Burning wood for home heating is a way of life rather than just a fuel choice.
The rural area of upstate New York where I live has many homes, and even some commercial buildings, heated by wood-burning appliances. Owners who want to improve the control of wood-produced heat over that offered by typical wood stoves often look to hydronics. Some are interested in using a wood-fired boiler as their sole heat source. Others want to use it as the primary source, backed up by a conventional oil- or gas-fired boiler. Both are possible, and to be successful, both must exploit the flexibility of hydronics to rein in the operating characteristics of a wood-fueled heat source.
Burn Hot/Burn Fast: One simple fact of wood-burning is that high combustion temperature equals high efficiency. When wood is sufficiently heated it gives off pyrolytic gases. Given high enough temperatures and the presence of oxygen, these gases combust to liberate a considerable amount of heat.