Ok guys. Confession time....... I HATE burning wood..... And wood gasification systems almost as much.......
As many of you know, I built my own gasification boiler. Things went well until about mid-to-late December.... Then, due to the fact that the firebox of the stove is not water jacketed, the stove warped and most of the refractory and such cracked. Now my secondary airflows are entirely messed up and my secondary combustion it mostly non existent. My lower chamber temps average int eh 1150F range vs the 1600 - 1700 range before, plus even when the stove is running fairly well, there is a wisp of smoke still visible.... But, this is also burning standing dead that we've fallen, which has got to have pretty hi moisture content.
The winter started with 1 10 cord semi load of slabwood. That was gone by the end of December. Since then, we've bought 4 pickup loads of cut and split wood and brought up at least 10-12 pickup loads of wood that was in our woods and our neighbor's woods. And we're currently waiting on the chainsaw to get fixed because we need more!!
Now, this winter was a little colder than average because even the seasoned wood burners around here like my 70 year old neighbor are complaining about wood consumption.. But this consumption is JUST to heat our HOUSE..... After a few weeks of trying to heat my shop, I gave up and blew the water out of the lines....
All in all, I'm sorry I messed with wood gasification. I'm still spending all my spare time cutting wood, and then spending several hours a day getting fires started in the gasifier morning and night; and feeding it every 1.5 hours or so throughout the day.. (Actually, my mom ends up doing it as I work during the day)...... I'm beginning to wish I'd just gotten an OWB that stays lit 24/7 and will hold 10-12 hours on a filling..... Cant be much worse than my wood consumption already, and I wouldn't have to split stuff so small either......
What I'm wanting to do at this point is get rid of the wood burning stuff and go to a coal stoker. I can get a used 300k BTU Keystoker Anthracite Coal Stoker boiler for $3k from a guy in good working condition. Anthracite coal delivered in bags from Pennsylvania is $278/ton...... The only thing is I know if I go this route, my folks (this is their place, I just live with them) already said they can't afford to buy coal when my dad and I can cut wood for free... So I need to carefully figure how much coal I'll need so that I know what the heating bill will be before I pull the trigger.... As it is, we are entirely tied down. We can't go visit family or anything during heating season because this wood system is such a pain, that even we have a tough time getting it to heat the place, let alone having a neighbor come over and stoke it. Whereas, with an OWB or a coal boiler, the fire stays lit all the time, and it just a matter of hauling away the ashes and either throwing wood in the firebox or dumping coal into the hopper....
I'm figuring with the way my gasifier was acting, that I doubt I was breaking out of the 40% range if I was lucky, due to the smoking and such... Plus, even with the heavy insulation, it does throw off plenty of heat from the sides/top...... The coal boiler I mentioned above is an 85% efficiency unit.......
I did a heatloss analysis on the house with the SlantFin program. Being that our windows are triple pain, but seal failed, I counted them as single pain windows. I put in 2" of insulation for the walls and 6" for the roof. At -10F outdoor temperature, the heatloss is 58,000 btu/hr....... Which, when I did the rough math in my head on my wood consumption x my guesstimated efficiency, I came up with 50-60k btu/hr. Then I did the heatloss and got 58K.
So, guessing that the 10 cords of slabwood are equal to 8 cords of log wood, and that we've collected at least another 5 cord (we've bought 1.3 cord alone) that's 13 cords of wood so far since the beginning of heating season........ :O
Just looking for feedback Thanks guys!
As many of you know, I built my own gasification boiler. Things went well until about mid-to-late December.... Then, due to the fact that the firebox of the stove is not water jacketed, the stove warped and most of the refractory and such cracked. Now my secondary airflows are entirely messed up and my secondary combustion it mostly non existent. My lower chamber temps average int eh 1150F range vs the 1600 - 1700 range before, plus even when the stove is running fairly well, there is a wisp of smoke still visible.... But, this is also burning standing dead that we've fallen, which has got to have pretty hi moisture content.
The winter started with 1 10 cord semi load of slabwood. That was gone by the end of December. Since then, we've bought 4 pickup loads of cut and split wood and brought up at least 10-12 pickup loads of wood that was in our woods and our neighbor's woods. And we're currently waiting on the chainsaw to get fixed because we need more!!
Now, this winter was a little colder than average because even the seasoned wood burners around here like my 70 year old neighbor are complaining about wood consumption.. But this consumption is JUST to heat our HOUSE..... After a few weeks of trying to heat my shop, I gave up and blew the water out of the lines....
All in all, I'm sorry I messed with wood gasification. I'm still spending all my spare time cutting wood, and then spending several hours a day getting fires started in the gasifier morning and night; and feeding it every 1.5 hours or so throughout the day.. (Actually, my mom ends up doing it as I work during the day)...... I'm beginning to wish I'd just gotten an OWB that stays lit 24/7 and will hold 10-12 hours on a filling..... Cant be much worse than my wood consumption already, and I wouldn't have to split stuff so small either......
What I'm wanting to do at this point is get rid of the wood burning stuff and go to a coal stoker. I can get a used 300k BTU Keystoker Anthracite Coal Stoker boiler for $3k from a guy in good working condition. Anthracite coal delivered in bags from Pennsylvania is $278/ton...... The only thing is I know if I go this route, my folks (this is their place, I just live with them) already said they can't afford to buy coal when my dad and I can cut wood for free... So I need to carefully figure how much coal I'll need so that I know what the heating bill will be before I pull the trigger.... As it is, we are entirely tied down. We can't go visit family or anything during heating season because this wood system is such a pain, that even we have a tough time getting it to heat the place, let alone having a neighbor come over and stoke it. Whereas, with an OWB or a coal boiler, the fire stays lit all the time, and it just a matter of hauling away the ashes and either throwing wood in the firebox or dumping coal into the hopper....
I'm figuring with the way my gasifier was acting, that I doubt I was breaking out of the 40% range if I was lucky, due to the smoking and such... Plus, even with the heavy insulation, it does throw off plenty of heat from the sides/top...... The coal boiler I mentioned above is an 85% efficiency unit.......
I did a heatloss analysis on the house with the SlantFin program. Being that our windows are triple pain, but seal failed, I counted them as single pain windows. I put in 2" of insulation for the walls and 6" for the roof. At -10F outdoor temperature, the heatloss is 58,000 btu/hr....... Which, when I did the rough math in my head on my wood consumption x my guesstimated efficiency, I came up with 50-60k btu/hr. Then I did the heatloss and got 58K.
So, guessing that the 10 cords of slabwood are equal to 8 cords of log wood, and that we've collected at least another 5 cord (we've bought 1.3 cord alone) that's 13 cords of wood so far since the beginning of heating season........ :O
Just looking for feedback Thanks guys!
!!
I'll try and address everything that's been mentioned here........
I don't know of a more cost effective way to get a reasonably efficient appliance, take good advantage of your local wood source and dramatically reduce your use of fossil fuel. You can even find pretty good used ones without having to look too far. A wood gasifier is the cleanest, most efficient way to burn wood. It will offer an excellent payback and the most comfort. It is also one of the most expensive options and simply not a realistic choice for many, many people.
