Building the Heat Echange for Heating Our House 

If would work a lot better if your return from the house was used and a small fan. Your loosing a lot of heat through the exchanger as it cannot travel effeciently just by the rise of the heat in the piping. You would get 4 times the heat with a return and a small fan even if it was one of your rabbit fans on the solar unit. Great video.

This blew me away.. My husband found your video, he was so excited about it he had to watch it again with me. He said we're going to have one of these within the next few weeks. My husband just made the barrel burner for inside today. We're trying to get completely off the grid and this sure will help us do that. You guys added every little detail in this video. All of our questions are answered within the video and comments. I can't thank you guys enough for taking the time to make and post this video. Gotta love Hillbillies. I was born and raised in the Appalachian mountains, I've been a Hillbilly all my life and proud of it!

I have always removed the damper from the stove pipe flange and reinstalled it in the stove pipe about 1 to 1 1/2 feet above the wood stove. the handle never gets too hot if you rotate it around to the back or side. I like the draw control of the damper in this elevated position, as compared to the finger burning lower position.(kids ran off with so many pairs of my gloves when they were little, that I stopped buying gloves for the wood stove). Happy Fourth Of July 2018

Very smart idea ..and made from used stuff even better ..thanks for sharing

I'm undergoing treatment for the psoriasis just like yours. The Dr found my vitamin D low and prescribed eight 5,000 unit tabs. And prednosil sequence of 5mg tabs 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. In a week your skin will be clearing up. Good luck with that. It IS curable.

Thanks for sharing bro. Check out the one I have made. I use a down draft stove vent fan, and pull the air inside my house. Basically the same set up as yours, except I used 8"blocks, and filled the cores with dirt... Holds heat like you would not believe. I only had a small stove, and if I upgrade to a barrel, then it would run us out of that end of the house. Mine manages to heat 600 sq. ft fairly easy... Once again, thanx for your idea, for it was your original video from 2 yrs ago, that I tried to copy my unit from... Have a blessed day bro...

Anyone who cries about this being a re-post should have read the description first lol. Stay warm my friend!

l think that's a real good solution to high energy bills ld be curious to know how much it cuts your heating bill down also would it be possible to set up one of those solar fans to draw heat in

If your chimney is TALL enough (and insulated) it creates draft I.E. Negative pressure inside the barrel SO GASSES CANNOT come out of the barrel because IT IS TOO BUSY SUCKIN COMBUSTION AIR IN😄 good job guys wish I was closer WOOD LOVE to pitch in! ❤️🇺🇸

Just subscribed. Watched a bunch of your videos. Great stuff. I've recently wrapped my stove pipe with a copper coil to heat my domestic hot water. Something you may want to consider.It has cut my electric bill almost in half. Your setup would also be great for hot water heat. There are some great diy videos on the subject. Man i got to try your corn bread recipe. You should check out" thebossoftheswamps"channel, he does some great videos on homesteading dutch oven cooking, canning. You guys have a bit in common. Thanks friend. I'll be checking out more videos. Take good care.

Have you tried making your own logs From junk mail. It would help stretch the wood. i use them them in our portable fire pit as i dont have a wood stove.

Been 2 years now and a couple of winters, how has it been performīng for you? I have a video on an indoor woodstove my son and I made but my new place I am looking at an outdoor source mainly to save square footage since I went with a small 16x40 cabin and it has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths (my father passed away and my mom did not want to be alone so set things up that we each have our own space and share the living room and kitchen in the middle) so interior room is a premium. Love wood heat.

Thanks for video very helpful. Have you ever tried stopping eating wheat for your psoriasis?

Great simple build. Thanks. Ps. Try olive oil on your hands. Works for me.

Snakes? No, I do not love snakes....but YOU? Yup, I just love you! Raised on a poultry farm in Ct during the 60'-70/s, NH through the 80-90's, NC through 2013, now TN .... We love using what we have, what we can find, get for free, find on the side of the road, construction sites; etc. heck, we had a garden tilled and planted before the tp was unwrapped at the "new" house! TP rolls are saved for seed starting pots and also stuffed with old greasy paper towels for fire startin'. On a serious note, when you sit on your porch for coffee sippin, (Crap, that's good coffee"is my expression as well.), I'd swear to be knowing that road, hill, slope of trees, and much more. I don't know where you are, but as blessings and strange occurrences would have it ...bet we've crossed paths. Take warm and safe care of you and yours friend

Air changes temperature so quickly,, do you think using a water system with a antifreeze type component, to increase the boiling point of the water( don't need steam), a radiator from a old car and a 12 volt fan to move air inside your house through the radiator, and 12v pump to move the water through the radiator , might work about the same with a lessor sized burn barrel? and lesson the fuel needed to heat your house? Water holds heat for a longer period of time and might be more efficient for moving heat from one point to another

Carbon monoxide detectors are cheap and a wise investment.

Brilliant! I was always curious as to how it worked. Thanks for sharing.

Cool Setup! Was thinking about building a setup like that for the RV , I have a wood stove inside and it gets WAY too hot in there lol

Dose the dryer vent inside the house work like you wanted it to ?

