Yes, I know a lot of mills I've worked at used the chips and waste wood for heating water for use in the kilns. I think it's new to P&M tho. That's where I was going with the R&D comment. I LOVE their units but their customer service absolutely sucks. And I'm very unfamiliar with the art of burning biomass. I can see myself having lots of questions, if not problems, and if they aren't responsive to someone ready to spend 15 grand on the purchase of their product they certainly aren't going to be of any help AFTER the sale.
I agree with your view of water storage and the Harmon units, but I'm about as familiar with those methods as I am with the biomass stuff. I don't have the time to be learning, experimenting, building structures and all the other things associated with this way of heating. If I had even a clue about that stuff I'd delve into it, mainly because of what you and a few others have expressed here. But currently I'm running 2 non-profit organizations, an industrial health and safety training business, a part time welding business, I teach for the National Fire Academy, the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy, I'm a contract technical writer and advisor for the NHTSA, am currently updating an instructional manual I wrote several years ago for CDL drivers and also just took a position as a co-chair for a smoke alarm initiative program for the State of Michigan. Sometime between now and next heating season I have to decide on this OWB issue, acquire it and install it and build a firewood processor so I can feed it without spending any more time than I need to. On top of all that, I own/run a 160 acre farm that also serves as a training center for our health and safety training and forestry programs for kids. I'm trying to convert one of our barns into a living area and new office space, but I'm sawing all my own lumber for that project which will be neat when I'm done because I'll be able to look at it and know that every last scrap of wood material came from trees on my property and sawn on my own sawmill. I really can't afford, (time-wise), to be experimenting with something that I have no background in.
Now with all that said, if you'd like to come out here, tell me what to buy, get it here and help me install it and set it up, I'd be a REAL happy camper! :msp_biggrin: