When Bert and Holly Tobin decided to launch a business, they looked to their own back yardfor inspiration and to fulfill a wish. Outdoor wood-burning furnaces were the answer.

“We wanted to get off the grid,” says Holly, adding, “We wanted to heat the house and wanted to get off the dependence on oil. It will run out.”

The couple began selling outdoor wood burning furnaces from their home, and she says they fell in love with them. “These heat your home. They heat your water efficiently,” says Holly, who handles the day to day running of the business with Steve Jasenski, the warehouse and operations manager, and bookkeeper Jennie Morrow. They credit their Web designer, Anya Petrova, with creating their professional online persona and helping bring in business from near and far. Three sons—Will Tobin, 22; Drew Tobin, 18, and Cameron Sagen, 17—are also involved, often in the heavy lifting the business requires.

“I subscribe to Mother Earth News and know … that we are eventually going to run out (of oil),” she says, adding, “Everyone says the world is in trouble and we’ve got to go green but very few people do anything about it.” Holly says the family wanted to go solar, but the cost was prohibitive. “Wind, four years ago, was very expensive. It still is but it’s more doable now,” says Holly.

They ran the business from an office in the enclosed porch at their home, until business volume grew to the point it was no longer practical. “We have sub dealers, who we supply. They were coming in and buying 10 at a time, and then one guy came in and said he needed 30. My husband and I realized it was no longer a passing fancy to do this,” says Tobin. “We outgrew the back porch in the beginning of 2008. We were about 80 deliveries behind and couldn’t get parts.”

Good for the Planet
The Tobins says it’s not only sensible to harvest fuel from our local woods, but also essential. “We’re looking at a blight in the Catskill forests right now. People have to start cutting some down,” says Holly. “If you drive by any woods, you’re going to see trees lying down, rotting and emitting carbon dioxide. They’re preventing younger trees from growing,” she says.

“People who understand the concept understand this is not hurting the environment. It’s not hurting trees. There are no fossil fuels,” says Holly. Bert, whom she describes as the business’ brainiac, follows the debates over wood burning boilers closely, noting that those who speak out against them are often doing so with data from a report prepared by misinformed college kids.

The business enjoyed a surge of interest early last winter, when oil prices topped $4 per gallon, but even after prices came down some folks said “I don’t care one way or the other. (This) is cheaper than oil and I can afford this.”

“Now it’s still that way,” says Holly, adding “Some are opposed to oil, the Middle East situation, and then there are people who understand this is a good thing. It’s a very renewable resource. You can plant trees all day long.”

“You can say ‘you can’t plant oil,’ and they’re a blank look on their face,” says Holly, adding, “People don’t think it through. They get mad at me, thinking I’m hurting the environment. It’s the same as putting solar panels on your roof or a windmill in the backyard, out of the three … a wood burning furnace is the least expensive ….”

In 2007, when it was time to expand, the business bought a Quonset hut that had been ordered by the U.S. Army, but never purchased. Bert Tobin boasts that the 32-by-60-foot concrete pad it sits on could hold a two-story Cape Cod style home. It already has the heating zones built in. If they’re ever done with the building they’ve got, the steel can be recycled. Like the fuel their boilers burn, their building has an earth-friendly side.

Better Technology=Energy (and Cost!) Savings
The traditional wood-burning furnace is thermostatically controlled. You simply put wood in twice and day and it does the rest. “They burn half as much wood in a gasification technology,” says Holly. “It burns the wood. The smoke is pushed down into a secondary chamber and burned to create steam. The fire inside the box is heating a water loop that goes into the house and back. The steam is then discharged. It’s virtually smoke free.”

Last winter, heating two houses, the Tobins burned through nine or 10 cords of wood. This year, with the new gasifier, they estimate fuel consumption will be halved. “With the money you save … you can be as warm as you want. Set your thermostat up to 72, turn it down at night,” says Holly. The couple estimates last year’s fuel bill would have been around $6,000 without the wood furnace. Instead they paid about $700.

