Does dry chip burn in standard stoves?

[Stereo]

I'm putting a cheap wood stove of some kind in our shed / office for this winter. I've been wondering about all the brash we create, particularly as we grow a lot of hazel coppice on the farm which seems to have lots of top to it. We've got piles of brash everywhere and end up burning it in heaps which is OK but obviously potential heat that could be indoors.

 

So I was wondering about getting it all chipped up and then using it as a fuel. I know there are dedicated chip boilers but it's just space heating we need really. I was wondering what occurs if you bung a shovel load in the stove, maybe mixed with logs to create spacing? I would imagine even on it's own a pile of chip would burn well with the bottom vents open on a stove? Or does it not last long enough?

 

Anyone do this?

[Goaty]

For a shed I dont see a problem, I used one of these type in a static caravan. It could get smokey though at times.

Sawdust Burner to heat your workshop, greenhouse or industrial unit

 

We burnt allsort in it but you could load up to top and it would burn for a long time, up to 8 hrs or more.

 

Another thread http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/milling-forum/36802-uses-lot-unseasoned-sawdust.html

 

In it Ian Leach mentioned a link to british hardwoods, I've just tried it and it no longer stocks the product. It was a 205ltr metal barrel that you took lid off and packed with sawdust. It burnt all day. It had a tube down the middle for airflow, which I think you take out leaving a compressed sawdust column to smoulder away.

[pie eater pete]

I'd definitely try this but I'm thinking you'd be forever shovelling chip in-mines bad enough on logs as it is.

[fergusonforestry]

i would think it would be much akin to using coal dross?

[Stubby]

My mate up the road ( MJ Forestry) says a bag of saw dust gives him enough hot water for a bath when he chucks one on his stove .

[detritus21]

It burns I've done it. You have to turn your damper down mind

[Stereo]

What you mean it burns too fast or too slow? I would have thought it would kind of smoulder. I'm trying to think of a way to compress it into something. I thought about carpet tubes. Ram it in and then saw them up! Probably loads of chemicals in the card though.

[ashtree]

I tried it last winter on an open log fire.

 

The chip was clean and dry and I found the best way was to build a thick layer at the back of the grate leaving the front half clear and bright.

 

The thickness of the chip layer gave it a reasonably long burn through time and I reckon it extended the time between the need for another round of logs by about half, so well worth doing although a bit messy with a box of chip in the hearth.

 

Years ago I had a Tirolia wood fired cooker that did domestic hot water and ran the central heating as well, I decided it would be an ideal way to get rid of sawdust and tried giving it a fill. The stove shut down to 'slumber' and unbeknown to me started producing unburnt gas which filled the whole stove.

 

When the temperature dropped and the dampers opened the first flame ignited the gas and produced what the army call a 'low order explosion', all the lids flew off and all the doors blew open.....the kitchen turned black. Cleaned all the flues out though.

 

My wife did laugh..........well, I was allowed back in after a week.

[elfinwood saws]

burn it on my stove no problem with a bed of logs underneath.

[likeitorlumpit]

Will try it this year just for scientific reasons mind

It would appear little more than very small kindling but the issue must be getting oxygen to it.

I wouldn't want to let it smoulder:thumbdown::thumbdown: