degrees!
Science is science!
The firebox is round and is 36" wide x 26" high (due to the
grate and ash pan in the bottom) x 34" deep. It is made from almost
4/10th of an inch of solid steel. We've never had one rust through!
It is totally surrounded with 170 gallons of water, so that it absorbs the
maximum amount of heat possible! The water jacket surrounding the firebox
is rectangular and is made from 1/8 inch thick metal - the standard in the
industry for water tanks - as opposed to auto body thickness sheet metal
on others. We are two times thicker; 11 gauge vs. 16 gauge.
The chimney is made out of 5 inch schedule 40 pipe (1/4" thick) and
is surrounded by water as well. It tops out at about 90" above
ground. You can EASILY add extensions with standard 6" stovepipe.
The chimney is low in the firebox and exits about 1 foot from the bottom
shelf, so that the smoke - or more importantly, the heat - is trapped so
that it doesn't quickly escape out the flue. That would be a big loss of
efficiency. This is also a better idea since you don't have baffles
creating a lot of smoke and getting a creosote buildup on them that's hard
to clean.
This also creates a 2nd burn chamber, to more completely burn the gases
and wood! When wood starts to burn it's the escaping gas that burns first,
then the wood!
The water surrounds the ash pan as well. As anyone with a woodstove or
furnace knows, ashes put out a lot of heat!
There is a full-size rear door approx 40 x 48 inches. This makes it VERY
easy to make connections and to service it. There is no need to pull the
whole shell off as with other furnaces!
We have an extra large, waist-high loading door - 18" x 18"
suitable for putting BIG pieces of wood in! A 30" piece 15" in
diameter will weigh 115 lb!
The door material is made with a 1/2 inch frame and a 1/4 inch outside
steel plate plus a 1/4 inch thick inside steel plate separated by the air
gap between the steel plates. This door will never burn through! The
insulating ability is the air gap plus the reflective factor. The inside
plate only 4 bolts attach it to the door so there is very little
heat transfer.
These furnaces now come with a double flood light on the front for safety
and ease of loading the wood. Not only that, it's a MOTION LIGHT! No
switches. No forgetting to turn it off. If it's dark outside and you go
near the furnace, it turns on!
There are legs on the bottom with a skirt surrounding the bottom to ground
level to keep it warm and dry.
The exterior is made of Heavy Duty Siding - 29 gauge with 10 coatings and
it has a Lifetime film integrity warranty and 30 years against fade and
chalk
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| What do the experts say?
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| According to the University of Nebraska,
"Wood burning stoves may not only save people money on their heating
bills this winter, but also are a clean alternative to electric or gas
furnaces," Adams said.
Scott Josiah, state forester with the
Nebraska Forest Service at UNL, said "There also are environmental
benefits to using wood heat. Wood heat produces little pollution and is
environmentally friendly, especially when wood is used in a
high-efficiency wood burning stove and where firewood is a readily
available resource."
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| What is the BTU rating of your furnace? |
| 165,900 BTU. Don't believe the outlandish claims of 300,000 BTU from a
100 or 120 gallon furnace! They simply aren't true.
A BTU is The amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 pound
of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.
That means that if the normal water temperature is 60 degrees F and it
needs to be raised to 180 degrees, that it will take 163,200 BTU to do
this. Remember that a pound of water is about 16 ounces. A gallon of water
is approx 8 lb.
(170 gal. x 8) = 1360 lb.
Temperature change = 120 degrees
1360 x 120 = approx. 163,200 BTU
You'd have to heat 100 gallons of water to 435 F to extract 300,000 BTU
- simply not possible.
Find out how many BTUs you need HERE.
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| Is wood burning bad for the environment? |
| A wood heating system is the right choice for the increasing number of
consumers who are concerned about our environment. Wood is a totally
renewable resource, which, when burned, results in no net carbon dioxide
increase. Carbon dioxide is a part of the natural plant-growth cycle and
occurs naturally when trees are allowed to rot on the forest floor. In
fact, burning a piece of wood puts out the same mount of carbons as a piece
rotting on the forest floor.
On the other hand, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide when burned
which otherwise would stay trapped in the earth. This causes a net
increase in carbon dioxide, which is believed to be responsible for the
heat-trapping "greenhouse effect." So when heating with wood
versus fossil fuels, you actually achieve a net reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions.
In addition, harvesting firewood has a pruning effect on forests, which
allows net growth to flourish. The wood you burn likely comes from your
local area -- it's not imported and not subject to price increases due to
events outside your control, as is the case with oil.
Many times the owners have land with fallen trees spread throughout
abundantly.
