[TheForge] Wood Stove for Shop heat

[Jerry Frost]

From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>



>
>
> El Frio wrote:
>
>> No reputable manufacturer builds wood burners with 
>> catalytic converters anymore,
>
> Wow, it is amazing what one learns in this forum at 
> times.  My friend, Butthole, never had a problem with 
> his AFAIK, but he did replace it a few years ago, so 
> maybe it didn't work out as well as it once seemed. 
> Nevertheless, that stove ran like the devil and ate 
> very little wood.
>

Maintenance is the key and you can't reliably do it on 
a schedule because of differing wood quality. A few 
loads of bad wood can plug a catalytic in a couple 
days, then they generate creosote rather than burn it. 
This is what happened to us last spring and the stack 
fire nearly burned us out. If it'd gotten started half 
an hour later Deb would've been napping and I would've 
lost her with the house.

>
>
> Are you saying that your active burning fire is in 
> chamber 1, heating wood in chamber 2 and thereby 
> driving off the volatiles for heat, resulting in 
> charcoal that is then moved to chamber 1 for heat and 
> to drive a new batch of volatiles from new wood 
> loaded into chamber 2?
>

That's pretty much exactly how it works though the 
charcoal burns at the bottom of the wood chamber 
instead of actually moving down. I spent some time 
looking through my list of links, (deleating the dead 
ones, thank you for inspiring me to go through them. 
<grin>) and have included a number. The indirect boiler 
I was talking about or one very like it is called a 
"Wood gassification boiler" and there's a link below.

>
>
> I suppose it would be best to vent barrel 1 into 
> barrel 2 opposite the flue end and vent barrel 2 at 
> the flue end, like so:
>
>                                               | Flue 
> |
>         ______________________________________| 
> |___
>        | 
> |
>        |         ____        ____        ____ 
> |
>        |        /    \      /    \      /    \ 
> |
>        |       |      |    |      |    |      | 
> |
>        |        \____/      \____/      \____/ 
> |
>        |              Heat Exchanger 
> |
>        |___ 
> ________________________________________|
>        ____| 
> |________________________________________
>        | 
> |
>        | 
> |
>        |                  Fire 
> |
>        | 
> |
>        | 
> |
> 
> |__________________________________________________|
>
> This what you mean?
>


Pretty close but this is how I build them.

    __I    I____________________________________
    I 
I
  _I________________________________________I_
   fan in >     15gl grease barrel.         Warm air 
out  >  >  >
  ___________________________________________
    I 
I
    I____________________________________      _I
                                                        
                      I    I
     ____________________________________I    I__
    I_   >_____________________________________I
    I                                 baffle 
I
    I 
I fire door
    I                                    fire box 
I
    I 
I
    I_________________________________________ < draft




>
>
> I asked one of the brokers about that and they said 
> "no".  Perhaps this is a state-by-state thing?  In 
> any event, I intend on eventually damming the creek 
> to at least 10'.  I may go higher so I can build a 
> bridge across the top to the other side in case a 
> house or other building goes up on the north 
> exposure.  But even at 10' that will easily exceed 
> 100K gallons of reserve, probably by many times 
> actually.
>

Talk to the fire, marshal, chief, inspector, whatever. 
If s/he says it lowers your fire danger your insurance 
co will go along. Asking an insurance broker never gets 
you a discount in these circumstances, s/he's NOT going 
to put his/er butt on the line by saying it's safer.

>
> There's not a lot you can do about the length of your
>> driveway except make sure it's well maintained and 
>> always passable.
>
> Would you suggest I get a plow?  It would seem the 
> right thing to do.
>

If you get more than a couple inches of snow a year 
then yes. One thing you can bet the farm on is: Nothing 
goes wrong when or where it's easy to get to.

>
>
> That's pretty costly, given the amount of earth that 
> will have to be moved, the gravel, and the culverts. 
> That part will have to wait a while, unless I get 
> lucky and find a good running excavator at scrap 
> prices.
>

It is in fact too expensive for most folk but you might 
luck out. The people who own or buy the acerage south 
of you might be willing to split the cost of putting in 
an access road to their land if they allow you to tie 
into it. You'd both save on insurance and be that much 
safer if and when an emergency arises with one road 
impassable.

>
> Speaking of damming the creek, I was thinking of 
> running a 4' culvert (steel?  Concrete?) along the 
> flow in which to mount a large stainless steel gate 
> valve.  One reason is to have a means of clearing 
> silt and the other would be to provide a means of 
> flow control in the event we would one day put in a 
> turbine for power.  Or I suppose I could build a gate 
> from heavy plate.  Anyone have any thoughts about the 
> idea in theory and on how to do it?
>
> -Andy
>

Yeah, there is a lot of info on building holding ponds, 
dams, flumes, penstocks, pelton wheels, generators and 
the like online. In most smaller scale dams there is a 
flush gate. (I don't know if that's the right term but 
it describes the function) The flush gate serves a 
number of purposes but mainly it allows you to empty 
the pond to clean. If the pond bottom is laid out 
properly all you have to do is open the gate and the 
increased current will clean out the silt.

This is a list of wood stoves, heaters and dealers.

http://www.quadrafire.com/products/stoves/woodStoves.asp
http://hearth.com/prod.html
http://www.blazeking.com/
http://www.vogelzang.com/woodstoves.htm This page has a 
pic of a double barrel stove with the kit for sale.

Furnaces and boilers.
http://www.woodmaster.com/

This page shows a wood furnace similar to the indirect 
burn design. There is a page that describes the process 
with pics if I can find it. 
http://www.vogelzang.com/Norseman1500.htm

Ah, finally! The wood gassification boiler! 
http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/

All round distributor.
http://www.unclejoes.com/wood_heaters_for_less.htm

Good luck, good reading.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.

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