Sounds like we might be headed the same direction on that to a point.
Yes, durring the summer I will be working on and testing alot for next winters heating unit. Doing some now, but needing heat in 2 houses mostly working on just heating.
I want charcoal for many uses, most people won't need as much charcoal as I will. So I basically want to cook the wood untill it is pure charcoal and not burn that. Once the gas is filtered it can be used for just about anything propane can be used for. How to best filter and compress it for storage for latter use is something I have to figure out still. Several ideas. Dry wood chips or dry saw dust should work well. Charcoal itself is a great filter for many things and I will probable use a 55gal barrel of charcoal as the filter. Then just burn the filter latter and replace with fresh
I like the rock house I rented, if things work the way I plan I may stay there next winter also and be building a real house here. Just don't have the room here to work on things I need to work on, though I have 12acres I have no indoor room here.
That rock house is a 2 story LARGE house. Only one fireplace downstairs where I can put a wood burner. If the woodburner is built to make charcoal and I filter the gas really well I can pipe the gas upstairs and use a normal (Outside vented) propane heater. Don't think I would trust one of those unvented wall mount propane heaters with this type of gas though it might be ok. But anyway I could use wood downstairs for heat and the gas upstairs for heat. I cannot put a wood burner upstairs though.
Saving some gas for the gennie and such is something else I plan too. Maybe just use the compressor from an old frig or freezer to pump it into a 25lb propane tank.
Someone did mention in another post here about my need for getting heat out of a small fire fast. When you have 1 wood burner in a house that size, that is a small fire
And to heat that much area you need to get all you can as fast as you can.
This house is 4 large rooms and 2 small rooms downstairs and 3 large upstairs, solid rock with no insulation! Since I don't own it alot of things I would do I can't do.
I did just score some 1" or larger pipe, about 30' and will be heating water with a genie and running that upstairs for heat. Building an insulated box unit for in the window like an airconditioner. The water will stay outside so if there is a leak I don't flood the house, room air will be circulated through the heater then.
If I were setup to run the gennie on wood gas it would be perfect, but not that far along yet and will have to use propane for now.