Zero degrees last night. 9 hour burn time. Nice.

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Gasifier

Minister of Fire
Apr 25, 2011
3,211
St. Lawrence River Valley, N.Y.
Well, I think winter is going to arrive. At least for a day or two. Then it looks like temps are going to hit 40 degrees a few times this week again. Oh, well. Easier on the wood supply. Hey, wait a minute, the first official day of winter this year is not until Dec. 22nd, so that explains this warmer weather! Winter isn't even here yet! :lol:

I filled the Wood Gun chamber almost 3/4 full, front to back, last night at 9pm. I got up at 6am and went down to check it. I could hear the boiler running. When I opened the door the chamber was completely empty. A few red coals left. Just enough to throw some small scraps of pine slab wood on top of them and get the fire going. I checked the storage tank and temperature was down to 160. Boiler temperature was 155. So the heat demands of the zones had been drawing on the tank when the boiler ran out of wood and temp went down. Nine hours out of the system when it is zero out. Not bad at all.
 
That's pretty cool. So with a relatively small tank, I assume the boiler runs wide open feeding the house and charging the storage to max temp initially, then cycles as needed by the zones until the wood is gone, then draws from the buffer tank until you fire the boiler again? Is there one firing rate on your boiler?
 
The system is working great. The boiler is either on or off, it cycles on and off automatically. With temperatures like we are having, I load the boiler twice a day. But when it gets down to the temps like last night, it apparently will be a three times a day thing.
 
Thats great bro.

Even with all the problems with my fuel source I get about the same burn as well. But my temps are a lot milder here.

The unit was cycling on and off all day yesterday and the high was around 41*
Last night it went down to 25* and I filled it up about 3/4 full around 9 pm as well and went out at 6am and found nothing but a little ash. The water temp was about 155*
I threw some oak flooring scraps on the bottom and then a couple splits and it lit up real quick and started gasifing right a way.

I came back out at 7:30am and there was a good bed of coals and I loaded it up. the highs today will be around 37* I keep ya posted.
 
What lengths are you guys burning? Mine is all cut at 16-18", and in order to get that kind of burn time I have to fill 'er up. However, I find if I fill it up with smaller splits (of less than fully seasoned red oak) I get 10 hours plus. That's at overnight lows in the teens and 20's. I think I'm gonna start cutting 20-22 to get more wood. Its a little late for this year though.
 
I have everything cut to 24". Its a nice fit plus it is easier to figure out how many cord I have. But that's just my OCD kickin in. .
 
FarmerTan said:
What lengths are you guys burning? Mine is all cut at 16-18", and in order to get that kind of burn time I have to fill 'er up. However, I find if I fill it up with smaller splits (of less than fully seasoned red oak) I get 10 hours plus. That's at overnight lows in the teens and 20's. I think I'm gonna start cutting 20-22 to get more wood. Its a little late for this year though.

I have been burning wood that was cut 14-16" so far this year. When I bought the gasser last spring I went into, find as dry wood as I can quickly mode. I found some wood from an Amish guy that had been cut the end of March. Mostly White Ash. I bought five face cord from him and got it home and stacked it outside in one single long row in the sunny part of my yard. I then fell, blocked, c/s/s about 10 more face cord of mostly Ash and some White Pine. I cut all this wood at 23". I will be getting into that wood probably about the middle of next week. I was also able to add a about 2.5 face cord of dry wood from some slab wood I bought from the Amish for next year. The smallest stuff was really nice and dry. Just stack it, and burn it. I bring it into the basement from under my porch and when I do I cross all the pieces into a tall pile in the corner of the boiler room. Leave it there for about four or five days. This gives it a chance to dry a little more. When the wood is only 1-3" across, and you cross it, it does dry in the boiler room. I also scrounged up about 4 cord of different types of wood in July. C/S/S outside as well. When all the wood went under the covered porch, put that wood in first so it would be burned last. That was also cut 23" I am going to cut any wood I cut from the woods at 23". We will see how it goes.

With the current 14-16" stuff, I load this to the back of the burn chamber. Then I add some of the small, shorter pieces I have in the front. When it gets colder, I have been loading the chamber about 5/8 full. Front to back. A few nights, when it got the coldest, I loaded it 3/4 full, from front to back. The small stuff up front burns away pretty quick, but boy does it burn hot. Sorry about the short novel. As you can probably see, I am loving this boiler. Now that I am through the toughest parts, research, plannning and getting it on line, I am just finding it so easy compared to the Wood Stove I ran for the last 6 years. And I thought the Wood Stove was awesome. :lol: I just love burning wood. :lol:
 
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