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garyischofield

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I've had an interest in woodchip fired boilers for residential/small commercial(500,000 btu's) use since 1979 when I started chipping biomass.It's always dumbfounded me why something so accepted and commonplace in Europe wouldn't have made more inroads in North America.Is anyone presently using a woodchip fired boiler?I'm no longer in the chipping business but am able to get a steady supply of chips and would like to convert income properties to biomass heat.I'd welcome any information AS members would be willing to share with me.Thanks in advance,Gary
 
wood chip burners

I've had an interest in woodchip fired boilers for residential/small commercial(500,000 btu's) use since 1979 when I started chipping biomass.It's always dumbfounded me why something so accepted and commonplace in Europe wouldn't have made more inroads in North America.Is anyone presently using a woodchip fired boiler?I'm no longer in the chipping business but am able to get a steady supply of chips and would like to convert income properties to biomass heat.I'd welcome any information AS members would be willing to share with me.Thanks in advance,Gary



Check with the Messersmith folks in the usa as they are still building chip burners; I think they are in Michigan.
 
It's always dumbfounded me why something so accepted and commonplace in Europe wouldn't have made more inroads in North America.

When it comes to Biomass & wood burning Europe builds much more expensive units than we do here. They seem to value quality & environmental impact a lot more than we do in North America. Most European govts don't have easy access to oil or cheap energy and will give the house holders substantial rebates to install 'green' energy.

Having said that, there is an excellent unit built in the USA LEI Products - Products we've seen it a show and tested it in our lab and it is impressive! It will burn wood chips, various grains and even horse manure as long as the humidity is below 35%.

It's not for the faint of heart for either your pocket book or the install/setup. In order to operate it you need to be a guy who enjoys tinkering with the settings.
 
I'd love to see a residential sized unit hit the market that could compete with OWBs and gassifiers. I have several buddies in the tree business and getting rid of chips is becoming a hassle now with all the storm damage we've had in the last year. Everyone that takes chips normally is filled up already and at this point we're just filling in depressions and hillsides with them, such a waste of good BTU's
 
boilers

I have seen the lei bio burner,talked with Scott.I'm leaning more toward the Portage and Main chip burner as it seems to be built more ruggedly and is more tolerant of less than oversized chips.I don't have any firsthand knowledge of either other than the videos on Youtube.Portage and Main is tentatively going to have a chip boiler at the Big "E"in Springfield,Mass. in September.When you say it's for someone who likes to tinker with the settings is that fuel inconsistency issues or boiler shortfalls or a combination of both?
 
I have seen the lei bio burner,talked with Scott.I'm leaning more toward the Portage and Main chip burner as it seems to be built more ruggedly and is more tolerant of less than oversized chips.I don't have any firsthand knowledge of either other than the videos on Youtube.Portage and Main is tentatively going to have a chip boiler at the Big "E"in Springfield,Mass. in September.When you say it's for someone who likes to tinker with the settings is that fuel inconsistency issues or boiler shortfalls or a combination of both?

My understanding and I may be wrong here or they may have changed the set up... Is they have a fairly complex electronics & display and it takes some doing to fine tune it properly. Not crabbing the product since as I said I was very impressed.
 
This is America and Europe is a continent of pussies!:rock:

May I remind you they also wear speedos and smoke virginia slims out of cigarette holders?
 
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Talked to a guy a couple days ago with family in Italy. He saw my OWB and commented that they have similar units back in the old country but get this - they use olive pits for fuel (no joke).
 
Talked to a guy a couple days ago with family in Italy. He saw my OWB and commented that they have similar units back in the old country but get this - they use olive pits for fuel (no joke).

In Indiana & Michigan they burn cherry pits. In Brazil they burn Acai seed (they burn fine but with a weird blue flame). Biomass is a wonderful way to get energy out of unwanted material. As long as we can burn it clean.

Another great untapped source of energy is... manure! People around the world have used manure to cook on and heat themselves for millenias. There's tons of the stuff around. It has to be dry enough and mixed with hay makes a perfect fuel.

Also, humanity will make great strides in free source of energy once we learn to tap in all the hot air coming from politicians!
 
I have a tractor and can cheaply buy a chipper with an 8" throat. Green chips in heaps but no way to burn them for heat.

It would be so nice to have a way to use this energy source to make heat for my home or shop, the forest constantly grows biomass but trees large enough for firewood take time to grow.

Green chip burners get my vote. It can be a hot air heater or a boiler.

Remember that there is a huge difference between burning green chips and dried chips.
 

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