OWB's...Whats the first 'problem' that should be addressed?

[mikeathens]

I have one of these in my "neighborhood" and it is an absolute smokey mess. I am personally under the opinion that people who use these want to save money on heating and probably (In general) don't have any regard for the air they are polluting or for their neighbors (this obviously isn't true across the baord - so don't get pissed!!). This seems contrary to people using indoor wood burners. It seems the attraction to the OWB is its "ease" of operation - cram the wood or garbage in, and walk away for 15 or so hours, vs. having to tend a stove every few.

I had looked at these a few years back and decided against it primarily due to the smoke generated (lack of efficiency), but also for the fact that you still need electricity to run them!

I wouldn't be too upset if they were "banned"; hopefully, damage to "indoor" burners hasn't been done.

BTW, I know I brought this up in a past post - but someone made news with one of the in Cincinnatti in a subdivision. Basically said piss on the neighbors, it's their problem if they don't like the smoke - they were running theirs 24/7 with landscape waste to heat house and pool all year. The lady's quote was something to the effect of if the neighbors don't like it, they can come up with the money to pay our heating bill and then we'll get rid of it - I guess that's the attitude I associate with most people who have these things.

I think the smoke is the first problem to be addressed...

 

[WOODBURNER1]

^ Probably burning pallets

Actually it was cord wood -not pallets- and as Corie stated you couldn't see the slightest wisp of smoke.

 

[MrGriz]

^ Probably burning pallets

Actually it was cord wood -not pallets- and as Corie stated you couldn't see the slightest wisp of smoke.

That's encouraging to hear. I'm glad that technology and design are being advanced to make OWBs more efficient and cleaner burning.

I certainly don't want to see any form of burning that can be done responsibly banned.

 

[begreen]

Going back to the poll question, I think the answer is not in the choices. The first this to be addressed is education. Educate the sellers, that creating a neighborhood nuisance is not going to play for very long. Stop telling folks it will burn anything and encourage them to burn cleanly and put a tall stack on the stove. And educate the owners to do the math first and explore their options. If they do buy, they need to burn cleanly.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I don't think you would need a catalytic combustor with a gasifier, BG. Tarm claims that theirs puts out the equivalent of about a cigarette's worth of smoke when it's operating. I think that's probably true. I'm planning to buy an EKO 60, and the owners I've corresponded with say there's no visible smoke when the gasifier is working. They shouldn't smoke--not much smoke is going to get past that 2,000-degree refractory combustion chamber.

Not knowing anything about the technology, my guess for why the Central Boiler was showing no smoke is that there was no load on it. My conventional (indoor) boiler doesn't smoke either when it's under little or no load. But in my experience, there's no way to get a clean burn when it's really cold outside. In my case, that's worked out well, since usually cold weather blows in from the right direction so that the smoke blows off into the woods and away from my neighbors.

I just got back from a road trip through northern New England, and you know I noticed all kinds of wood burning, including quite a few OWBs. And it was around zero most of my trip. Generally speaking, they all seem to smoke all of the time, but the ones I saw appeared to put out a lot less than many chimneys attached to houses. I think if you burn dry wood, they're not much worse, in general, than most pre-EPA-reg woodstoves. And they produce a lot more heat. I think their biggest problem is that they're clearly visible, so they get blamed for any and all pollution in their neighborhoods. There's a very nice Central Boiler installation on my way to work and while it's always putting out a stream of blue smoke, over the past winter I've never seen it create a smoke problem. The guy down the road, however, regularly smokes up the highway with whatever he's using to heat his house. I'm guessing an old woodstove of some sort.