All about heating your home with wood

Heating a house with wood, despite the presence of many other types of heating, does not lose its relevance today. Most often, they resort to it in the absence of a gas pipeline. This type of heating is commonly used in rural areas. Quite often, wood heating is used to heat private and country houses, cottages and garages.

Advantages and disadvantages

There are many advantages to heating with wood. The main thing is their low cost. It is lower than the price of gas or electricity. Moreover, even woodworking waste can be used for this type of heating. Moreover, by no means all the settlements of our country are gasified. This is especially true for villages in rural areas. Heating with logs is also great for summer cottages.

An important factor when choosing heating with wood is the environmental friendliness of this fuel and the comfort that it allows you to feel. This is not only warmth, but also visual pleasure from the sight of burning wood in a fireplace or in a stove equipped with a panoramic transparent screen, which is usually built into the fuel loading door.

Heating with wood also has disadvantages. The first is the lack of automation. After all, the fuel will have to be loaded into the stove, boiler or fireplace with your own hands, and this takes a lot of time and effort. In this, heating with logs is significantly inferior to gas and electric heating systems. After all, they can be operated practically without human intervention.

In advance, you will need to take care of the availability of a supply of firewood. You can buy them or make your own. In addition, if the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe house is large, you will have to additionally use radiators, since it is unlikely that it will be possible to achieve good heating with just a fireplace or stove. Especially in winter. It is best to use a boiler with a water circuit.

Despite the fact that firewood is affordable for everyone, you will need to spend money on installing a stove, boiler or fireplace. And this “pleasure” cannot be called cheap. You will also have to mount all the additional equipment that will be required to heat your home with high quality.
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Proper production of wood heating

Modern wood fuel heating systems have significant differences from previously used schemes.

Attention: Brick stoves, which acted as a heat exchanger, transferring the generated heat to the room, were replaced by modern fireplaces, boilers and stoves.

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The choice of heating device depends on the availability of space for installation and the area of ​​the building. When choosing a wood heating system, you need to pay attention to the following factors:

1. Thermal power of the device. It depends on the area of ​​the house, the degree of its thermal insulation and the climatic zone in which it is located.
2. The need to allocate space for a boiler or furnace. The device for heating with wood fuel must be installed in a room specially designated for this purpose, which must meet certain requirements. In particular, have stable ventilation.
3. Availability of storage space for fuel. Wood must not be stored in a room where a stove or boiler is located. They must be stored separately.

To determine the device that is best suited for heating with wood, you should take into account the parameters of the building and your financial capabilities. As practice shows, the most popular and effective option is to use a double-circuit boiler with a water circuit in a private house. It will allow not only to warm the building with high quality, but also to always have hot water at hand. But in order to make the final choice in favor of one or another device for heating on wood, you should consider each of them in more detail.

Be sure to read: types of heating systems in a wooden house.

Wood heating options

In order for the house to be warm, you should choose the right wood-burning heating of a country or private house that will be used. As already mentioned, a stove, fireplace or boiler can be used for this purpose.

Attention: When choosing, you should start from the number of rooms and the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe building.

Usually, if the house is small, a stove or fireplace is installed. Otherwise, it is better to install a boiler with a water circuit. Let’s take a closer look at each option:

1. Furnace heating is characterized by high efficiency and a small heating area. But at the same time, it is the easiest to install. Furnace heating is suitable for buildings up to 60 m².
2. Water heating includes a boiler (fireplace, stove) with a pipeline connected to it. Thermal energy is transferred through radiators. This heating option is good for buildings over 80 m².
3. Fireplace heating is in many ways similar to stove heating. The main difference is in a more capacious combustion chamber. In some cases, such a boiler may have a hob.

The heating system using wooden logs can be significantly improved. For example, a heat exchanger can be installed in the furnace, which will allow you to create a full-fledged water heat supply.

But most often, a wood-burning boiler is used to heat the house. It is much easier and more practical to use than a stove or boiler. In addition, it can be made independently.

Making a wood-fired boiler yourself

Making a wood-fired boiler with your own hands is not at all difficult. You just need to choose the right grade of steel. Its thickness must be at least 1.5 mm. The boiler is recommended to be made by welding. But since it takes a lot of time, steel barrels with the desired wall thickness are often used.

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It is best if the barrel capacity is 200 liters. It must be cut along, and inside to make a partition. This will be required to install the wheels. A hole is made on the end part for mounting the door, which is recommended to be selected in advance. You will also need a chimney with a diameter of not more than 10 cm. It is located on the reverse side and serves to remove carbon monoxide.

But if you intend to install a heating boiler made by yourself, you should be aware that it has some disadvantages. First of all, it is low efficiency and short service life. In addition, if you accidentally touch its surface, you can get burned, as it gets very hot.

A hand-made wood-burning boiler is perfect for heating various outbuildings with a small area. For example, barn, garage, etc. If you need to heat a country or private house, it is best to install a factory model, which will be of much better quality and will allow you to heat the building well.

Arrangement of the boiler room

Wood heating of a country house implies the allocation of a room in which the boiler and devices for its control will be located. This room must meet the following parameters:

• the presence of a smoke channel with a height of at least 4 m;
• area not less than 6 m²;
• the presence of combined lighting;
• ceiling height not less than 2.5 m;
• presence of forced ventilation.

Attention: Room decoration should be made of fire-resistant materials. If the boiler has electrical components, there must be a power supply line.

What kind of firewood is best to use

Much for good heating depends on what kind of firewood you use. It should be taken into account that the specific heat transfer of this type of fuel is much lower than, for example, gas. For firewood, the heat transfer is — a maximum of 17.4 MJ / kg, and for gas — 31.8 MJ / kg. Moreover, to maintain the desired temperature, logs should be regularly thrown into the oven.

There are two ways to increase the time between downloads:

• heating with wood, which emit the most heat;
• installation of a furnace or heat generator with a large combustion chamber.

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In the latter case, it should be borne in mind that the volume of the combustion chamber of boilers is much larger than that of furnaces. Also, stoves are characterized by slower heating, during which you will often have to throw firewood. But then, you can enjoy the heat, as the fuel will burn quite intensively and this will be accompanied by a large heat transfer.

Much depends on the wood you use. Ash, hornbeam and oak are distinguished by the greatest heat transfer. Their burning temperature is about 1000 degrees. In addition, they give a strong heat. The worst firewood from poplar. Their combustion temperature is less than 500 degrees, which means that the consumption of firewood will be greater, and the heat transfer will be less.

Attention: Since ash and oak are quite valuable tree species that are used to make various furniture, doors and various other things, it is best to use birch or white acacia for heating your home. Of course, if these types of trees grow in your area.

Much depends on how dry the firewood is. After all, if they are wet, then the heat transfer will be minimal. This is due to the fact that most of the heat generated is required to evaporate moisture. If you buy firewood, you should carefully check its dryness. And if you harvest them yourself, the firewood should be dried well. This is the only way to achieve high-quality heating with a reasonable consumption of firewood.

Do-it-yourself wood-burning heating of a private house allows you not only to save a lot of money, but also to effectively heat the building even in severe frosts. It will not be difficult to make a stove, boiler or fireplace on your own. But it is best to purchase a factory product, as it will be of better quality and will last much longer. Of course, this system is not without some drawbacks and, for example, is inferior to heating with gas or electricity. But still, the demand for wood-burning boilers, stoves and fireplaces is still great. These devices are indispensable for high-quality heating of houses in rural areas in the absence of gas supply there.