gassification wood furnaces

4 years ago we bought a Greenwood gassification furnace..immediately we began having problems with it..but found out that we were sold a furnace from a company that had filed bankruptcy and that our 10 year warranty was dust.

well, we had problems with it overheating during power outages and blowing hot steam all over and burning out pumps and such.

on Feb 29 we had a horrible storm and power was out for days..our furnace did it again and this time it pretty much ruined it to where we didn't want to deal with it anymore ..so we called a prof and our ins co and we have decided on a NEW gassification furnace

the Empyre 200 which will be installed next month.

it is supposed to be a better unit, safer, and easier to use..so we hope so..anyone have any experience with these? We have our downpayment down on it and it is being constructed as I write this.

Hello fellow Michigander. I would ask over at Outdoor Wood Furnace Info. Lots of people over there using them. The Aspen/Greenwood and Empire are all made by Profab btw.

Hi, sorry I am not familiar with your particular gasifier.
I thought I would reply though for those people with a more lowly budget who want to make their own gasifier which is not only very efficient and less polluting than wood stoves but it produces biochar from biomass.
In other words this gasifier burns the wood gases but leaves biochar unburnt.
I found plans for various tlud and anila stoves but these are not suitable for indoor use for various reasons and so I made one by modifying a rocket stove. (see attached leaflet for a basic design. A few additions are necessary in order to use these indoors.)
These stoves have all the advantages of rocket stoves (efficiency of combustion and heat capture through water heaters, cob thermal mass etc) and they have two extra advantages;
1, they produce a lot more heat than rocket stoves and
2, they produce biochar.
By turning the wood chip into biochar, these stoves are carbon negative, can improve soil fertility and can generate an income (biochar is expensive to buy!)

empyre 200 by profab is sitting in the shed partially installed and furnace guy is here redoing pex work and heat exchangers as we speak..so to speak.

I'm still not sure about this but the ins co is replacing the old furnace (only 4) with a new one and all we have to pay is our $500 deductible..so I'm not complaining..but I still am not sure about it and we really won't know until fall.

They are required to "test" it before they get paid..so we'll see how it runs (hope it doesn't hit 95 the day they test it)..

They found damage to the heat exchangers and connections so all parts other than buried pex are being redone..hallelujah..and we will have working HOT water in the house in the winter from the new furnace too, bypassing our hot water GAS..

This furnace takes much smaller logs which means I could do some cutting on my own of firewood with a smaller saw..see my saw thread in the woodland care section..but we have enough wood likely already cut for this winter's heat.

furnace is in and tested..on a small fire of kindling wood only, we were able to get the furnace heat and water up to temp in no time, saw how the gassification worked..impressed..and that little bit of kindling held heat for 24 hours (of course it was in the 60's outside at the time)..

we are hoping for a much better heating season this year..and glad to have it done..only cost us $500 deductible for new furnace, new doublewall steel chimney, 2 new heat exchangers and hook ups and all the labor..can't beat that with a stick