Hard wood vs softwood wood chip

[cessna]

What are the pros and cons of hardwood vs softwood chip for fueling bio mass boilers.Is old spalted beech any good as woodchip?

[cornish wood burner]

If you change from one to the other you might need to reduce the volume of hardwood being fed. More energy per volume as its more dense. If a boiler has been setup with soft then you could over fuel with hard. No difference I've noticed if it's set up for the fuel used.

[gdh]

Same, it's more expensive to buy but it lasts longer. I just chipped 15 tons of small Ash logs for ours today.

[william petts]

Wouldn't you just generally put in mixed on not be too fussy seperating it.... we havnt got a boiler, also just wondering I take it the chip dosnt have to be dried e.g can you put freshly chipped stuff in

[woodworm]

Noooooooooo !!

Must always be dried to max moisture of 30%, preferably down to 20% mc

[gdh]

We dry ours down to 15% because we use and sell quite alot but if you chip in the summer and keep a stockpile of dry logs for the winter you should get away without drying any.

 

We sell softwood chip and put a mix or just whatever we have in our boiler.

[william petts]

Really..... itake it you would store your timber outside to seasonit then chip it into a barn and turn it every now and then untill its ready to burn??

[william petts]

Or kiln dry the chip, weve a few people come up to us and off a kiln dryer etc, infact a bloke came up 3 days ago about a biomass boiler and whilst its a good idea, I think its alot of work having to cip brush up then dry it, then finding space to store chip then feed the boiler, etc etc, I think seasoning is the way id go for now, although I reckon if I understood it more and had it set up properly then id go for it!

Also can you get a boiler that with burn brush and branches without having to chip it

[gdh]

If chip is damp you can't store it because it will compost so you have to store the logs instead. We dry ours by forcing hot air through it but we have a customer who stores their logs undercover and we chip them straight into the hopper for the boiler.

 

For boilers you wouldn't generally chip brash because you use a chipper that makes a certain grade of chip for boilers. You can get boilers that will burn anything but they generally need filling at least once a day instead of being automatic like chip.

[cornish wood burner]

If chip is damp you can't store it because it will compost so you have to store the logs instead. We dry ours by forcing hot air through it but we have a customer who stores their logs undercover and we chip them straight into the hopper for the boiler.

 

For boilers you wouldn't generally chip brash because you use a chipper that makes a certain grade of chip for boilers. You can get boilers that will burn anything but they generally need filling at least once a day instead of being automatic like chip.

If you can use 350 kW or more then you can burn wet wood in an auto fed boiler. The fuel is introduced then dried as it approaches the fire. Step grate boilers are more expensive and generally more common in the larger systems but they are available at a cost.