Did you put a blower on to get the heat in the house?

I pray you and your family are blessed! Amazing! Nice you are so clever to do all the stuff you do and follow through to finish them! I watch because I'm learning a lot from your generously sharing these bits of your life with us because I know no men who can or do them! Thanks for your videos! Blessings, again!

Nice! I love making things from whatever we have laying around and reused materials! Great job!

for that blade breakage just ease up on your hand pressure and you will stop breaking blades let the motor push the blade not your hand some adive from a 10+ year veteran framer/assisant to a journeyman contractor

Did the heater work in the long-term after the smoke vented out?

why not just get old wood stove. wouldn't that have been easier. dumps have them free. just curious

You can put a pizza in the top part.

Has anyone ever built these heat exchange boxes out of Hardie backer cement board? They are noncombustible and lined with some rockwool insulation which is also noncombustible would seem to keep a lot of the heat in the heat box. Just wondering if you think that would work. I"m getting ready to build one.

Thanks man me and my family are going off grid tired of the energy bills constantly going up and we have a spring on are property got the water just needed the heat for winter also running solar and wind turbines to power are lights only for now work in progress

Does the stove burn through the night on one load or do you have to put more wood in during the night? Ingenious by the way!

Thanks for reposting. Can't wait to show it to my husband. Please forgive the nosiness, what's wrong with your skin? Eczema? I get eczema and use things like udderly smooth udder cream- Wal-Mart; bag balm-vet, or lavender essential oil(5 drops in 1 Tbsp aloe gel). That really looks painful and I hope it isn't. Best wishes

You forgot to put your hands up over your head during your greeting. ; )

Great idea. Thanks for sharing. I read some of the replies. MrOldclunker has a good one about the return. If you add this let is us know how it improved or not. I do not have time to put this together for this season but is definitely on the list. By the way I noticed the tire and stump. I just finished 5 pallets of wood using the same set up. Stay warm.

that is really nice! maybe one of those 5 watt solar oval panel with the window suction cups to power a computer fan during the day. best

Great idea. Try pluming the heat exchanger into the cold air return of your HVAC unit. Then you can use the fan only setting to deliver the heat evenly though out the home. May need to go with a larger duct maybe 8" to 12" from the firebox. A more permanent upgrade idea for you would be think about building the same thing only puring concrete around the firebox and pipes. Instead of exchanging the heat with air. You could use an antifreeze closed loop system with a recirculating pump.This can be made with basic house hold pluming. I would use soft coil copper tubing around the firebox with about a 6" space between the copper pipe and firebox. A small car radiator or heating/cooling coil at the cold air return should work great.

it works great!!!!!

Тагже покругу можно вырезать и неябаться

I used a plastic barrel Wow! what shit show that was .

Home what about a thermal break with the ground?

Blast from the past !

I made one with twice the insulation with half the distance for heat to travel. And I lose so much heat I can't see how yours will work. It's close but I think you're gunna have issues not being insulated around stove. I had to.put a piece of steel hanging above wood just below chimney to not lose so much heat right out the chimney and that helped dramatically. Not sure where you live I'm in northern Minnesota it was -22° last night so maybe depending on where you are you may have a different scenario. If the low was 20 it'd be huge difference. Mine looks like an igloo right now most insulation I can get on it. But ya I forget not everyone lives in bitter cold. Now I'm curious where you're from

I have a little house heater they banned them but you can find it on my channel from years ago it is still working, they use very little wood and have a snap switch that turns blower off and on same thing just more efficient

This is awesome. Makes me think maybe we could do it here at our house.

Since your using a trash barrel as your stove won't the fire cause Holes and burn through the bottom of the barrel???? Just wandering.

Awesome brother.. think smart not hard... doing this in a few weeks. I'll post a video and give you props.. thanks buddy.

Yeah, Florida girl learned something new. Thanks JnullO.

is there a blower fan hooked up to a cold air return added later? otherwise this really isn't a heat exchange at all, I am not knocking the ingenuity but wouldn't it work alot better if it exchanges the cold air in the house for warm air from the heat exchange around the stove?

if you get tired of this style and want to do more rooms, get few rolls of 1" copper wrap the barrel, then wrap heat wrap around that visit the scrap yards grabbing small radiators with fans and batteries. 12v pump for every section(per rad) then small battery charger plugged into wall to power the pump and fan.

