Outdoor Hydronic Heater - The Advantages an Outdoor Hydronic Heater or Wood Fired Heater
Wood fires have been heating homes and water for cooking and washing since the first housewife brow-beat the first husband with the first “Honey, please do this…” list. And chopping wood for the fire was definitely on that list. And most modern husbands are very glad for the invention of electric and gas fired heaters.
But with the rising costs of electric bills and gas prices, wood-fired or outdoor hydronic heaters are making a strong comeback in certain areas of the world. In many heavily forested, yet chilly northern climes, many homeowners are installing these economical wood burning heaters by the hundreds every winter.
Heating your home with an outdoor hydronic heater can be difficult and let’s face just plain complicated. This is a subject that is just too big to tackle in this type of article. But if you have ever wondered just what how an outdoor hydronic or wood burning water heating system worked then you should read this article.
How Does an Outdoor Hydronic Heater Work?
Outdoor hydronic heaters go by many different names: wood burning heaters, outdoor furnaces, wood stove heaters, water stoves or just simply a wood boiler depending on their size and functional designs. Hydronic heaters can be both a safe and efficient way to heat water for your domestic needs (washing, bathing and cooking) and warming your home.
The idea is a simple one. A large wood powered boiler or furnace is located in a small self-contained shed or building outside your home. Wood is burned inside a chamber and the resulting flames are used to create very hot water which then travels into the home by way of heavy insulated water line. The heated water can be used in a traditional water-based heating system or stored in a conventional hot water storage tank.
The heat inside the home is maintained via a thermostat which controls the damper system on the outdoor hydronic heater or wood boiler. As the temperature drops the thermostat opens the remote damper which lets in more air. The increased oxygen flow causes the fire to burn hotter which increases the temperature of the water into the house.
Advantages of Outdoor Hydronic Heaters
Unlike other forms of wood heating, these units have super-sized combustion chambers which allow the homeowners to reduce the number of times that they lay in wood for burning. This in turns reduces the amount of time someone must spend out of doors in sub-freezing temperatures chopping, stacking and loading firewood.
For homeowners who have access to very inexpensive or free cordwood and who do not mind the time spent preparing and stocking the hydronic heater, this method is much less expensive than electric, gas or oil fired furnaces.
For many homeowners who desire to heat their houses with wood, a remote outdoor hydronic heater may be their only option since many insurance companies refuse to insure homes with wood stoves or heavily panelize them in case of any type of fire, no matter how minor.
Another point for an outdoor hydronic heater is that unlike a traditional wood stove, indoor air quality is not comprised with smoke or fumes. All the things that most people don’t enjoy about a wood fire are contained out of doors.
Now that you know a bit more about how outdoor hydronic heater systems work and some of the advantages to using one, you can start your own research on whether they would be a good solution for heating your home.
