Chip Stove for floor heat systems

Tr33Climb3r said:
That is really cool. We heart our 8000 Sq foot shop with natural gas. Our most recent bill for electric and heat was about $350. And it was a really cold month. Usually it's closer to $215 or so. If we had (3) $350 dollar bills it would take 13 years to make that investment worth it.

I personally would invest that $14000 in solar panels. We have our roof positioned perfectly for it. Plus I think that would be a quicker return on investment with a longer future insight. I'm curious what the "shelf life" on that unit is.

I'm really impressed with that unit you have though. That is really cool. A truck load of chips lasting you 2 weeks is really impressive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Solar heaters are a neat idea too.

Downside is that the sun needs to shine but they do make a good secondary heating option.

I'm amazed at how cheap an entry level solar set-up cost these days.
 
OasisTree said:
What pictures would you be interested in?
Click to expand...
The chip storage bin, and how they get into the feed conveyor. Do you have a little doggie door thru the wall at the bottom of that conveyor, or are you shoveling them up onto the conveyor from the pile we see on the right side of the photo?
 
That's right, I am shoveling them into the conveyor with a snow shovel. I have thought about setting up a higher capacity self feed system, but the conveyor that you see in the pic will last a full 24 hrs. unless it is really cold! A few minutes morning and evening keeps the conveyor topped off.

What you don't see in the picture is that i have an 10 ft. garage door in the front. We fill the shed by one of 2 ways - we either set the chipper up to blow straight into the building and chip medium size logs, or we dump a load outside and transfer the chips with my mini loader and high capacity bucket.
 
Ok, so I didn't want to derail your sales thread, so I'm going to ask away here.

I believe you addressed the fumes from the pile of chips in another thread, but I'm gonna ask again. Are you not worried about them in an enclosed space? What about the heat generated by the pile?

Would stock piling in a covered but cold shed work? If the chips were hauled in little by little and left to thaw for a few hours before being fed onto the conveyor?

What happens if there are larger pieces or unwanted material? Sticks, larger chips, rocks?
 
matdand said:
Ok, so I didn't want to derail your sales thread, so I'm going to ask away here.

I believe you addressed the fumes from the pile of chips in another thread, but I'm gonna ask again. Are you not worried about them in an enclosed space? What about the heat generated by the pile?

Would stock piling in a covered but cold shed work? If the chips were hauled in little by little and left to thaw for a few hours before being fed onto the conveyor?

What happens if there are larger pieces or unwanted material? Sticks, larger chips, rocks?
Click to expand...


I did have a pile of sycamore chips that got pretty warm, but most of the time I just burned white and red oak. And at most the chips were in there 3 weeks, which was not a problem.

As long as you kept the chips from getting rained on you could store them anywhere.

As long as it fits in the tube that feeds the stove, the larger pieces will burn. The rocks will stay on the ash grate. Longer sticks can bridge the feed tube and cause problems.

The chips that worked the best come from logs 6" or larger.
 
Thanks. I had looked at doing this at one point as I have my house plus 5500 sq ft of shop space with a plan to ad at least another 1500 sq feet eventually. Being that I have a basically unlimited supply of wood chips it seems like the way to go. I can always continue to sell the firewood.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom