WOOD CHIP BURNING FOR HOMES

[colebrookman]

ANYONE have information on the progress of using wood chips as fuel on a home scale rather than industrial. Just finished reading about the experiment in Vt.http://www.greenmountainsolar.com/ Seems with water storage that would be another way to heat for some of us. Spend one day with a whole tree chipper, blow them under cover and batch feed once per day. Plus enough heat to do my house, garage & barns if needed and free hot water. Now that is interesting.

 

[mtarbert]

I have used chips to heat with and they work well but it's something you ahve to be tending. I have an older wood/coal stove in our basement that the firebox is large enough to hold twenty or so shovel fulls of chips. Kinda like shoveling coal into a locomotive. I just keep plenty of air and the damper wide open.It takes fifteen or so min. to catch but after that there is plenty of heat
Green chips dry out in a day or two.

 

[colebrookman]

It sounds like this gentleman in Vt. was burning green chips and batch processing. That would eliminate drying wood, cutting to length and all of the associated work. Plus now I'm paying $6/yard for plain chips for my flower garden. I'm sure in quantity I could do better$$. Or just rent a chipper and do my own trees. You also use the whole tree, no waste. Sounds almost too good.

 

[mtarbert]

I have seen some Tub Grinders that will grind logs 3 foot across and spit them out in no time.

 

[begreen]

Moving to the boiler room so that you can tap into the greater experience with central heating systems here.

 

[colebrookman]

Thanks BeGreen, I wasn't sure . It seemed to straddle both.

 

[colebrookman]

Thanks for the info Pook. I bet that will really put some heat out. It seems more like a downscaled industrial type. I was thinking a something more the scale of the Vt. experiment not using sawdust but just wet wood chips. Many thanks.

 

[renewablejohn]

colebrookman

We have a lot of woodchip boilers in europe some of the better ones are now fully automatic and equivalent to a standard oil or gas boiler. the best I have seen is manufactured by Refo a danish company uk website is

www.farm2000.co.uk

Test efficiency as high as 94.5% and will take woodchips with moisture content upto 45%. The thing I liked about the boiler was the way it could reduce its output in 10% increments right down to a tick-over of 10% then as demand came on-stream it would automatically fire up in 10% increments

 

[colebrookman]

Thanks John. I think I'm looking for something simple, one batch burning with as few controls as possible, My home is small,1200sq.ft. and I plan to insulate it well this summer. I can probably do well with solar hot water heat but the thought of also heating outbuildings with wood chips sounds pretty nice. Many thanks.

 

[leaddog]

colebrookman

We have a lot of woodchip boilers in europe some of the better ones are now fully automatic and equivalent to a standard oil or gas boiler. the best I have seen is manufactured by Refo a danish company uk website is

www.farm2000.co.uk

Test efficiency as high as 94.5% and will take woodchips with moisture content upto 45%. The thing I liked about the boiler was the way it could reduce its output in 10% increments right down to a tick-over of 10% then as demand came on-stream it would automatically fire up in 10% increments

That is a cool looking boiler. I wonder what it would cost over here and if they even export them here. There should be a big market here for chip burners as the raw materials are available almost every where. It sounds like this one will burn a variety of materials and that is what is needed to make one pratical. The other problem is storing chips as there is a fire danger and freezing problem in handling but they are all solvable. The modulation is a great feature. I sure would like to see one in use.
leaddog

 

[slowzuki]

The Steve Redmond project died out but you can look at gasifiers. They burn wood chips too and have been around a long time. Could be converted to do what he was trying to do.

 

[renewablejohn]

leaddog

They will burn most types of fuel that can be handled by the auger and they have a test facility so you can take in your own material and see how well it burns.

 

[Nofossil]

The EKO efficiency tests in Europe were done burning wood chips - 15% moisture content, though.

I wonder if you could dry wood chips in a hurry by spreading them out in a parking lot for a day when it's sunny. A plow and a payloader could do it pretty quickly....

 

[Chris S]

what about my stumps?
They come out of the grinder in little pieces - rather than mulch them I'd love to burn em.
Cause DEC says I can't burn em whole & you can't bury them either!!

Sounds good- I want one

 

[renewablejohn]

nofossil

we dry our woodchips in a polytunnel using a snowblower to turn them and load them into a trailer

Chris S

stumps are not the most ideal fuel as you will also pick up soil and stones which could jam the auger. If it was screened you could get it through the auger however it will increase the amount of clinker which will need to be removed from the stove.