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wood gas/home made charcoal
By A6D9, Section Heat Posted on Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 06:09:13 PM MST
what is best?

I have a wood/coal furnace in ym house for my main supply of heat.
I burn aboud 5 cord of hardwood a year in it a season.
I have allot of dead softwood on my lot. Was wondering what would my best way to get heat from the softwood for winter heating:
-just burn it in the furnace as per nomal and just mix it with the hardwood, say 1 log soft to every 3 hard.
-put the softwood in a barrel and make charcoal from it and use the woodgas to self heat the barrel durign the summer months and use the charcoal in my furnace
-cut the softwood in small chunks an do TomW's method of puttign it in a paintcan and just tossing the can in the furnace on a bed of coals, of coruse with holes in the can for the gas to burn and then once it is done..let cool and then burn charcoal in furnace.
I just don;t wana waste all that wood. I'm aware it won;t be great heat like a good old hardwood log, but every hardwood log i save form burnign is anothe rlog i do not need to get for next season.
Also if it's any help, I plan on having a few bonfires this summer so i could do the barrel idea then and use the softwood for those to get the gassing started.

wood gas/home made charcoal | 10 comments (10 topical)

Re: wood gas/home made charcoal (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by nick1234 on Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 05:09:45 PM MST

you say you have allot of dead soft wood converting it to charcoal is good in the fact that charcoal will not rot and will not be a home for bugs and can be saved for years
nick

Re: wood gas/home made charcoal (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by GaryGary on Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 07:27:37 PM MST

Hi,
This:
http://www.builditsolar.com/References/woodhvrs.htm

Lists Oak at 25 million BTU per cord
and Jack Pine at 17.

Does not seem like that much difference?
Does it really produce that much less heat?

Gary
Gary gary@BuildItSolar.com www.BuildItSolar.com

Re: wood gas/home made charcoal (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by scottsAI on Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 07:37:49 PM MST

GaryGary,

My brother heated with wood for a few years, things were good when it was free, when that ran out he told me the cost... I suggested he try that furnace he installed years ago. Was cheaper!

Now to your question. Not necessary the BTU it's the burn time.
Brother said the double stacked 30 gallon wood stove would turn cherry red with soft wood, he would burn up (house way too hot) for a while then freeze at night, fire out. Hardwood burned all night making things nice and comfy!

Have fun,
Scott.

[ Parent ]

Re: wood gas/home made charcoal (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by TAH on Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 09:37:20 PM MST

After only having the experience of heating with wood since the early 70's I can only offer this. We burned every type of wood that grows around here. Any draft controlled furnace will burn dry wood of any kind at the rate you adjust it to. There is a little more ash from cotton wood than oak. My favorite wood for years has been elm because the dutch elm disease kills lose all their bark and make nice clean firewood. Making charcoal sounds like a strange way to waste time and btus.

Why add another unnecessary process? (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by TomW on Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 07:03:25 AM MST

TAH;

I agree right down the line.

Cutting, hauling, stacking and feeding the stove is already a LOT of work. I wouldn't even consider another processing step. I only recently went from a pile under a tarp to stacking in a roofed open sided wood shed.

I have been burning wood for heat since the '60's myself.

Certainly not interested in adding complexity and effort to the process.

I do make charcoal to use for cooking on the grill and for melting metal but never for heating.

Just from here.

Tom

Ignarus can exsisto rememdium. Sardus est forever

[ Parent ]

Re: Why add another unnecessary process? (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by A6D9 on Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 01:31:52 PM MST

i guess the reason why i thought this was i could get more heat from charcoal and then as i was makign it get heat as well.

so get heat from every stick of wood twice as aposed to just once..but is it safe to assuem the heat i would get is simply half the heat two times...for a total of 1 unit..wheer as if i just burn it as wood it'll be 1 unit?

hope that made sence...it makes sence in my head...lol
Thanx Darren
[ Parent ]

Re: Why add another unnecessary process? (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by TomW on Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 02:36:23 PM MST

A6;

Well, I doubt you get "more" heat from making charcoal. The charcoal itself is pretty pure fuel so it burns pretty clean and hot. You drive off a lot of volatiles making it, too and that is lost heat unless you use it.

Maybe look into some kind of gasifier / heater combo that burns what wood you have more efficiently right in the furnace / stove?

There used to be a stove maker that build a stove that supposedly does this. More or less. A Vermont Downdrafter was one I recall from the 70's or so and the 2 folks I knew that had them liked them and felt they used very little wood compared to the old pot belly stoves they replaced. They draw exhaust gases thru the bed of coals before venting and supposedly burning the fuel more completely.

Just an idea.

Tom

Ignarus can exsisto rememdium. Sardus est forever

[ Parent ]

Re: Why add another unnecessary process? (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by TAH on Sat Mar 21, 2009 at 09:01:34 AM MST

There are several gasifier wood furnaces available. Some have very high efficiency but they need a very dry and consistant fuel to work well without lots of cleaning or adjustments. The reason the super low efficiency outdoor boilers work well for people is that you can burn almost anything in them. They end up pushing 60% or more of the btu's up the stack as heat or smoke.

[ Parent ]

Re: Why add another unnecessary process? (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by A6D9 on Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 06:12:31 AM MST

very good info...thank you all for stearing me in the right direction. :)

very appreciative.
Thanx Darren
[ Parent ]

Re: wood gas/home made charcoal (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by SteveCH on Sun Apr 05, 2009 at 01:41:11 PM MST

I've been heating totally with wood since 1974, plus heating our water and cooking. Guess there're a few of us around still.

The charcoal thing is something I've never thought of. Interesting. I would council experimenting with it prior to rigging up a big project and conversion to using it. See whether you really like it better than just plain wood.

Most of the problems and disappointments I've seen and witnessed with those who are unhappy using wood to heat come from failure to make it a regular part of the household deal and/or not having a decent enough stove. Those "double barrel" and other very thin metal stoves heat up cherry red and hot quickly, burn up their load quickly, and cool off quickly. That is the burn up or freeze situation. You cannot stack them up with wood or they'll overheat and that's a frightening [and dangerous] deal. It is difficult to manage a junky stove, not at all difficult in a well-designed one. That does not mean, necessarily, a huge money outlay. I have two stoves, one that cost me $160 new [30 yr. ago] and one that cost me $2500. The cheaper of those works great and has been in use every winter since 1975. [The more expensive one incorporates an oven on top, so....]

The household thing is more making wood burning a normal and regular partof...living in your house. Some people hate it, others, like us, really like it. We have no other source of heat up here in the mntns at 8500 ft. except during sunny winter days our greenhouse pumps some hot air into the house.

Helps that we have plenty of woods around here and my chainsaws and I can get all our wood in, just labor.

Anyhow, I hope you post your results and conclusions re: charcoal here on the forum once you have some.

wood gas/home made charcoal | 10 comments (10 topical)

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