Anyone Burn Brush Chipper Chips In Their Stove Or Furnace?

[StihlRockin']

Having a long winter here with the snow accumulating relentlessly and the cold temps not making it any more fun. Which lends to an idea I was thinking if it would be worth it...

Is burning wood chips from my chipper a worthwhile thing to do?

I mean I know it will burn, etc, but I'm wondering how long it will last? I know a smaller chunk of wood will burn faster than a larger round. If it were worth it I would at least supplement my woodpile stack by burning the chips during the day and burn my wood at night. If I were home it wouldn't be much to fill the furnace with chips or have someone else do it.

Has anyone burned wood chips from a chipper to heat with before?
How much less burning time did it give you over your normal wood?

Any advice from your personal experience or from someone you know who does burn chips, I'd love to hear anything about this.

Thank You!

StihlRockin'

 

[Oldmaple]

I've heard of a few power plants doing it. Needs to be processed to certain specs and such cause I think it gets fed like a pellet stove. Problem with stove or furnace would be getting them dry otherwise you'd get alot of smoke and creosote buildup I would think.

 

[brenndatomu]

I have been doing something similar. I do a lot of my sawing/splitting on concrete, so it is easy to sweep up the saw chips and small splitter trash, throw it in a trash can, save it for those light heat load days. I guess I should mention that I only put the real dry stuff in a can, if it's greener wood i'm workin up, then chips go in a feed sack so they can breath.
When it's time to use them, I fill a paper grocery bag (our local store still has those if you ask!) and throw it in the furnace in the evening when i'm home. They really burn hot, gotta control your air! It only lasts a couple hours, but that's enough in the spring and fall. I would imagine that chipper chips would be 'bout the same. I'd probably be a pain drying them out in any quantity though.
I have been keepin my eyes peeled for a cheap residential size chipper to run the small limbs through. Why burn that stuff in a big pile when it could be heatin my home?!

 

[jh35]

My neighbor has burned chips in his Central Boiler. He is over a quarter mile away and sometimes he smokes me out. Of course there is the garbage and stuff he burns too.

My Heatmor smokes very little by comparison, but I only burn wood and most of it is dry.

 

[vinced]

I've kind of wondered the samething. I did some research and most chip burners are simular to pellet stoves. The chips are auger fed to a burn pot where they burn and a slow moving auger just keeps feeding more chips has they burn. The main problem is getting the chips to consistant size so feeding isn't a problem and then getting to under 20% moisture content. Using a wood/brush chipper is one thing, drying and getting them to a consistant size uses way more energy and time then it is worth. I thought about having a drying chamber built into the boiler to dry the chips before they are augered into the burn pot. I think this could work, but would take some experimenting.

 

[Jredsjeep]

not in my stove but i have outside, any time i load up any amount to speak of it smothers the fire and smokes like crazy. if you can get air flow through it helps a lot but that is hard to do when you are shoveling in a pile.

i have seen metal baskets that hold pellets to burn in a regular wood stove, i wonder if one of those would work.

 

[echoshawn]

My grandparents used to talk about having a sawdust powered furnace. I've never seen or heard of them before. Could make for a great setup for an OWB maybe? I would guess auger fed much like a pellet stove.. Hmm... could be an interesting build if someone had the knowhow..

 

[brenndatomu]

My Yukon has a grate so it gets good air up under the fire. (don't let spidey get wind of this)
Chips probably wouldn't burn real well just layin on some firebrick...

 

[Shockman]

My grandparents used to talk about having a sawdust powered furnace. I've never seen or heard of them before. Could make for a great setup for an OWB maybe? I would guess auger fed much like a pellet stove.. Hmm... could be an interesting build if someone had the knowhow..

I know a guy with a cabinet shop that has this setup.
He started with a OWB to heat his house, lumber kiln, and 60'x 100' shop. Figured he needed to dispose of the sawdust from the shop...so why not turn sawdust into heat.
He rigged up a hopper with an auger feed and the dust collectors from the shop feed the hopper.
Here is where it gets good... since he has a kiln thats heated by the OWB...he bought a tub grinder to shred firewood, and dries the chips on a rack in the kiln.
Dried chips are stored in a 3 sided shed, and maybe once a week he loads the hopper with a front end loader.
Pretty simplistic design...and he doesnt have to worry about loading the OWB twice a day.

