Artic blast....

[Johnny Redthumb]

Some clay and some cob, a good amount of elbow grease and ol' fashioned ditch diggin'....plus some extra 6" ducting that we probably all have layin' 'round!

 

[wobbly goblin]

you may want to consider radiant heated floors in the house fed from a outdoor wood stove/boiler if you have forever trees with a propane back up for lazy days
there are many brands available including a bunch of plans for home made units
the larger the water capacity=less often refires
solar panels and batteries hooked to the circulation pumps..tekmar controllers..easy peasy

http://www.centralboiler.com/models.php

fwiw

 

[sky high]

Thanks for the link wobbly. Those are nice units. 4ft lengths would make life easier all around, for sure. My uncle had something similar and he routinely had multiple burn days on one load.

Definitely easy peasy cus when it comes time to do it...'cus all I'm gonna do...for the first time in my life... is find someone qualified and write the check. :D

 

[Mr.Sputnik]

Had an outage here overnight. My washing machine froze. Luckily the 600 gallons of warm water from the light cooling system kept everything in spec in the grow. Hit -15. Got about a foot. Typical CO weather.

 

[chickenman]

I've been to the farm. I guarantee Chickenman has a buttload/myriad of trough/water bowl/coop heaters goin'.
EVERY damn ammimmal there is spoiled to the hilt. It's the Chickenman way!

Spoiled AND Stoned....

 

[altitudefarmer]

freakin goats will eat or smoke ANYTHING. I lost my favorite t-shirt to an old billy when I was a teenager. Mom hung the laundry and the goats got loose... lol

 

[Dopegeist]

Outdoor boilers are sweet but even pricier than a masonry stove. I like radiant heating, and outdoor boilers fit the bill. The biggest advantage I see with the outdoor boiler, is if you get a big enough one, heating a second or third building is as easy as running pipe.
As far as the stove being too big, there are many plans for many different needs. With good insulation and an open floor plan, it wouldn't take a big one. But it also fits the bill for an oven too, you can make it have more cookspace...You can get creative. You can even hire out the planning and the masonry work, even have prefabed units. When I buy, I'm putting one in, that or an outdoor boiler.
But yeah, a masonry stove with the flue backed up the the thermal mass of the greenhouse would probably work great as the grower would only have to fire it once or twice a day.

As far as trees...Thanks to the pine beetle your tax dollars fund the clearing of large swaths of forest which in turn are sold/given to businesses, like the pellet factory in Kremling, for refinement and resale to the taxpayer. Sure would be nice if they set up a few log depots instead. And if you can convince a person to let you do some fire mitigation, you don't even have to buy the permit and trek over the forest. Also lumber operations (which tend to be located near large forests) have plenty of 'scrap' that can also find it's uses in heating for cheap.

But I think one day a huge solar water heater with a giant phase change thermal mass might work well.

 

[Dopegeist]

Here are some more kachelofens. http://www.canadiankachelofen.com/Gallery.html
They don't all take up that much space, given that you need clearances around a wood stove anyway. Footprints can be similar...But if you got the coin, and don't care about having the fire. Do an outdoor boiler, it's all about heating that thermal mass so you don't have to constantly tend a fire.

 

[sky high]

A big Fuck Yes on the wood dumps/depots. A few Summers ago the USFS up here cleared some dead areas out and dumped the rounds roadside in a popular area of the forest. Easiest pickin for wood I've ever had...and some of the largest/nicest BK pine/spruce we've ever had. Seems like a better way to get the wood down/out as well as leave the forest in good shape for the future rather than letting folks cut where they want/leave it as they please. We spent one wooding season following some chuckleheads around who were the kinda folks who dropped big trees and then only took the easy (trunk) wood before falling another. We cleaned up after them 4 weekends in a row and took out 3 cords of wood without falling a single tree! Definitely gotta stay out of the Timber sale areas though.

Definitely interested in the rocket stove approach for heating up some outdoor stone/masonry benches/firepit we want to construct. Lotsa possibilities, for sure. Damn near endless. Totally with ya on the radiant...and the OD boiler in the GH. Love those huge fireboxes.

 

[chickenman]

2 degrees out, chores done just before dark, hot peach wood fire blazing, will fill bath tub, our tub is huge enough for my 6 foot 2 body to fully immerse, and soak away after a fatty and pint of Ben And Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream... buy little from store, that Chocolate fudge brownie is my weakness....