Depending on the size of your home, the furnace, parts and installation can total between $6,000 and around $12,000. But fancier and more efficient models may land you in the same price range, according to the Tobins, because of the way these higher-end units are configured. “There are a lot of options,” says Holly. A $1,500 energy tax credit is available into 2010 on some models. Among these higher-end boilers is the Econoburn, made in New York by Alternative Fuel Boilers, a division of Dunkirk Metal Products.

These boilers essentially attach to your existing oil furnace, to one side of the heat exchanger. “They can go inside the house, in a basement, shed or garage,” she says. “They’re 93 percent efficient, that’s more efficient than an oil burner. Some people like to have it in the basement because the connections are there. Our good friends are putting it in an enclosed shed. It has to be covered because of an electric panel.”

Catering to the Customer…and the Neighbors
Catskill Boiler Co. has enjoyed a growing business in part, it seems, due to their friendly nature. They’ve installed outdoor boilers in Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio and Connecticut—and as far as Oregon.

“A lot of people are nowhere near a dealer or the dealer doesn’t have the model they want,” says Tobin, adding “Or the dealer doesn’t call them back….”

“People are generally asking ‘do you think I can do this?’ Bert and I will go out and look at their situation,” she says. “If they’re in the town of Saugerties and right on top of their neighbor, we used to say you can’t do this.”

That’s why Catskill Boiler Co. added the Econoburn to their product offerings. It was the wood-burning solution for a customer in Catskill whom they say was losing his shirt heating a multiple unit building. Initially, they couldn’t install a boiler for him—then they went in with the Dunkirk Metals product, and it will work. “With the Econoburn, you can use it anywhere. They’re using it in New York City,” she says. “Now we have something that everybody can use.”

Better than a Wood Stove…
The Tobins are reluctant even to compare their boilers to traditional woodstoves or fireplace inserts, beyond pointing out a few of the ways they differ. “With a woodstove in the house you’re heating a room or two. You have a hot spot and don’t heat upstairs. It’s dangerous and you’re not heating your water,” says Tobin. “I can run my dishwasher, laundry and have three showers running, without an oil burner that’s going and going and going. I’m not going to have to run out there and throw in more wood. It’s already there. My well will run dry before my furnace runs out of wood.”

Like proponents of more traditional woodstoves, however, the Tobins agree you should never burn green wood. “It’s just a waste of your energy and wood,” says Bert Tobin. “You’re burning more wood to create BTUs because it’s green. You need a 20 percent moisture content before you should burn wood. Anything over that and you’re wasting money. In this neck of the woods ash, hickory, ironwood, white oak, red oak, and old apple trees are very good with a high BTU content.”

He says the boilers come with excellent schematics if buyers want to use their own plumbers, but an able do-it-yourselfer could install one—particularly one of the non-pressurized systems. Depending on county in which the boiler will be installed, a licensed electrician may or may not be required. Greene County requires it. Some do not.

Furnaces sold by Catskill Boiler Co. do not require a concrete pad, though some others do. “Ours can be put on cement blocks and function just fine,” says Bert.

Units carry warranties from 10 to 25 years, depending on the model. He says Dunkirk Metals warranties their fire jacket, or “burn box,” for 25 years, adding “If you’ve got the right water treatment minimizing the effects of oxidation, any type of boiler will give you years and years of service.”

A Growing Business
As their business grows, and the efficiency of their products increases, so does the efficiency of the Catskill Boiler Co.

“Last year, if you didn’t get your order in by June, you were probably waiting 90 to 120 days to get your boiler in. This year, within two weeks or so you can have it installed,” the Tobins say. Parts at the ready inside that shiny Quonset hut back up that pledge.

For More Information…
You find valuable suggestions on how to shop for and select an outdoor wood burning boiler at Catskill Boiler Company’s Web site, www.woodoutdoorfurnace.net along with an online store stocked with furnaces, installation kits, fittings and other accessories. You can also call Catskill Boiler Company at 518 966 8900.