anyone ever

[cassandrasdaddy]

put a catalytic combuster on a owb? reason it occured to me is i have a new close neighbor and i read about the post where the neighbors complained about smoke. i REALLY like this new guy. He from alaska minds his own business but is there to help if you need it. so if i put in a burner this summer i wanna treat him right. if i can keep the smoke down i want too

 

[laynes69]

I doubt it would do any good. The problem is you need to get the cat up to temperature for it to work. In a OWB, that may be difficult. Plus if you throw wood in thats less than seasoned, you can shock the cat and cause damage from the moisture. Burning seasoned wood would help reduce smoke. They used to make a retrofit cat for the flue pipe of stoves and furnaces, but from what I heard they didn't work too well.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

thanks

i appreciate the help i know almost bupkus so i can use the schooling. this guy is worth treating good. i was upstairs vacuming and my 2 year old locked herself in the downstairs bathroom she was screaming for me and i couldn't hear her. he could through the window and came over to make sure she was ok. i turned of the vacum just as he did. he was all apologetic for coming over. i laughed how could you not like a guy who comes to make sure your kid is ok then apologizes for intruding? he'll never buy eggs as long as he lives here unless he wants to. i've got 3 neighbors and we all get along like that. its great.

 

[Slick]

If you really want to keep smoke down look at the EPA certified boilers but be ready to spend almost twice as much. Alot can be done to keep the smoke down, placement vs the wind will make a difference, chimney height, placement on your property etc etc. I know in my case just being my second season has helped, you do have to learn a bit of when to load, how much etc it helps alot with smoke output. I can't believe how much better mine is burning this year just from me learning what I'm doing more

 

[John D]

best way to keep smoke down is keep your wood dry,and dont burn punky wood,or throw all your scraps in there unless its dark out,lol. Seriously,dry seasoned wood is your friend.Even with it,it will still smoke pretty good at times.If you have a close neighbor,I wouldnt go with a traditional OWB,it will be a problem sooner or later,its just the nature of the beast.

 

[leon]

nice neigbor

put a catalytic combuster on a owb? reason it occured to me is I have a new close neighbor and I read about the post where the neighbors complained about smoke. I REALLY like this new guy. He is from alaska minds his own business but is there to help if you need it. So if I put in a burner this summer i wanna treat him right. if I can keep the smoke down I want too

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You might want to consider an evergreen boiler from www.wdheat.com
and burn anthracite coal.
They have three evergreen models and rick sells pressurised boilers too.

another option is a home made exhaust gas water scrubber to remove all the crud and simply emit steam-

A water scrubber consists of two tanks the exhaust inlet tank where the exhaust is piped under the water level of the scrubber tank and the make up water tank which feed the scrubber tank to replace the water lost from the heat of the exhaust gas and steam.



The advantage with a forced draft fan is you can push all the smoke from the exhaust through the water scrubber and then emit only water vapor; It will require cleaning occasionally to get all the dirt and creosote out of it.

You have to add make up water every day but its worth it as all the smoke being unburned particles would be captured by the water and settle out.
you would be able to top off the scrubber with a PEX hose from the boiler water but you would need to attach a drain cock at the low point to drain the water out of the pex to avoid freeze damage.

If you have either a pressurised or unpressurised boiler you would need to fill it the same way.


Burning anthracite coal eliminates worries about smoke period even with a short stack if you would like to burn coal, Soft coal requires much more combustion air than hard coal to burn.

leon