Burning wood instead of selling it

[ali1]

Hi all,

 

Was wondering if anyone could help me with an idea i've had for a while. I would like to set up a campsite with a yard to run tree work from and a home. I am interested in using an incinerator to burn discs of any kind of wood taken from jobs and plumbing in a big boiler to heat water to heat the house and showers for campsite. Met a few people who heat their home using large wood burners but not a campsite and not an arborist who relies on work to fuel his home.

 

Am i naive to think that it would be possible to heat your home and hot water from firewood? Surely people would be doing this if it was worthwhile. The major problem areas that concern me would be consistency of work, location, selling the place and plumbing!

 

If anyone knows of any similar set ups or anything online i'd love to hear about it as i know its going to be a long way off and i need to get learning!

 

Hope your all well!

[Stubby]

Hi all,

 

Was wondering if anyone could help me with an idea i've had for a while. I would like to set up a campsite with a yard to run tree work from and a home. I am interested in using an incinerator to burn discs of any kind of wood taken from jobs and plumbing in a big boiler to heat water to heat the house and showers for campsite. Met a few people who heat their home using large wood burners but not a campsite and not an arborist who relies on work to fuel his home.

 

Am i naive to think that it would be possible to heat your home and hot water from firewood? Surely people would be doing this if it was worthwhile. The major problem areas that concern me would be consistency of work, location, selling the place and plumbing!

 

If anyone knows of any similar set ups or anything online i'd love to hear about it as i know its going to be a long way off and i need to get learning!

 

Hope your all well!

 

West Dean College in West Sussex has a big wood chip boiler that heats water for the big flint building and some of the nearby estate cottages so yep , it can be done .

[ali1]

it can be done? i will learn to plumb!

[urbandekay]

I have seen the same in Kenya, at a camp site Lake Narvasha, heated showers for the whole camp

[difflock]

Absolutly simple, and actually the larger the heat demand, the easier.

In that a 75/85/100 kW*Hr boiler will take 1.0m lengths of timber.

So less manufacturing of the firewood.

Billets all the way

Need about 5000litres of buffer tank/calorifier.

And 10m of twinwall stainless steel flue.

And a humengeous supply of dry dry dry timber.

On the other hand a 40/50kW*Hr boiler kept running with a smaller buffer would do.

m

[SteveA]

Look at Rocket Mass Heaters mate.... very efficient, far more efficient than any metal wood burners.

[teepeeat]

We do our domestic heating and hot water with wood, although solar provides all the hot water from approx mid March to mid October on average - yesterday, solar took 800 ltrs to 65 deg and almost 70 today .

No idea really about a commercial set up, but would have thought it must be possible to scale it up somehow, especially as space heating is not required except for wash blocks perhaps. In this country your highest camping demand will be in the warmer months so dont see why you can't get the bulk of your energy from solar as we do and top up with wood as required. For winter camping requirements, if any, limit the site to a smaller area around your main wash block and have your boiler very near to limit transmission loses etc.

I know others who use wood for everything - again domestically, but have become slaves to the woodpile and stoves due to inefficiency of their systems, so consider carefully how best to make any system you put in super efficient. That said, one idiot camper can undo all efficiencies by being ignorant and wasteful.

As per many posts on firewood threads, unless you can get high on your own supply - temperature wise - it doesnt really make economic sense.

No real concrete answers I'm afraid, but hopefully food for thought?

 

Terry

[ali1]

Thanks for all the replies guys, useful stuff. good to hear that its pretty common and perhaps a viable plan. any idea how this kind of thing or district heating fits into the renewable heat incentive these days? ...another option is sw france! anyone know about french incentives?! this plan is very loose at the moment!

[niftysteve]

a friend of mine has a farm 2000 heating his house with arb waste, he even has radiators in his connected out buildings, it takes decent size rings too heres a link with some info

index

[Llenya]

Hi Mr Ali1,

 

I like guys who come with "an idea"! It shows that you are thinking.

 

Over the years, whilst researching the fruits of my own idea, I managed to dig up some useful facts which might be useful to you.

 

1. Your idea is certainly achievable.

 

2. Your idea works perfectly well on different magnitudes of scale in all of the Scandinavian countries. My research took me to Findland where I saw the benefits of heating everything from Farmhouses to Campsites to Villages!

 

3. Ali1, your idea is perfect but you need to pay attention to 2 important factors.......

Firstly!!!. Moisture content and chip size (or log size) MUST be stable to fit the Boiler unit you choose. IE. you must buy your burner unit to always burn a particular m/c that you feed it.

 

Part 2 to follow in a minute or two.......Piping/Plumbing...........most necessary