Burning Wood Chips in your Rocket Stove??

So im big into the garden of eden approach to gardening using wood chips as your mulch, it got me thinking, what if i got ahold of too many wood chips, could they also be used to fuel my rocket stove to heat the house as well? Im a total rocket stove newb so this is either the dumbest question ever, or an awesome idea mind you I would chip up perfectly good coppiced wood or regular rocket stove sized pieces, but thinking if my local govt highway service dropped a BIG load of chips it might be a cool use for them.

Hi Sam; They would work OK as a supplement to regular wood ,but I think if you tried to dump just them in your feed tube it would plug it up. Also having worked at a sawmill in the past wood chips generally come from green wood , so they would need dry time. Keeping a sack of dried chips near your rmh as some fast burning additive would probably be a better use for them.

I will second what Thomas said about the chips being green, you would need to dry them somehow but I do know of a basket that can be bought to burn pellets or chips in a regular wood stove. I think you would need some sort of adapter/basket to hold the chips in the feed area. Maybe a drop in that allows some airflow around it. I think the idea has real potential as a possible fuel for those of us who could get undersized wood or chips. Sam, as you are the instigator of this idea I nominate you to test it out and report back. I am patient, take your time.

Sam/ Wyatt; Don't try the basket... it will melt ! I used some sheet metal to protect my cast core corners on my feed tube... melted ! Had a cut back 5 gal metal pail as a feed tube extension... melted. If your rocket works, then the feed tube temps will be to high for any thin metal.

I was actually thinking cage type basket made from heavier wire. Should take the heat long enough to test and if it proves the concept a higher heat resistance basket could get sourced.

Check this out! Rob from Bigelow Brook Farms has experimented with wood chips.