2021 - Volume #BFS, Issue #21, Page #11
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“We Started Saving $500 a Month on Our Heating Bill”
With a baby on the way, Maria and Joe Bailey from Jacobson, Minnesota, knew it was time to make a change in the way they heated their home. “We were spending at least $2,500 on propane a year,” said Maria, “so we wanted to make a change to something that we could manage more successfully and use the resources at our home already.”
Heating with wood has always been a popular choice for people who want to save on their heating bill and add comfort to their home. Using an indoor stove or fireplace, however, has its disadvantages. There are risks associated with chimney fires, carbon monoxide and the ongoing mess in the home. Indoor stoves and fireplaces aren’t very good at heating more than one room and they heat unevenly. Areas further away are cooler while areas closer can become too warm.
Outdoor furnaces (also called outdoor boilers or hydronic heaters) improve living conditions in the home. The fire risk (from chimney fires or embers spilling out of an indoor stove)is removed from the home because the outdoor furnace is located outside, and so is the wood, eliminating the mess, bugs and mold that can occur when hauling wood inside or even storing it there.
Outdoor furnaces work with existing heating systems to provide evenly distributed heat throughout the entire home. An outdoor furnace has a firebox that is surrounded by water. As the wood burns, it heats the water. Water is an efficient way of moving heat. The water is circulated to and from the buildings through insulated underground pipes known as ThermoPEX®. In the case of a forced-air furnace, the fan blows through a heat exchanger installed in the plenum to provide heat for the home through existing ductwork. Other methods can use water-to-water heat exchangers or even direct thermal transfer.
Attractive financing options are available that make owning an outdoor furnace a very effective way to wipe out heating bills without taking a hit in the wallet. Many owners install a heat exchanger on their expensive electric water heater and turn it off, which often can make a third or more of a monthly payment. “We had unlimited hot water all winter long,” said Maria. “It was fantastic.”
Even with the monthly payment and cost of wood, an outdoor furnace can be far cheaper than other methods of wood heating. Because of its efficiency and design, the furnace can pay for itself in a few short years.
The Classic Edge Titanium HDX is the newest offering from Central Boiler, an American-owned company that has long been recognized as the industry leader in the advancement of outdoor wood furnaces.
In the U.S., outdoor furnaces must meet the stringent EPA 2020 Step 2 Certified requirements to be used in residential applications. At the time of this publication, the Classic Edge 360, 560 and 760 HDX models are the most efficient outdoor wood furnaces on that list. The company also recently introduced a larger Classic Edge 960 HDX for non-residential applications in the U.S.
With such high efficiencies, these furnaces use up to 60% less wood than traditional methods of wood heating while being one of the cleanest ways available to heat with wood.
Classic Edge HDX models feature a titanium-enhanced stainless steel firebox that ensures zero corrosion inside the firebox. They are built to last a lifetime.
The exclusive FireStar combustion controller is like the cruise control on your car, constantly throttling the air to find the optimal burn for any kind of firewood. That means you can “load it and forget it” and there are no complicated settings to adjust -- the furnace works for everybody “right out of the box.”
More tech-minded users will appreciate the option to see how the furnace is operating from anywhere in the world thanks to the controller’s onboard wi-fi. But all users will appreciate how easy the furnace is to operate, requiring only a few minutes a month to maintain.
For more information on Central Boiler’s line of outdoor wood, wood pellet or coal furnaces, visit the website at: CentralBoiler.com or call 800-248-4681.



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2021 - Volume #BFS, Issue #21