I live in central Indiana in an OLD 2 story farmhouse in the wide open. For the last 22 winters, I have heated with a Hardy boiler. I only run it in the downstairs,the upstairs has an electric furnace. When it's 20 degrees or colder with much wind,66° is about as warm as I can get it. I'm planning a major renovation this year. I'm going to add on an attached garage, change or repair all windows and doors, spray foam the foundation and hopefully insulate the walls. I'm considering doing away with my Hardy and putting a Kozy King wood stove in the garage and running it into my downstairs ductwork. What do you folks think? Anyone have a Kozy King? I'm literally a slave to my boiler,10-15 gallons of chainsaw gas every year. Any advice is appreciated.

Do you have a place you could put a wood stove in the house?

I likely cut and haul more wood home than anyone on here and I don't have a boiler because of how much wood they burn, plus their kinda expensive to install. I wouldn't be without my indoor stove.

Not really. I'm planning on moving my existing furnace/AC unit along with the washer and dryer to the garage and in the future making a full size downstairs bedroom.

I will also add, the Kozy King is from an Amish dealer and will install it in the garage with double wall stainless flue.

Check with the insurance company, that would be the biggest thing.

I did, looks like I might have to change companies, but several in the area will cover if it's "professionally" installed.

My insurance company will cover me if my coal stove isn't the "primary" heat source.

Hardest are about the least efficient outdoor units I looked at when shoping for mine. After your improvements you should use less wood in it.

Im also in a very old draft big farm house. Put the outdoor unit in becuse the up system could not keep the house 60 when it was cold and I out go through 4 or 5 500gal tanks in a year. In 4 years I saved enough $ not buying lp it paid for my outdoor unit and install.

There was no good place to put in an wood burner and options were limited. My cousin has had t different indoor units hooked to his forced air system and they were nice. I cant compair the wood consumption becuse both of his places were newer air tight houses. But I do believe it would use less wood just heating air not doing the water heating..

After having indoor wood burners for years I can say I do like not having the wood, smoke, bugs&bark inside they house. Also I dont cut my wood small or split it a lot with the outdoor unit I have.

I go through a lot of wood. But if I put in new windows and insulate that will drop the amount dramatically based off the amounts of wood 2 friends go through that have modern and up to date houses go through in their outdoor wood burners. It may be nice to make your improvements and see how big of an effect that has on your wood use befor changing your system. Regardless i do believe an indoor unit your referring to will use less wood. But not sure by how much. And it comes with the smoke dirt bugs and fire hazard the out door unit keeps outside.


One of the guys I referenced above has a hardy, pole barn 4 bedr house and radiant heat ran through his slab. Guy uses about 1/12 of the wood I go through.

Boiler seemed handy at my buddies house and was warm heat but I could see that it would use a lot of wood. The gain was though you don't take wood inside. So one it doesn't have to be small enough to carry like that and two you don't have the mess. His system seemed to work b/c he would just run those plastic totes of wood. He'd have a full one by the burner with chunks large enough to chuck in there to burn awhile. He'd go cut wood with his bob cat and trailer and have totes of wood around the farm. He would fill his outside boiler every couple couple of days if it wasn't too cold it seemed like. You load it down and close it off and goes awhile. He had radiators from an old school everywhere. Out in his shop. Throughout the house. If you had an easy place to get lots of stuff to burn it may not be the most efficient but pretty easy and cheap and to the right people being out and away from the house is super nice.

I’m not sure you do cut and haul more wood home than anyone. Our winters are longer. lol
That said, I’ve been feeding a boiler outside for two decades. I love the heat from it, but it is hungry for wood and does nothing for me when the power is out.

The boiler wasn’t part of my home heating when I bought the place, I installed it but if I went back in time and actually built the house, it would be a wood stove inside as opposed to the boilert.

Also now and then I get tree company's to dump logs and chips on the farm. I use the chips for mulch and if I need to put something down where it gets muddy. Yes the logs are large pieces some hughe logs if it a company with crain. Its much nicer cutting wood up in the nice flat field where I can drive my truck next to and take loade up to the house than cutting out in the woods. Only thing better is taking easy trees down and geting paid to do so. Have not done any trees for pay in years though

I had an outside wood boiler for around 30 years. Before that I had a wood stove downstairs. My wife has asthma and it was causing her some distress with her breathing. So, I went with the wood boiler. It was stainless steel, so rust wasn't a problem. But, I sprung a leak in the underground line running to the house. Rather than tear up the yard and me getting old, I decided to go with propane. I do miss the boiler, though. I still cut wood and give it to one of my neighbors who has an outside wood boiler. He has a real nice shooting range I have access to whenever I want to use it. Cutting wood is a lot of work, but I enjoy it.

A wood boiler in the basement would be best. More heat is captured (Less wood burned) by a boiler inside vs one outside.
Heat rises up form the basement helping to heat the house. Add some old fashioned registers on the floor to add heat rising.
Rigging up a window to allow a slide from outside to inside for a one time loading of a winters worth of wood makes life easier.
Stacked wood close to the boiler drys and warms the wood even further for more efficient burns.
Outside wood boilers are the least efficient way to heat a house with wood.

With these old leaky farm houses the best solution is often not the easiest.
They need insulation and air infiltration improvements.
Worrying about how you burn your wood to generate heat is a much smaller concern if you can't retain that heat.
Its like running a highly efficient gas furnace with the windows open.

If I lived in such a house I'd be gutting a couple of rooms each summer till the whole place was insulated and tightened up.

I live in a newer house that was built very air tight and with high and efficient insulation factor.
I heat the 2700 sq ft house with 2 1/2 cords of wood per winter.
I use a Masonry heater to capture as much heat as possible from what little wood I burn and I don't need electricity to do it.
I built the house specifically for this.

Its possible to burn very little wood and still keep your house in the mid '70's all winter long with very little tending of a wood burner.

I replaced my buddies interior wood boiler with a gasification boil and a 500 gallon storage tank. He bought everything for $11k. It only smokes when you first start it and then no smoke. His house is 4500 sqft and was using 12 cords a year. With the new gasification boiler he only uses 6 cords. So it pays for itself quickly.

I have been thinking about moving my current boiler to heat a future building and high tunnel and puting a gasificatiin model in its place at the house. My current unit can take 2 pumps and heat 2 different buildings. The new building should be insulated and hopefully I can put radiant heat in the slab making it efficient. The high tunnel thats 75 x30 will use a lot of its capacity but will only need to get keep at temps for cold crops in winter and.
Of course it depends on my health and if I can get a tree guy or two to use my farm to dump enough to feed them. Or I could start doing a little tree work again but climbing them is not a smart move for me any more.

Love the outdoor boiler. No mess, plenty of heat and hot water. I do tree work and get paid to haul wood away from the job site and it goes into my wood piles.

I think you will be money ahead and happier with the finished product if you spend money on insulation in the older part of your house. Walls and attic. You may find that your current boiler is sufficient at that point.

Outdoor boiler is certainly cleaner and safer than an indoor stove but I can't imagine backing up to a baseboard heat register. Nothing like indoor wood heat IMO

I agree white, "can't beat wood heat!"

Really good advice, thank you all!