A while back I made a post about how I made two wood silo's, one up over my garage which used a flex auger to move the pellets to a point where they drop down to my pellet boiler and the other 5 ton silo in my apartment house right next to my other pellet boiler. I can save $50.00 a ton trucking my own bulk pellets which will save me about $1,000.00 per year.
I've been playing around with blowing pellets up into my silo's and thought some of you might be interested in what I have found out to date.
The blower I am using is a shop type double bag sawdust collector, it has a 1 HP electric motor 220 volt 11.5 amps and a 5 inch outlet. Seems to have plenty of power to move pellets.
My first attempt was to reduce down to a 4 inch pipe and blow air through it up to the silo attach a Y to the pipe and dump pellets into the pipe using the Y fitting. The results was to much back pressure through the Y fitting. So much that pellets could not be dumped in. I think if I had a large enough amount of pellets I might have been able to force them in but feel there is a better way.
My son and I have come up with tree idea's so far and have decided to make a air ventury. It should be done tomorrow and we will test it Saturday. Basically we are going to start with a 4 inch pipe then reduce the pipe size from 4 inch to 3 inch for a short distance then increase it back to 4 inches. When the pipe is reduced it will increase pressure and when it goes back to 4 inches it will reduce pressure. we plan to introduce pellets into the three inch pipe using a 1 1/2 inch pipe. In order to create the ventury the 1 1/2 inch pipe must extend into the three inch pipe so that air flows around the 1 1/2 inch pipe. The end of the pipe will be cut at about a 45% angle with the long side of the angle facing the on coming air. This will allow the pellets to drop into the air flow and will (we hope) create a suction effect on the 1 1/2 inch tube because of the increase in pipe size just in front of the 1 1/2 inch tube.
If there is any interest I will keep you posted.
I've been playing around with blowing pellets up into my silo's and thought some of you might be interested in what I have found out to date.
The blower I am using is a shop type double bag sawdust collector, it has a 1 HP electric motor 220 volt 11.5 amps and a 5 inch outlet. Seems to have plenty of power to move pellets.
My first attempt was to reduce down to a 4 inch pipe and blow air through it up to the silo attach a Y to the pipe and dump pellets into the pipe using the Y fitting. The results was to much back pressure through the Y fitting. So much that pellets could not be dumped in. I think if I had a large enough amount of pellets I might have been able to force them in but feel there is a better way.
My son and I have come up with tree idea's so far and have decided to make a air ventury. It should be done tomorrow and we will test it Saturday. Basically we are going to start with a 4 inch pipe then reduce the pipe size from 4 inch to 3 inch for a short distance then increase it back to 4 inches. When the pipe is reduced it will increase pressure and when it goes back to 4 inches it will reduce pressure. we plan to introduce pellets into the three inch pipe using a 1 1/2 inch pipe. In order to create the ventury the 1 1/2 inch pipe must extend into the three inch pipe so that air flows around the 1 1/2 inch pipe. The end of the pipe will be cut at about a 45% angle with the long side of the angle facing the on coming air. This will allow the pellets to drop into the air flow and will (we hope) create a suction effect on the 1 1/2 inch tube because of the increase in pipe size just in front of the 1 1/2 inch tube.
If there is any interest I will keep you posted.
