burning my junk mail in EKO-60 would make me happy, but

[Guastini]

burning my junk mail EKO-60 would make me happy, but is there anything i need to consider?
I cant stop the junk mail from coming and i sure would like to get a little heat out of it.
Can anyone tell me a good reason not to burn my junk mail.

Millions of gallons of fossil fuel (FF)are used to produce and deliver junk mail to us only to be put in the dumpster or recycler and have more fossil fueled vehicles haul it again. Then more FF used to recycle it or incinerate it or pile it on a land fill. Its not getting read so why not pop it in the Gasser and heat a little of the house with it. Seems the Gassifier will take care of the ash, so why not.

Perhaps someone has thought this out from another angle than me.

 

[kshultz]

That's what I do! Although I hold back on the plastic coated & color stuff. From time to time I put the junk mail on a bed of coals & bury it with fresh wood. I do not have a gassifier, just a regular 2 pass wood boiler. Anyone?

 

[Guastini]

Thanks for the reply. I mean paper started out as wood right? Should have the same cellular structure. I won't burn plastics either, but in 2 week i get a bushel of junk mail fliers and magazines.

 

[taxidermist]

I always place 1 junk mail into another junk mail envelope and send it in the mail. Keeps people working!!

 

[Nofossil]

In my experience, paper does not burn well. I think they add clay or other nonflammable ingredients, so the ash doesn't break down very well, and the inner layers take a long time to burn.

Small amounts work fine, but keep them tightly packed to avoid flare-up. Too much combustion in a gasifier is not a good thing.

 

[Eric Johnson]

You can burn paper in a gasifier, but it's usually more trouble than it's worth. It takes a lot of tending. One problem is that if you get a stack of papers over the nozzle, it will block off gasification pretty thoroughly. Nofossil is right about the clay component, too. Most color inks these days are derived from soy and other biodegradable/natural ingredients, so it's not the concern that it used to be. We always burn our financial statements and other personal paper stuff in the boiler.

 

[Guastini]

I always place 1 junk mail into another junk mail envelope and send it in the mail. Keeps people working!!

very helpfull

 

[stee6043]

Well since some are burning junk mail has anyone tried burning dried pooh??? I've heard some folks burn dried cow patties in kilns. Is this true? Anyone ever thrown some of Fido's care packages into a gassifier???

 

[Eric Johnson]

I used to burn cat scat in my old conventional boiler, mainly because the cats would go down in the basement to make their deposits in the little piles of bark that accumulated around the wood pile. As I recall, it smelled a lot like burning scat. But maybe a gasifier would be different. I know people around the world burn animal dung for cooking and heating, and it works pretty well.

 

[chrisfallis]

In my experience, paper does not burn well. I think they add clay or other nonflammable ingredients, so the ash doesn't break down very well, and the inner layers take a long time to burn.

Small amounts work fine, but keep them tightly packed to avoid flare-up. Too much combustion in a gasifier is not a good thing.

I concur. I used to try to burn anything organic in my Tarm dual fuel boiler and paper just gave me too much ash for the amount of heat. Newspaper was a PITA and had to be incinerated by the addition of pine construction scraps. Glossy paper was the worst with a high clay content that kept the shape and volume of the paper intact. A little paper as a starter is fine but too much is like a giant phlegm ball in the throat of your gasser.

 

[Paso]

I burn bundles of paper packed very tightly with a strapping machine at work. Trade catalogs etc...
Other than the comments regarding more ash I believe they provide me with quite a bit of Heat
After burning them all night I break it out when levelling in the morning after 12 hours burning and the centre is glowing red almost like it was a block of coal not a block of paper.

 

[Guastini]

Paso,
Are you burning in a gassifier?

 

[Paso]

opps! no I am not sorry if my answer is not on topic.

 

[Guastini]

Thanks for helping anyway!

 

[Duetech]

I burn tight rolled newspaper but I put it on top in the next to last layer and lay a log on it. It seems to burn well that way but further down in the stack it seems to clog things up. Maybe it gets more creosote being closer to the top......?

 

[sleepie]

when i get the junk prepaid envelopes i send them all the junk mail i get that day-in the envelope--but if no prepaid envelope it turns into btu's--happyness is a warm stove