I live in Michigan and have been researching solid fuel furnaces for supplementing propane in an existing forced air system. I've found only two brands - Fire Chief and Woodchuck. They both look similar. The furnace is installed alongside the existing forced air unit. You can burn wood, coal, paper, whatever. Does anyone know of other brands or does anyone have experience with either of these two brands? Thanks

-- (tmallin@yahoo.com), June 26, 2001

Answers

I was hoping that this question would recieve lots of responses. I am hoping to build an outside wood furnace and use my indoor gas funace to circlulate the warm air. There is quite a bit of info in the Archives, so you might want to check there, even though it is time consuming.

-- clovis (clovis97@yahoo.com), June 28, 2001.

I have a ENERGY MATE wood furnace with the name on the door and an address TOMAH, WISCONSON. That is as close as I can come. It has about a 30 Gallon water Jacket and does a fine job . I paralled it up to a fuel oil furnace and set the thermal switches so that the fuel oil only works when I fail to feed the wood stove. I leave the hookup on all year around as the extra hot water seems to reduce the time the fuel oil stove comes on. I have a circulator between the two units and I leave it on all the time.Works good for me. I can't find a sourse for the Energy Mate right now. I'd like to know if they are still in business. Several folks would like to copy my system. EG

-- Edward Gladding (ergladsr@tassnet.net), August 14, 2001.

energy research and dev corp box 209 tomah wisconsin 54660

-- delano auville (wvgreen@meer.net), November 12, 2001.

we have an energy mate wood furnace that we haven't used in several years. It is a free standing wood burning furnace that connects to the existing duct work for our oil burning furnace. It worked great when we used it. I have tried to find the manufacturer, have their address but when I look up on yahoo, they can't be found. We stopped using because of back problems and inability to ensure wood in there when it was needed. We live in southern Maryland and are interested in selling it.

-- janet windsor (jwindsor@mdo.net), January 04, 2002.