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I am getting the wood boiler up and running. It is an older model (installed when the house was built) but I think it will heat the house really well. I got it up and running 2 nights ago but the aquastat was not working right and damper wouldn't close -- so the water was getting too hot. I have a boiler guy coming out today to replace the aquastat and I should be back in business. Heating with a boiler is so different -- the wood doesn't need to be nearly as dry, you can fill it up with a lot more wood, and you aren't tracking anything in the house. You do have to go outside -- but I was going outside a bunch anyway to get wood from the porch/wood pile, so I would say that is easier now since there is an exterior door from the garage right in front of the boiler. Just slip on some shoes and go out. No biggie.

Ours is a basic model -- no electronics, doesn't allow you to adjust the temperature of the water, etc. Looks like this.

I bet it will be a lot. I need to figure out how much to throw in at one time. I mean, it is a 48" deep firebox and probably 3' high -- so I could completely fill it up with wood -- but I hear that you don't want to necessarily do that. Based on the outside temperature you may only need to fill it partially up with wood once or twice a day. I closed the damper 2 nights ago and and opened it up last night and the coals were still going strong, a fire instantly started up, and there was a bunch of wood inside. I couldn't believe it. That was with the damper fully closed to limit the temperature of the water.

I hope to offset the amount of wood it goes through with less manual wood processing. E.g. just cut a tree into rounds if it is small enough in diameter and not even split the wood. There are also more places around here that deliver wood, so I got 1.3 cords of boiler wood (larger split but not fully dry pieces) dropped off for $200 the other night. Not bad, in my book, for the middle of February.

The boiler is working great. Technically it uses more wood but I am throwing in super wet huge pieces and it just smolders with them, so it is hard to compare to having perfectly split wood that is aged appropriately. I love it.

Got a call -- the tractor is coming tomorrow morning!