[Jack]

As a starting point - at least for materials and specifications - why not try http://www.almath.co.uk/boats.htm

Or, go to the library and look for a Thomas Register, then look up unglazed porcelain crucibles...they should list several manufacturers.

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hawkcreek', 'I') ran across this site when I was looking for an alternative method of heating basalt hot enough to cast (it takes 2400 deg. F).

[Grasshopper]

Hawaii has nearly unlimited free molten basalt!

[canis_lupus]

I need to replace my house's furnace and found yukon eagle. I'm leaning heavily this direction but want to know if there are any other multifuel indoor furnaces around. I'm in the Chicago 'burbs and don't think an outdoor furnaces would be to code. The Yukon-Eagle is fascinating because if the wood burns down and the temperature gets too low, the gas kicks in...if there is gas to kick in.
I'm also making my own biodiesel, which will work as a fuel.

The other question I have is this: will furnaces burn any kind of wood or just hardwoods? I've access to butternut, elm, and willow but will these work as well as hardwoods?

Anybody? Anybody?

[rogerhb]

I was going to install a multi-fool indoor furnace. Apparently there is an endless supply of cornucopians, but if, however they do run out, I can always substitute for a lower quality fool.

[backstop]

It certainly looks good, but before buying so critical a piece of kit I'd insist on names of happy owners somewhere near you to check the actual performance.

That said, a Wood + Gas cooker + boiler is what I'm looking for myself, so I'd be inerested to learn more about it.

With regards to the woods, we don't have Butternut here in Europe, Elm has to be very dry to be any use (an old saying has it: even the flames are cold), while willow burns fine if dry but being a light wood it burns fast.

Untill you can get out of the suburbs, I'd hire a light truck twice a year and load it up on a wooding jaunt.

Regards,

Backstop

[spearGR]

Multifuel boilers are good since they give you the option of various fuels but if you are using wood and not cutting and seasoning it yourself it may cost more to heat your home.
Let me rephrase that.You may not get as much savings as one would think.
Ive heard numbers in the fifteen tons a year category for wood from guys around here who use them.
Now thats a lot of wood to cut, haul,split,stack,dry,carry and feed the furnace.Plus clean the ashes and the flue.
Your new office will be the boiler room for sure..
Does that company have specs as to how much is the wood consumption per hour of the furnace you are looking at?

[WisJim]

Charmaster is another similar brand, also made in Minnesota. I just got brochures from both of these companies, and they seem to make a much better furnace than most of the wood furnaces out their. Look to be more efficient than the average, and lots better than the outdoor boilers. I am looking at wood only, but both Yukon-Eagle and Charmaster make versions that are wood/gas or wood/oil.

[Revi]

I have thought about a multi-fuel, but have decided that we'll just plug a woodstove into the flue if oil becomes scarce or unavailable. It's hard to find an airtight stove that you can put in the basement. The new ones all have glass fronts and bells and whistles. I want a simple all-nighter to heat around 1200 square feet. Anyone know of a stove like that? I checked out the Shenandoah, but I'm not sure if it's very efficient.

[spearGR]

Multifuel is good because maybe at some point you will be burning old tires in it to stay warm.

[Frank]

Burning wood works well if you have your own woodlot. If not, you're just as dependent on others and it's a lot of work to manage wood. You should think about looking into better insulation, passive solar concepts then active solar. Solar probably has higher capital costs but is pretty much free once the installation is done - plus, you don't have to cut, split, carry it...etc.

[EdF]

Tarm has multi-fuel water boilers. Don't know if that's relevant to your situation.

- Ed

[ararboin]

I just ordered an outside wood furnace called Lil' House.

www.outsidewoodheater.com

After several years of using an inside wood stove, I was tired of all the smoke and ash. The Lil' House has one electric fan and can go thru a window; cold air return can go thru another window. Claims to heat up to 2400 sq. ft. Takes big 30" chunks of wood. It is a wood heater only; doesn't heat water. Reasonable price: $1295.

Have my own woodlot so that's not an issue.

[GrizzAdams]

High sales of soild fuel furnaces around the midwest might cut some demand for NG. I think quite a few people took a hint from this years hurricane season. But my main point is that, a lot of peole around the midwest,(which is the biggest user of NG in the US) are switching to wood stoves and such. Which should cut demand to some degree. I think this action should make some kind of signifigant difference.

I as well already purchased a wood stove. I also purchased a new water heater and gutted out my old one, in the hopes that I can use some excess heat from the wood stove to pre-warm the water before it goes into the NG water heater.

However if everybody switches over to wood energy, I would wonder what would happen to tree consumption.

[dooberheim]

I just installed a wood stove this year also. I notice there is a lot of down timber in the city parks here, and while I don't have to worry about wood right now, I can see if half the people in the city were to start to heat with wood a lot of that supply would evaporate in a year.

Home heating and cooking will be one of the most protected uses of natural gas in a shortage. The industrial consumers will be cut off first (including electricity generation), so I suspect there will not be a lack of gas for home heating in the next few years (of course the lights may go out though). Think of what a gas company would have to do to cut off all of its residential customers - I doubt they have enough personnel, trucks, or even meter locks to do that. I suspect when a gas company turns off all of it's residential customers, it will bankrupt them, and the gas will stay off from that point forward.

DK

[Spideykid]

<<However if everybody switches over to wood energy, I would wonder what would happen to tree consumption>>

You don't have to guess plus the air quality will take a hit.

[SinisterBlueCat]

I too 4just put in a wood buring stove, I already had a free standing gas stove in place, so there was a hearth, a flue and a stone wall behind...and it was still expensive to install. I cannot imagine what it would have cost if I need to install all of those things.

While I recognize that sales of wood buring stoves is high in light of rising NG costs, I am not sure most people be be ready willing and able to install them, especially in the suburbs. Plus there are alternatives out there...corn and pellet stoves, that I am hoping will spread demand around.

I am hoping these things are the case anyway, at least for the immediate future....long term, who knows?

[DR_STU]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GrizzAdams', 'I') also purchased a new water heater and gutted out my old one, in the hopes that I can use some excess heat from the wood stove to pre-warm the water before it goes into the NG water heater.

[dbarberic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dooberheim', 'H')ome heating and cooking will be one of the most protected uses of natural gas in a shortage. The industrial consumers will be cut off first (including electricity generation), so I suspect there will not be a lack of gas for home heating in the next few years (of course the lights may go out though).

[dooberheim]

A lot of people in older, smaller houses around here have natural gas space or radiant heaters that don't have a circulating fan, so they'd be OK. Here's one case where it might be better to be poor!!

DK