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| How long will the furnace last? |
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The life of your furnace depends upon proper maintenance. With proper
maintenance your furnace will give you many years of dependable service.
We have Shaver Furnaces in service that are over 30 years old, with wood
siding!
We give you a 20-year warranty which shows our faith in our furnaces!
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| What about
Stainless Steel Wood Furnaces?
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| Stainless steel may not last longer than mild steel in
an outdoor furnace, as all stainless is NOT a “forever” product.
There are many grades and some of them are subject to rusting and
corrosion. Automobile exhaust systems are made from one of the lower
grades; they resist high temperatures but totally corrode. Most outdoor
furnace manufacturers went to stainless steel to get in on the stainless
quality image, but since it’s expensive many of them went to a low-cost,
cheap-grade stainless - which is still subject to rust and corrosion!
During the manufacturing and welding process for stainless steel, if the
proper quantity and blend of corrosion-resistant and stabilizing elements
are used, then it does indeed become a “forever” product. These
elements optimize weldability without the need for post-weld annealing to
restore ductility, formability, toughness and corrosion resistance.
If you do purchase one of the lower grade stainless steel furnaces, be
sure that the same model made in steel has a proven track record of
corrosion resistance. The furnace design is every bit as important as
the material that it’s made from.
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| How long is the warranty? |
| The standard warranty is a 5-year unconditional ON-SITE warranty including parts and labor
on the entire structure. The electrical parts such as the pump have a one
year manufacturer's warranty.
Shaver Outdoor Furnaces also offers a standard 20-year warranty
covering parts, labor and corrosion.
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| What can I expect to pay for an outdoor wood furnace? |
| Prices will vary depending on the shipping location but our prices start
at $4,477.
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| Why is the water jacket so
big? 170 gallons is a lot more than others! |
| Many stoves do not have enough water capacity and tend to cycle too
often. You load the stove with wood and fire it. With a small water
capacity, the water reaches set point temperature and the stove shuts
down. The Hardy™ just has 100 gallons in their base
model and 130 in the next model up! You still have a good load of wood in
the firebox that sits there and smolders.
The Shaver Outdoor Furnace has a large water tank capacity, so you can
burn the total load of wood with good draft, burn and efficiency.
More water also means more capacity (available BTUs) but at the same
time the water
doesn't have to be heated as much either.
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| How heavy is your furnace? |
Our furnaces weigh in at a hefty 1839 lb dry, which is a testimony as to
how much steel is really in the furnace. The Hardy H2 furnace only weighs
650 lb. The Hardy H4 is only 850. Hmmm...
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| Won't the firebox burn out eventually? |
The Shaver Outdoor Furnaces are made with heavy gauge steel and will
never rust out, to be sure. We have NEVER had a firebox failure.
Can you imagine a piece of metal 1/2"
thick ever rusting though? (many boilers out there are only 1/5"
thick). There are many Shaver Furnaces with over 30 years in service
with the 3/8" thick firebox, still going
strong. 3/8" is 50% thicker than most of the competition and we have
NEVER had a firebox failure!
What about stress cracks? Since water surrounds the firebox, the metal can only get so hot since
it's being continually cooled by the water. The extreme thickness of the
metal we use helps avoid stress cracks as well. Stress cracks normally occur
in stainless steel furnaces.
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| Antifreeze
as a Rust Inhibitor
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Unscrupulous dealers will
tell you that the sole purpose of antifreeze is to keep the furnace from
freezing up. Not true; the main reason is rust prevention. Rust is the
no/no word in the outdoor furnace business.
Antifreeze is generally not needed as it
takes a long time to freeze 170 gallons of water and there is
plenty of expansion room in the top of the tank anyway.
There are several other alternatives to prevent
freezing and at far less cost. An in-line electric heater can be installed
on the return line and set at just above the freezing mark as an extra
safeguard.
Even better, you can also simply leave the
pump running if you go on vacation and it will extract heat from the
furnace keeping the water warm. The pump uses about the same power as a
100W light bulb.
Antifreeze is an excellent rust inhibitor
but it does have a disadvantage. It is designed to keep engines cooler.
When used in an outdoor furnace, it has been stated that it takes 18
percent more firewood to heat the system water/antifreeze mixture than to
just heat water.
Do not use regular automobile antifreeze.
The best glycol additive is Dowfrost from the Dow Chemical company. It is
environmentally friendly, allows higher operating temperatures, has
excellent anti-corrosion features and has a longer life expectancy than
other glycols.
We have also heard that Beet Juice is an
excellent and inexpensive antifreeze! Beet Juice has a neutral Ph just
like water.
