Gasser wood for Life - possible mega score

[hartkem]

Maybe this should go to the wood shed but I needed an audience more relevant to my situation.

Today I was getting a quote for a set of trusses for my new shop I will be building this spring. In the back I spotted a massive pile of 2x lumber cutoffs. This pile is probably 60 foot long and pretty tall. I was wondering how this would burn in my eko40. Could i load it completely full? How long do you think it would burn compared to regular hardwood.? its only about 10 miles from my house and they said they could possibly load with a tractor. best thing is its free.

 

[nrcrash]

thats what i mainly burn. but I have to mix in some splits in order to have some spacing in between the wood to allow air circulation in the upper chamber. if I don't, the 2X wood packs to tightly and its like having a huge block of wood in the chamber. good score!

 

[Gasifier]

Is there such a thing as the wood being to dry for your boiler? I know it would burn away faster that cord wood, that is for sure. But wood you end up with too much surface area? That would be a problem for a Wood Gun with a forced draft system. You would end up with what we call puffing. But you could always stack your wood tightly together. I burn some Pine slab wood with my cord wood and I place two pieces of the slab together whenever I put them in so that the flat sides are facing each other. This helps keep the surface areas down.

 

[Gasifier]

Oh. I forgot to add that is a nice score. Free is always good. Get as much as you can and just mix it in with your cord wood when you burn it. It will burn hot, I can tell you that. One thing I noticed when stacking my cordwood is you have to be carefull to not stack it with the flat sides together like you want to burn it. This traps the moisture in and helps to encourage mold growth. So I now stack it flat side down and round bark side up and this gives a little protection of shedding the water.

 

[BoilerMan]

Thats crazy cool! Around here, that wood would go to the pellet mill, or be sold. No free heat in this heating climate.

GREAT SCORE

TS

 

[hartkem]

Thats crazy cool! Around here, that wood would go to the pellet mill, or be sold. No free heat in this heating climate.

GREAT SCORE

TS

Yeah you would think. I guess there isn't any pellet mills or anything close enough to justify it. There must be several years worth of it sitting there. Im hoping to get a trainer load of it and maybe burn 80% scrap and 20% cord wood and see how long it will heat my house. I have tweaked my setting enough where im getting about 12 hrs per fire on a high heat load.

 

[Fred61]

I suppose, if you adjust your air according to the reicepe you have chosen and continue with the same ratio of cord wood to scrap, it should work out well. The puffing problem usually arises when an operator loads his boiler with fuel that it is not tuned for, such as a load of splinters from splitting.

 

[huffdawg]

Yeah you would think. I guess there isn't any pellet mills or anything close enough to justify it. There must be several years worth of it sitting there. Im hoping to get a trainer load of it and maybe burn 80% scrap and 20% cord wood and see how long it will heat my house. I have tweaked my setting enough where im getting about 12 hrs per fire on a high heat load.

12 hrs. per fire! what boiler do you have.

 

[hartkem]

12 hrs. per fire! what boiler do you have.

i should have said 12 hrs between loadings> i have an eko 40

 

[ihookem]

I wish I had that offer. I'd burn it all fall and spring. I burn a lot of it from my carpenter jobs and for a fast clean hot burn it works well.
It does not last long but if ya cut off some air it might help a bunch. Don't have to split it neither. Like another poster said it attracts
moisture when stacked wrong Inside a building would be great.

 

[hartkem]

I will be getting a trailer load of it tomorrow. I would like to reduce my wood use the rest of this winter so I have more properly season for next winter. What settings on my boiler would I need to change in order to burn this scrap wood? I have the newer controller and run my fan at 60%, full open fan shutter, 10mm on primaries, and 3.5 turns out on secondaries.

 

[loadstarken]

That is an awesome score!

 

[stee6043]

i should have said 12 hrs between loadings> i have an eko 40

Your EKO 40 is probably running something like 30% of it's possibly efficiency if you're getting 12 hour burns. With average efficiency numbers maybe in the 80's you are probably looking at mid 20% system efficiency. OUCH!

I'm not sure a gasser is a wise investment when run in this fashion. My two cents only. Coulda bought a used Central Boiler and saved a whole heap of cash.

 

[maple1]

I think he meant time between fires - and not that the burn was 12 hours?

I'm at around 18 hours between burns right now - but the burns only last 4 hours or so unless I reload. And I need to build/light a new fire every day.

 

[stee6043]

I think he meant time between fires - and not that the burn was 12 hours?

I'm at around 18 hours between burns right now - but the burns only last 4 hours or so unless I reload. And I need to build/light a new fire every day.

Good point...never thought of it that way. If that's the case, I take it all back! ha.