 

[StihlRockin']

What got me thinking about this is that one of my trucks is parked for the season near the stove and is half full of chips. I'm hoping since they were out of the rain and melting snow from previous, that they haven't clumped(frozen) together so I can get a pitch fork in them. Going to give it a go and start putting in the chips I have and compare.

Thanks for the replies. I'll update once I find out some results.

StihlRockin'

 

[woodchuck357]

Chips dry FAST

if they are spread out. Hard to measure moisture content with a meter but weight change in a sample would be one way.

Dry chips fed into a firebox with an auger fueled a friends kiln years ago, I don't know anyone that has used them to heat a house.

 

[blades]

Current saw dust units spray the saw dust in to the burn chamber much like an oil burner. Chip burners keep popping up and some have been installed in EU but do not seem to be fairing well as most get replaced in less that 5 years. Moisture content of chips critical, and they have been having supply side problems and costs that are higher than dino fuel units, along with maintenance issues.
Chips units in EU primarily designed for compressed wood pucks ( they call them chips ). Raw chips will work also but generally have issues in the feed system.

 

[Wow]

I've kind of wondered the samething. I did some research and most chip burners are simular to pellet stoves. The chips are auger fed to a burn pot where they burn and a slow moving auger just keeps feeding more chips has they burn. The main problem is getting the chips to consistant size so feeding isn't a problem and then getting to under 20% moisture content. Using a wood/brush chipper is one thing, drying and getting them to a consistant size uses way more energy and time then it is worth. I thought about having a drying chamber built into the boiler to dry the chips before they are augered into the burn pot. I think this could work, but would take some experimenting.

Just a guess here,, I'm wondering what would happen IF..If a metal barrel half full of Wood chips were to be placed into a brush fire with just a small air vent. Kinda like we make Charcoal. I've never done this BUT it seems to me maybe this would make the Chips burn. When I was studying this kind of stuff I was told that Wood Smoulders at 16% oxygen. Now if that is not a good idea. Think about a Dryer system.. Use a metal barrell put chips in slowly roast over an open flame to cure the chips.. If I had wood chips I'd be compelled to build a good wood fire, get the hot coals and add chips.. If the chips were partly cured and the right size they might burn well enough to be added mechanically like Wood Pellets.. Then there is another Idea.. Mix the Chips with something else to make a heat souce..Maybe some sort of GLUE.. I'm thinking cheap home made glue.. Flour and water might word.. MIx this stuff make pattles or logs or big clumps and let dry for a few days.. The flour might make a mess with a lot of dust BUT the clumps might burn. Heck roll that stuff into logs 16 inches long 6 inches around.. Dry that and see what happens..

 

[blades]

Hey WoW, this is a 10 year old Thread.

 

[user 122190]

Hey WoW, this is a 10 year old Thread.

Well aged, like a good bottle of wine.

 

[blades]

ya but if it get too aged its just expensive vinegar.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I did work for a guy who had a sawdust furnace at one point. This was 20 years ago and the furnace had been gone for decades by then. He said it was cheap and even heat.

He talked about a weighted flip floor that would tip when enough sawdust had burned away and the weight got low enough, dumping what was left(I'm assuming into a burn chamber below) and triggering another load of sawdust to fall onto the flip floor, starting the process again.

I've wondered about a small pellet mill, for making wood stove pellets. Shovel chips in the top, get a consistent fuel out the bottom? Has to be more complicated than that.

 

[blades]

Material for the common flat plate mills needs to be reduced in size to apx like fine rock salt. A hammer mill is required to do this. moisture content needs to be at 8-12 % apx if i remember correctly. Foreign materials ( stones bits of metal ect) do not play well with the plate and rollers. for wood the mill must be a double reduction type. animal feed type units are not geared correctly.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Here's a cabinet shop that built a sawdust briquette press.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Here's a commercially available briquette machine in the UK, though pricing isn't listed on the website. Can use sawdust, straw, newspaper, cardboard, other biomass. Once it's in briquette form, you can burn it in any normal wood stove. This seems ideal to me.

https://www.maedev.com/