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| Is this furnace (boiler) pressurized or non-pressurized? |
| The Shaver Outdoor Furnaces are non-pressurized. Technically they are
atmospheric vented, which means they are totally safe and never build
pressure.
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| Is there a lot of heat loss when the unit is outside and it's below
32° F? |
| The units are highly insulated to avoid heat loss. In fact icicles form
on the outside in the winter. That means that heat is being kept inside.
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| Can I connect the
Shaver to a forced air heating system? |
| Yes, more than 70% of all installations are connected to existing forced
air heating systems. This is the easiest to install except for a
free-hanging unit in a garage or shop.
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| I only have baseboard electric heat, how can I use the
Shaver? |
| Many people with electric baseboards elect to install radiant floor heat
between the floor joists or to replace the baseboard electric heaters with
baseboard Hydronic heaters.
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| Can I heat my domestic water with the
Shaver? |
| Yes, Our system circulates potable hot water in a closed system, between
the boiler and the hot water heater. This keeps the hot water refreshed,
hot and ready to go at all times. No outside heat exchanger and tempering
valve is needed!
Most people find they save between $30 and $60 a month heating their water
with an outdoor furnace/boiler.
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| Can I connect the
Shaver to a pressurized heating system? |
Yes, in one of two ways. By connecting it directly to the existing
system and depressurizing it BUT it is ALWAYS better to use a water-to-water heat
exchanger the heat can be transferred from one system to the other.
This keeps your system pressurized, working just as it is now and it also
can be used as a backup unit - coming on automatically.
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| Should I consider radiant heat? |
| Radiant heat installed under new or existing floors can be a great way
to heat your home. Radiant floor heat is the most efficient way to
transfer heat, however, it is important that you design the system
correctly. Many people with electric baseboard heaters opt for this
method.
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| Can the Shaver heat my pool and/or spa? |
| Yes, many Shaver Outdoor Furnace customers heat their pool and/or spa.
You can put wood in the furnace every 3 days or more in the summer. I
guess this is where many manufacturers get the outlandish claims of 72 -
96 hours burn time!
Remember that smoke output will be greater in the summer due to
the smoldering fire and plan
accordingly.
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| Can I heat more than one building? |
| One of the many advantages of the Shaver Outdoor Furnace is the ability
to heat multiple buildings from one location. Every furnace comes with two
sets of ports (or zones) standard. Simply add a pump and run Pex
line to your location and you will have an additional heated area or
building.
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| Can I use an outdoor wood furnace if I live in town? |
| Wood may not be the best fuel choice in densely populated urban areas
where automobile exhaust and other pollution already puts excessive
strains on air quality. Smoke can also overwhelm your neighbors if the
wind blows the wrong way.
However, in suburban, small town, and rural areas,
wood makes good sense. If you choose to install your Shaver furnace in a
densely populated area the stack height should exceed the rooflines of
existing homes.
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| How often do I have to fill it up? |
| We put wood in our furnace at 8 AM and 8 PM., partially filling it 2 times a day. Don't
believe exaggerated claims of 72-96 hours! This just isn't possible
- except in the summer, heating only water and a pool, hot tub or spa.
We did a test of a furnace heating a 5,000 sq. foot house. We let the
fan run 24/7 instead of it going off an on with the thermostat. This
allowed the fire to burn fast and furious non-stop. We still had wood in
it after 12 hours! This is like burning the furnace on a -30F day!
The size of your house, outdoor temperatures, wind speed, the type of
wood you're burning and the size of the house
will determine how much wood you use and how often you fill the furnace
along with whether you heat hot water.
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| Does the furnace come fully assembled? |
| Yes. Like most major appliances the unit is delivered to you ready to
install.
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| Can boilers explode? |
| The Shaver Outdoor Furnace is a non-pressurized systems which totally
eliminates this possibility.
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| Do these furnaces need to be near the house? |
| We recommend that the Shaver Outdoor Furnace be within 100 feet of the
house. Claims in product brochures and manufacturer's
websites that these units can be 500 ft from the house are totally
unbelievable.
It is hard to see much heat energy being left after a run of
500 ft. - even with underground temperatures of 55-60 degrees below the
frost line.
The furnace can be 10 feet from the house. 2 feet? Don't
believe it unless you don't have windows or you have a 20 foot smoke
stack.
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| Do I have a choice of colors? |
| The Shaver Furnace is available in TWENTY different colors, to be sure it
will compliment the exterior of your home or match other buildings..
Currently available colors are shown below:
Click on image for a LARGER PICTURE
You
can have the side, corners and roof in any color or
combination you want!
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