Burning woodchip

[WillTimberlake]

Evening all,

 

It's been a wet day down in sunny Dorset and the fire has been lit. I've been wondering, (I know it's never a good thing to do!) Basically, I know that on a biomass boiler you can burn woodchip, but was wondering if you could burn woodchip on a log burner?

 

Opinions please people!

[White Noise]

When we have a Dead wooding job on the cards . I will take a few spare log nets with me and fill them with the dry dead chips . I use them mainly when lighting the fire . Mix the chips in with the newspaper and kindling . Works a treat in my little 5kw multi fuel burner .

[matelot]

would the chips not choke the fire or fall through the grill?

 

I dare say if you put them on a wire mesh you could be ok.... I'd imagine you'd have to tend it every half hour or so to shake the ash out.

[Oldstyle]

We bag up green wood chip in large gravel/sand bags and put is somewhere away from anything flammable they naturally heat and steam if it's a chilly day. After a couple of weeks it's cooked itself dry we then leave it another year coverd up and then it burns great shovel or in on a hot fire really belts the heat out.

Watch it doesn't get so hot it catches fire in the first few weeks when it's still green.

[Coximus]

It burns fine if you put a small shovel full round the edges now and then but leave the fire as "normal" in the middle, abit slow to go but it burns none the less and gives plenty of embers, just make sure you dont cover the largers burning logs completely and have good airflow. Burns abit like coal so needs some bottom air, not much, but just enough, as otherwise the top layer burns with the top air, but the ash settles and covers the rest of the chip, so it doesnt burn.

 

Can happily add about 1 6inch x 4 in shovel every hour without impacting performance - Free fuel, cant complain.

[Vespasian]

I've bin burning some woodchip on my open fire tonight, more to regulate the use of what little normal wood I have at present..

stretch it out so to speak....

If I throw a good pile on last thing, its enough to keep a little heat in the room till the morning....

But its at an experimental stage at present, I might give it up when I get more proper wood to burn..

[cornish wood burner]

I've bin burning some woodchip on my open fire tonight, more to regulate the use of what little normal wood I have at present..

stretch it out so to speak....

If I throw a good pile on last thing, its enough to keep a little heat in the room till the morning....

But its at an experimental stage at present, I might give it up when I get more proper wood to burn..

You need into be a bit careful doing that. I would do as Coximus says and sprinkle around the edges. If you smother the flames, wood gas will still be driven off by the heat and could fill your stove with an explosive mixture. When a flame appears at the top of the fire, the gasses ignite/ explode.

Large wood chip boilers have variable feed, variable powered draught, several temperature and exhaust gas values fed into a PLC but under the right conditions the gasses can still explode.

[64treefrog]

many years ago I had a small Jotel stove, we used to close the stove down at the end of the night, lift the ring out of the top and pour woodchip in. This would be left until the next evening when I would open the flue and front vent, it would fire up and be ready for logs. The stove never went out for the winter. had no grate in it and it would go for 3 months before any ash needed taking out.

This may not be recommended , I'm just saying...

[Vespasian]

Cornish Wood Burner..

 

Good point on the safety front, I never thought of that...

 

like I said, experimental stage, learn as you go along an all that..