The coppice stove

[renewablejohn]

Lets just explode a few myths. Basically the design looks like a rocket stove. I will be building one shortly in my growing polytunnel. The most significant cost is the 45 gallon steel drum £10 12ft length of 6 inch chimney pipe £40 and 20ft of 4 inch stove pipe £50. In addition I have been keeping the ashes out my wood burning stove to use as insulation FOC. The stove will take less than a day to build so anything over £300 is a rip off.

Claims on efficiency I would not dispute as it is one of the reasons why I am building the stove. As for fuel, rocket stoves are normally shown using standard kindling sticks not some rip off charcoal product although another design of a rocket stove does produce a product called biochar which is supposed to be good for the garden but I have not tried it yet.

 

Plenty of sites on the internet to look at if you google "rocket stoves for heating" if you just google rocket stoves you end up with the little cookers.

 

You will all need to be aware of this type of stove as the amount of wood used is typically 5 times less than a normal stove due to the heat retained in the building mass similar to a masonry stove.

[djbobbins]

Lots of "could", "possible" and "suggest" on the website...

 

The thought of groups of people getting together to build, install and run a biomass-fired generator is optimistic to say the least. And the stats might make vague sense (44,000 kWh per year is about enough for 9 or 10 houses) but based on peak demand, a house with electric cooking, TV, hoover, washing machine etc can draw 6 or 7 kW easily (7kW = just over 30A). So unless everyone is going to take turns in doing their cooking and laundry, they will need to install a backup gas turbine to meet peak demand!

 

Anyone else fancy harvesting 5 acres of coppice by hand?

 

Ironically, at micro-scale this is exactly the same issue the UK power system faces - how to back up low carbon generation sources to ensure that the lights stay on, whilst keeping prices as low as possible and the CO2 emissions down.

[Martin Jenkins]

Alder is a good second choice for wet ground with rabbits. They really don't like the taste and let the saplings get established.

 

I second that; I jammed in a whole load of willow (cut myself, no paying wads for shoots), and nearly every bit was munched, either by rabbits or deer.

 

The alder that I coppiced, really low down (about 12" - 18" stump left) has not been touched - and it has shot up.

 

To add to that - the willow that I HAVE cut down is taking forever to get down to a good moisture content - think two years seasoning will be good - but the alder seems to be light and moisture free within a few months.

 

With respect to the larger picture... well... notwithstanding the detrimental comments about UK wood producers, I think all imaginative new entrants can only grow the market - and if putting cartoony pictures on the website actually gains sales, then go for it!

 

Looking at their other web site, I get the feeling that this is a farm where the owners are trying to do a good little business, but are a little, shall we say, hopeful.

[ccharlie]

Sorry for digging up an old thread but a friend has just told me about these guys' Stick Stove (http://www.blackmountainwoodfuels.co.uk/woodTech/pdfs/stickStove.pdf). Some of what they are doing is quite interesting. Any recent thoughts of the world of Arbtalk?

[SteveA]

Lets just explode a few myths. Basically the design looks like a rocket stove. I will be building one shortly in my growing polytunnel. The most significant cost is the 45 gallon steel drum £10 12ft length of 6 inch chimney pipe £40 and 20ft of 4 inch stove pipe £50. In addition I have been keeping the ashes out my wood burning stove to use as insulation FOC. The stove will take less than a day to build so anything over £300 is a rip off.

Claims on efficiency I would not dispute as it is one of the reasons why I am building the stove. As for fuel, rocket stoves are normally shown using standard kindling sticks not some rip off charcoal product although another design of a rocket stove does produce a product called biochar which is supposed to be good for the garden but I have not tried it yet.

 

Plenty of sites on the internet to look at if you google "rocket stoves for heating" if you just google rocket stoves you end up with the little cookers.

 

You will all need to be aware of this type of stove as the amount of wood used is typically 5 times less than a normal stove due to the heat retained in the building mass similar to a masonry stove.

 

Sorry for digging up an old thread but a friend has just told me about these guys' Stick Stove (http://www.blackmountainwoodfuels.co.uk/woodTech/pdfs/stickStove.pdf). Some of what they are doing is quite interesting. Any recent thoughts of the world of Arbtalk?

 

Read what Renewable John has said above, that pretty much covers it.

 

There's been a lot of research and testing done on Rocket Mass Heaters in the USA.... a big mistake that a lot of people have made is by making the burn chamber out of metal, which may work well initially but every one has failed in the long term/ regardless of the thickness of metal.

 

The Stick Stove looks like it's made out of metal.

 

Try reading a bunch of stuff here for starters:http://www.permies.com/forums/f-125/rocket-stoves

cheers, steve

Edited January 23, 2016 by SteveA

[woodworm]

This guy is smart, take it from me. Anyone who is interested in biomass renewable energy should keep an eye on what he is doing.

 

Just sayin!

[Aunt Maud]

I can feel a brick, rocket pizza oven coming on.

[rovers90]

anyone for a glass of par char? comes with a slice of twaddle and a heap of hopefulness!!!

 

Brilliant!!!!