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I wanted to post a couple pictures of my Hardy H2, the woodshed, and the surrounding woodpile. If you are thinking of installing an outdoor wood furnace maybe these pictures will help you with your planning. Again...as I have continued to confess, my woodshed is WAY too small for keeping enough wood under roof for a burning season. My woodshed measures 8'x16' and I can stack the wood about 6 foot high. This yields 6 cords of wood under the roof. In reality my shed should have been double this size as I think I average about 12 cords of wood a year in my Hardy.
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This picture is of my Hardy as it sets by the woodshed. You are looking at the path I walk to get to the firebox door, which is on the other side of the furnace from this view. I set the furnace this way so I can conveniently grab a log from under the roof and toss it into the firebox. Also note the extra 4 foot piece of smoke stack. I installed this to keep the embers from shooting into the shed. The extra length helped a lot in directing any errant embers away from the seasoned wood. Finally you can see to the left of the picture how I stack the wood along the Hardy to serve as a wind break. This keeps the snow from drifting as I sit in the middle of a cornfield and the wind tends to really whip out here.
This next picture shows the other side of my Hardy. From this vantage point I am standing under the roof of my woodshed looking at the door to the firebox. I can keep out of the rain or snow while I am dealing with the furnace by standing inside the woodshed. This really is a nice convenience during very cold winter days as I can stay out of the wind and be close to the firebox and ash bin. If you are not familiar with the Hardy, the ash bin is the smaller door on the bottom. I have a shovel I slide into this door to dig out the ashes when they start to build up. The firebox is the larger door. I have learned the hard way that you never open the firebox door without first opening the ash bin. If you value your hair and eyebrows you will open the ash bin door first!
This angle is also from under the roof of my woodshed and it shows the Hardy in relation to the house. My Hardy sits about 50 feet from the house and I placed it to the northeast corner of the lot. This, for the most part, places my house out of the prevailing wind as the smoke usually blows the other way from the house. If you are interested you can see one of my ham radio antennas on the right side of the upper roof. It is a copper J-Pole for my 2 meter UHF rig. But I digress... 
Lastly...what would any picture of a Hardy H2...or any outdoor wood furnace...be without the "business end" in action. This is not a big fire when I snapped this shot but I was getting cold and took what was available to me. You really have to be careful when you open the firebox as the Hardy H2 will spit fire at you if you aren't careful. My firebox takes about 2 fillings a day, during freezing temperatures, to keep the house warm. This is a beautiful sight to me. All the work I did this summer to find, cut, haul, split, and stack wood begins to pay me back. My gas bill is still sitting at $0. Just the way I like it!
About how much does the entire set up cost to buy and install?
ReplyDeleteA Hardy H2 as of today, Jan 2013 will run you between $5700--$6000. You can expect about another $500-$1000 for the Pex (water) lines, labor for the trench, concrete pad etc. Where your price can go way up is if you purchase the pre-made insulated pex...that can run as much as $12 a foot. As for the woodshed...your creativity is the limit here. Some people don't have a wood shed and simply stack the wood next to the furnace covered with tarps.
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