If you have the land and the energy to find, haul and split logs an outdoor furnace might be the right investment.
My Experience in Hunting for an Outdoor Wood Furance....
Researching all the outdoor wood furnaces one of the things that scared myself were the ones with complex systems such as mother boards, multiple electronics etc.. (Central Boiler for example) all exposed to the outside elements (even if covered by a shed some of the crap does not makes sense for outside applications imo.) More parts equal more things to breakdown and cost someone cash. After reading for about a year, we took the plunge and went with the Shaver Outdoor Furnace that heats about 5000 square feet (total cost around 5.3K delivered). Tipping factor to purchase was Amerigas looking for $330 per month on the budget plan or $3960 per year for propane in 2008. With total cost for parts and installation coming in near 6.5K the Shaver Furnace was a great investment over the last 3 years. Concrete Pad to place furnace was done with Quickrete bags from Lowes (local concrete places were not even in close in price for such a small pad). Once pad was poured next came the digging. Neighbor and I dug it out 30ft by about 36 inches deep and had to remove a few tree stumps in the process. Further away from house you go the more cost for digging and the most costy parts being the insulated pex lines (also heat loss maybe a factor depending on how deep, and how long the run of pex is). We ran 2 3/4 inch for hot water heater that run from water heater to a 50ft copper coil in the water jacket of the outdoor wood furance and 2 1 inch lines for heating the house that run into a water to air heat exchanger sitting on top of the existing furnace right before the duct work.
Shaver Outdoor Furnace parts 2 circulating pumps (around $75 each) easy to find, blower fan (about $50), aquastat or temp. switch to turn the fan on(about $60). We keep our temp. setting around 160F with 20 degree differential (shuts off at 180 turns on at 140).
Problems with Operation of Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace
Dayton Blower Fan, bearing seem to freeze in about a year, so had to replace the fan twice... maybe if i knew how to lube the bearing i wouldnt have this problem
Aquastat went out once in 3 years and had to replace
and the door on the furnace needs to be resealed i think they are around $30 on ebay
Summary
3 Years in running on the Shaver Outdoor Wood Furnace..2 blowers, 1 aquastat have broken down..... compared with propane heating of $330 per month times 36 months or about 12K to heat the home...Pretty simple the furnace was a wise investment here....
Note
Putting logs into the furnace about 3 times a day when cold and most outdoor furnaces are the same way from guys i have talked to... if they tell you different dont believe them..
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Suppliers for Outdoor Wood Furance Parts with reviews
Pinnacle Supply provides Insulated Pex etc... great customer service and great products
BlueRidge Company provides Pex, Pumps, Manifolds Etc.. Complete line of outdoor wood furnace parts
Grainger Industrial many products not sure if there prices are the best, products like Aquastats can be found here
Therm-O-Disc used this temp. control on the back of my outdoor wood furance and broke the first day, replaced with an AquaStat
HouseNeeds everything mixing valves, boiler expansion tanks and many many more parts
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