What I did last Fall/Winter

I have not had much time to get on here for a while, but I thought I would stop in and show off my latest project that I completed last winter. project has a few electronic components but it has over 2000 lbs of carbon steel!

I had been getting tired on how natural gas and LP gas prices have been skyrocketing in the past few years, and it had gotten to the point where I would spend up to $1,400.00 a winter on LP Gas.... so I decided to build me an out door wood burning boiler system to heat my house, I have plenty of resources for good firewood so I said why not?
But once I got started on the project, I decided to go one more step, and create a "smokeless" outdoor wood boiler.....

So this is what I ended up with, a smokeless wood gassification outdoor wood boiler.... I built it for a little over $600.00, although a comparable one on the market would have cost me $12,000.00!! And so far, I have spent $65.00 all winter to heat my 3600 sq ft home...



View of smoke stack and Primary combustion area:
http://youtu.be/-fZHdCscsE4

View of secondary burn area:
http://youtu.be/K3CLAs5ECb8


This unit basically has 2 combustion chambers, the primary chamber "gassifies" the wood almost to the point of pyrolysis, the "smoke" is then drawn back through the hot coals to heat it up to 1100 degrees, which at that point super heated combustion air is injected and mixed with the heated gas which is then burned in the secondary chamber that burns up to 2200 degrees.....

Great job! How is combustion in the primary chamber controlled? In other words, how do you prevent it from burning up?

Basically a crematory for wood?

Texas doesn't have much of a problem with heating. Cooling now...

So what would you come up with for this problem?

Brownout said:

Great job! How is combustion in the primary chamber controlled? In other words, how do you prevent it from burning up?

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The primary combustion is controlled by a downdraft blower which only supplies enough air for the wood to "smolder" in the primary combustion area from the bottom up. The unit is air tight, a motorized baffle closes up when the unit reaches the preset temp and completely cuts off the combustion air supply.

shortbus said:

Basically a crematory for wood?

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Wood, coal, or any other combustible biomass.

Bill_Marsden said:

Texas doesn't have much of a problem with heating. Cooling now...

So what would you come up with for this problem?

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Working on that now Bill to get my summer cooling bill down.

BMorse said:

Working on that now Bill to get my summer cooling bill down.

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Geo-thermal heat pump...

How ever do you come up with these kinda things ?

R!f@@ said:

How ever do you come up with these kinda things ?

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as the old saying goes R!f@@, "Necessity is the mother of all inventions", and I found it necessary to reduce my fuel bill . I was actually thinking of purchasing one that is available in the market here, after seeing what they have into a $7,000.00 unit, I decided that it just seemed like such a ripoff, and the materials used would not even last 10 years, and it also put out a lot of smoke, so I decided to do some research and a lot of Google searches led me to my creation.....I actually have quite a few people interested in owning one of these, unfortunately, I do not have the starting capital needed to produce them . And I forgot to mention that this unit also heats my hot water, so it also helped reduce my electricity consumption for heating domestic potable water.

BMorse said:

The primary combustion is controlled by a downdraft blower which only supplies enough air for the wood to "smolder" in the primary combustion area from the bottom up. The unit is air tight, a motorized baffle closes up when the unit reaches the preset temp and completely cuts off the combustion air supply.

Click to expand...

Makes sense. It's the same way I control combustion in my smoker. Course, I'm the control mechanism.

Protected your cousin against wolverine attacks?

maxpower097 said:

Protected your cousin against wolverine attacks?

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??

BMorse said:

??

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so that wasn't an inside joke? When I read it, I wanted to post some confusion, but I figured it was written to have meaning to you.

Awesome thingamajig BTW. What happens to the vapors? Can you capture them to make methanol? Or that what it does, burn wood to make methanol, then burn the methanol too?

strantor said:

so that wasn't an inside joke? When I read it, I wanted to post some confusion, but I figured it was written to have meaning to you.

Awesome thingamajig BTW. What happens to the vapors? Can you capture them to make methanol? Or that what it does, burn wood to make methanol, then burn the methanol too?

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I am as confused as you strantor, lol (although I believe it was in response to the thread title, ). Anyway, no, no methanol production, usually the wood is turned into Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen which is all burned off in the secondary combustion area.... Although you can use the C02 and the Hydrogen to power a combustion engine equipped with a carburetor.... that is another thing I am working on for this summer, to mow my lawn with syngas made from wood, I am currently finishing up my GEK (gassifiers Experimenters Kit http://gekgasifier.com/wood-gasifier-plans/ ) which I will be using to create the syngas from wood or other biomass material to power my lawn tractor or even a genset (generator) when needed.... the GEK is an attempt to improve on the Imbert gassifier used back in WWII when there was a shortage of petroleum...


Here is a pic of all the parts I have fabricated myself so far for this device:

Reminds me of a program on the N.G. channel where they made a ski lift

from a pile of junk steel. You also show good workmanship,I always said

you are the great example of the self made man.

Its a famous line from one of the best movies ever made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdaEdDdtAsA

BMorse said:

a smokeless wood gassification outdoor wood boiler.... I built it for a little over $600.00, although a comparable one on the market would have cost me $12,000.00!! And so far, I have spent $65.00 all winter to heat my 3600 sq ft home...

Click to expand...

That is the coolest thing I've seen in quite some time!! Put me on your email/RSS/twitter list!! Congratulations, it's a real beauty!!

I want one!!

joe