So. for 3 years, I've been chasing this whole wood burning thing. Spent well over $20k when you figure underground lines with insulation, slab & outshed, EKO, several different iterations of heat storage systems, pumps, plumbing, A Nofossil control system (which I will throw out there that Nofossil is great in what he does, nothing against him), and on and on and on.. And this is what I get for it:
1: Never, and I mean NEVER have I acheived a smokeless burn. I've tweaked until my head spins and never gotten it "right"
2: I consume at least 20 cords (Not face, the 4x4x8 foot kind) of hard wood every year. Because of this, and because I'm always chasing my tail in a vain attempt to get "dry" wood I spend every spare minute of my spring, summer and fall cutting & stacking wood. This fall is the first time that I stock piled what I thought was "enough" before the snow flew..
3: I am CONSTANTLY tending this thing, In this cold weather, I'm out there filling it at least 4 times a day with a fire nearly 24/7.. The 1200 gallon heat storage tank is to ride the house through the night when it goes out for a couple hours between 4am & 7 am..
Now, currently, my boiler is smoking harder than my neighbor's Heatmor OWB, WONT acheive a coal bed no matter what I try, and is barely keeping my house warm. The shop is getting colder and colder, and my heat storage tank is now down to 100 degrees.. It gets colder every day and the only thing its doing for me is preheat my DHW. And, Since monday, I've consumed over half of a 48x40" pallet stacked 7 foot high.. This is insane.. I cut open a couple blocks and used my moisture tester on em, 27%. Not the greatest, but actually drier than some wood I've burned in this.
Now, I will add that the house is drafty, BUT, the previous owners had a conventional wood furnace in the basement, kept the house warmer than me, and said they only used about 8-10 cord (once again, full cord) per winter.. The first winter, I only heated the house with my Homemade gassifier (which actually worked just about as well as this expensive EKO, just that it fell apart on me) and used 13. Last year, 20 with the shop added.. This year I stock piled 18 cords of hardwood blocks from a sawmill. It's over half gone.
Am I the only one who wishes I'd just bought an OWB? At least I could just hack the logs into luggable pieces and push it in and forget about it until 12 hrs later...
Well, that's my gassification boiler UN-success story.
1: Never, and I mean NEVER have I acheived a smokeless burn. I've tweaked until my head spins and never gotten it "right"
2: I consume at least 20 cords (Not face, the 4x4x8 foot kind) of hard wood every year. Because of this, and because I'm always chasing my tail in a vain attempt to get "dry" wood I spend every spare minute of my spring, summer and fall cutting & stacking wood. This fall is the first time that I stock piled what I thought was "enough" before the snow flew..
3: I am CONSTANTLY tending this thing, In this cold weather, I'm out there filling it at least 4 times a day with a fire nearly 24/7.. The 1200 gallon heat storage tank is to ride the house through the night when it goes out for a couple hours between 4am & 7 am..
Now, currently, my boiler is smoking harder than my neighbor's Heatmor OWB, WONT acheive a coal bed no matter what I try, and is barely keeping my house warm. The shop is getting colder and colder, and my heat storage tank is now down to 100 degrees.. It gets colder every day and the only thing its doing for me is preheat my DHW. And, Since monday, I've consumed over half of a 48x40" pallet stacked 7 foot high.. This is insane.. I cut open a couple blocks and used my moisture tester on em, 27%. Not the greatest, but actually drier than some wood I've burned in this.
Now, I will add that the house is drafty, BUT, the previous owners had a conventional wood furnace in the basement, kept the house warmer than me, and said they only used about 8-10 cord (once again, full cord) per winter.. The first winter, I only heated the house with my Homemade gassifier (which actually worked just about as well as this expensive EKO, just that it fell apart on me) and used 13. Last year, 20 with the shop added.. This year I stock piled 18 cords of hardwood blocks from a sawmill. It's over half gone.
Am I the only one who wishes I'd just bought an OWB? At least I could just hack the logs into luggable pieces and push it in and forget about it until 12 hrs later...
Well, that's my gassification boiler UN-success story.