I've been toying with this idea on a smaller scale except my version would have a propane tank stove inside a 15 gallon drum. Thou could maybe use a 60? Pound propane tank stove in a 55 gallon drum. Insulate both drum and tank with a combination of fire brick, mortar and perlite, cross flow the air intake through the barrel to absorb as much heat back into the stove. The outside of the stove won't be that hot so you could put a piece of that special mat they sell for putting under your stove between it and the outside wall of the cabin and get the stove almost touching it. Next use diesel truck exhaust pipe or 3 - 4" black pipe as the chimney but run it inside a double wall chimney pipe and run that up about a foot, as needed, and then into the cabin. Leave just a little air space at the start of the double wall pipe to allow just a bit of draft up through the inside of the double wall pipe but make sure the center pipe is sealed well. Once in the cabin you can stop the double wall pipe (a lot of warm air would come out of that pipe into the cabin creating a positive air flow so any cracks or drafts around doors etc you have in the cabin will have warm air going out, not cold air coming in). Run the center pipe into some sort of metal box or tank as a heat exchanger. I would use another propane tank or a mil surplus ammo can, think at least 50 cal, maybe mortor. You would have to size and shape this to your application, be creative, protect the wall with another mat or tin. I'm thinking I'd run the chimney in the bottom of one side and out the top on the other side for cross flow and hole saw a few 1-1/2" holes through the tank/ box vertically and weld in some 1-1/2" tailpipe for greater heat exchange. Then from there, up and out the roof or wall like a normal chimney. If anyone can follow this let me know if this sounds plausible.

Have you got a spark arrester or what ever they are called on that chimney? At our previous house we had an outdoor wood burning furnace (Heatmore) & had a fire twice in the yard/field. Careful.

It's funny you posted this, just yesterday I dug through your old videos to track down parts 1 & 2 and your cooking video. Apparently everyone else is just as interesting. Here's a good video idea: What would you change about your heat exchanger if you could do it all over again?

I built one of these in early 80s ,I used block and a 55gal drum ,I was not satisfied.

hey j you can install a small 12 volts fan across the vent this way that fan can blow that entire chamber and you going benefed from that cfm of the fan small fan meaby 3or5000 rpm just a tofh nice concept do

really awesome video! been thinking of doing nearly the exact same setup for my place except the heat exchanger will be 3 inch pipe either bent (welded with 90°joints) or some sort of baffle system above the firebox with a blower. and I've got fire brick and maybe thinking sand too for thermal mass, any thoughts on that? I want to burn at night without running out every 2 hours to feed it.

Hey jnull0. Do you know if it's better to maximize the number of pipes travelling through the fire or just one pipe with the same gauge the whole way? Also, is thicker better (in order to hold onto more heat and also resist melting)?

Not the most purdiest unit I've seen, but it works is the main thing!..How's it doing under 30 degree's??

Did you do a followup video? Would like to know some temps outside and inside and at the window pipe. Good luck!

Great idea now you got me thinking. nice video . THANK YOU

Heyyy you guys r the best , gig bless you both for sharing everything your videos, I don’t care how long it could take me, but some day o would love to go to Idaho and see you guys, it must be awesome. Keep up the good work 👍👍

nice job how does the air get to the house a fan or blower or just gravity think I might make one for garage gets cold in there I will subscribe

simple design, and I am sure the heat transfer is better than expected. love the fact that you all are using the material on hand. Congrats on the build.

thanks for the repeat, I could not find the old vid and I did not understand the heat exchanger.

Won't the wind blow down your chimney and how do you keep out the rain?

Hay I thought you was regular catfish guy hell yea brother like your videos

you need to put that smoke stack higher to keep any wind from blowing in the house and i would put a blower on it but a nice job

I think hhnhg

I cant do this to my house but i would might try doing something like this in my building.

That's a good idea I'll have to make my own with an oven cheers

Amazing. Will love to see what internal temps you get this winter!

Like , need to build one here thanks from tx

I'm definitely going to make one of these

Gett RR Dunn.

That would save a lot on heating bills

great video but I am a woodstove lover

nice job brother!

great . nice execution of an idea

Thank you for re-posting this!

What happened to ur arms

the ingenuity is great!

Thanks for sharing👍

I like what you did

My house is 800 square feet plan on using a set up like this but use a cast iron stove instead. Would it heat the whole house and what kind of temps are you getting in the house?

Reminds me how far you have came!! Keep on rocking it brother

need gloves

why not hook it into your duck work for your furnace

Brilliant!

Could you use the smoke from that in a meat smoker?

Nice

Wicked

I know it may be a touchy subject, but do you have skin cancer? or somethin else. My stepfather has skin cancer head to toe. Right now we are applyin RickSimpsonsOil. workin amazing.

cool

I don't understand why the stove is kept outside? Surely a wood burning stove inside the house is by far the most economical usage of fuel. Plus, you have to keep going outside in the cold to refuel etc. Seems a very roundabout way of doing things to me but I'm sure there's a perfectly logical reason for it...

This has got to be the most un efficient heating systems I have ever seen ? The concept of the heating barrels/kit was designed for extreem cold tempratures ie. Northern and to be placed in the house the heat box is a great Idea/add on to this, However using this in the south and the way You have configured the pipe to come from this unit outside into the house is vertually useless and a total waste of wood.

J Mr movin on Greg must live close to you eh?

Hey brother, have you looked into the Rocket Stove concept ? I think it would serve you better and be much more efficient. Love ya guys, tell Mama we're praying for her. Gary and Heather

Hey why don't you use a regular indoor wood stove? You can get the pretty cheap on Craig's list.

For folks living in coal country I wonder how burning coal instead of wood would work. Anyone know? We use passive solar in winter since we have windows that face south and west. Also how hot will the metal pipe on the wood in the window get? Thanks.