Awe nuts

[Snowy Rivers]

Yesterday I was filling the hoppers on the stoves with shells for the days burn and decided to snap a picture.

The material in this picture is a lot finer than I usually use but is representative of what I use to heat with.

One supplier runs all the waste materials out to the main silo where it goes through a trash fan and is blown into the silo.

The other processing plant runs the waste materials through a grinder before it goes to the silo.

The material shown is a lot more "meally" than what I really like.

The Advantage really runs well on the fine materials without the need for daily cleaning of the fire pot.

The windows stay clean (as clean as they ever did on pellets) and the shells slide out nicely across the added "scatter bar" (I added to assist the material getting sewn across the fire)


Here is a Piccy of the hopper all nice and full and a piccy of the fire box with the fire in the low setting.

Usually we run this stove on the number 1 setting for most days.

This setting makes a nice warm fire and will maintain the room temp without the stove running at really high temps.

I use 2 for a quick warmup if the house is cold.

More than this builds a raging inferno .

Snowy

 

[Delta-T]

thats super cool. do you ever get problems from the very fine material sorta leaking out of the auger and building up under the unit?

 

[vvvv]

auger dont jam? how do u store? how much per ton?.stuff must be quite dry?

 

[jtakeman]

That is amazing! I thought my Omega would burn anything but something that fine probably wouldn't feed into the burnpot.

Thanks for sharing snowy! I thinx pook is rather interested too. :cheese:

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Usually get a dump truck full for Under $100
The stuff is very dry as the nuts were dried before they are cracked.

Never had any issues with leakage inside the stove.
Care must be taken when filling the stove as the stuff is dusty and will make a mess over time if one gets too fast with pouring the shells into the hopper.

I vacuum the inside of the stove cabinet twice a season just to keep things tidy.


I store the stuff in 50 gallon food grade steel barrels and anything else I can scrounge up during the winter.

I have many smaller cardboard drums with lids as well as some garbage cans with lids too.

The auger feeds the stuff great. The extra fly ash is the only downside.

The only real danger to the stove is the fact that the stuff has sticks and twigs in it and MUST be screened before putting it in the stove.

I will try and get a Pix of the storage area and the screening tools and post it.

Snowy

Snowy

 

[vvvv]

Usually get a dump truck full for Under $100
The stuff is very dry as the nuts were dried before they are cracked.

I store the stuff in 50 gallon food grade steel barrels and anything else I can scrounge up during the winter.

I have many smaller cardboard drums with lids as well as some garbage cans with lids too.

The auger feeds the stuff great. The extra fly ash is the only downside.

Snowy

any idea how much per ton?
can the truck dump into the barrels? kinda

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Can't say exactly as the load varies and the plant Mngr always treats me right.

I did figure it out once and it was costing me 50 cents a day to heat the house.

Normally they say $50 a ton but I have been buying so long that the fellow just says Yeah thats about a $$$ load and its usually really cheap.

Figure $50 a ton for calculating..

Snowy

 

[Snowy Rivers]

OK here are some pix or the storage and screening operation down in the dungeon.

You can see the JUNK in the one piccy that the screen caught. Some of that stuff would be fatal to the auger motor if it got stuck in there.

The steel "screen bucket goes in the 6 gallon pail and then I scoop the shells into that then shake the bucket gently to allow the stuff to fall through into the pail.

The finer stuff generally has less crap in it as everything went through the grinder first.

This is only a small area of barrel storage, I have a side storage room that has many many barrels.

Snowy

 

[Turbo-Quad]

There is a cob plant nearby that processes corn cob for various applications, I wonder if it would feed/burn well? It looks about like what you have there.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Call them up and make arrangments to pick up a few buckets of the stuff and see how it works.

If its dry, it should be usuable.

Al this stuff is just Biomass and will burn.

Nuts, shells, cob, corn, any other Biomass materials that can be pelletized

OHHHH olive pits, prune pits, and any other pits that can be dried and ground up.

All biomass.
Snowy

 

[defield]

Snowy,

The photos and information about your shell fuel are very interesting. Thanks for sharing. No biomass of that type available in this area of which I am aware.

Looking at your sifting bucket made me think that it works the opposite of my pellet screener. With pellets, the good stays on top of the screen and the fines and dust fall through. Link below.

Wonder if it would work for shells. Similar to your bucket, the good material would go through the screen and the leaves and twigs stay on top.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/42530/

Again, thanks for sharing,

Regards,

Ranger

 

[vvvv]

There is a cob plant nearby that processes corn cob for various applications, I wonder if it would feed/burn well? It looks about like what you have there.

try some & watch it burn first, u might get surprises due to density & moisture of the stuff.....gas buildup explodes upon delayed ignition as i learned with sawdust

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The screening bucket came into existance early on the first season we burned shells.

One cold winter morning about 2 am, I crawled out of the sack to visit the butt room and IT WAS COLD in the house.

I went out to the living room to investigate and found the stove COLD

Further poking around uncovered the fact that the feed cup (Earthstove two stage system) was jammed by a large stick about the size of ones thumb.

Sunday AM and no place open on Sunday either for parts.

Yanked the back off the stove and found the drive coupling laying in the cabinet in two pieces.

This was a small 3/8" cast iron coupler with a plastic piece between the two sections.

I had a brain Fart and stuck the halves back together as it had split right through the set screw hole.

I placed a stainless hose clamp around the thing and tightened it up.

Stove back running within a few minutes.

I left that thing that way for a couple years and eventually sold the house and to my knowledge its still that way. (Moved in 93) The folks that own the place now still use the stove.

SOOOOOOOOO

Later in the morning, off to the hardware store, bought that bucket, hacked the bottom out and pop riveted in a piece of hardware cloth with 3/8 mesh.

Been using it ever since.

Once I get into a barrel of shells a bit, I just toos it and the scoop inside and place the lid back on.

On occasion we can get a rodent or two in the basement and they will jump into the barrel if I leave the lid off.

The cat loves this plan though and will go look to see if there is some easy picking for her.

I am really wanting a large dumpster to place in the barn and fill with shells. I will be able to store far more materials and keep it out of the house, save for a few barrels to work off of daily.

Is a simple setup and works really well.

In all honesty, this is not as simple as just turning up the stat and letting the automatic gas or oil stove do its thing.

One must work a little bit and be willing to actually manage the stoves on a semi daily basis.

Morning, check the burn pots and knock out any clinkers if need be, mid day if I am home, same thing.

Eavening, same deal and then fill the stoves up. Right before bed, check the pots and knock out the clinker before retiring.


OH, be careful not to smoke up the house. hh:

Early morning, start all over again.

In between depending, go down and screen a couple buckets of shells and pack upstairs.

During very nasty weather I will pack up several buckets full and sit them either by the stove or some inconspicous place that the grandson will not get into (4 years old) great place to try out the toy buldozer :grrr:


Ahhh well, such is life.


Snowy