heating with green wood

Brenda Groth wrote:

not sure how much you have studied..but it is best to cut your wood in the winter when the sap is out of the wood..so it is already drier..and then dry it out in the sun ..or under a tarp or cover to keep it from getting rained on.

then store it in a fairly open stack..with a few inches between cords when you put it up..this also helps the drying..mold can cause some serious health issues storing up wet wood.

best time to get your wood is in the winter..look for dead trees or cut them and leave them lie for a while if you have to..but get them off their roots in the winter before the sap rises.

ejoftheweb wrote:
http://www.sredmond.com/vthr_index.htm

this is a very interesting paper about burning green woodchips efficiently. I think woodchip has a lot of potential over cordwood as a heating fuel; it is a by-product of lots of forestry processes and means that the large timber can be used for structural purposes.

It's interesting how his design runs contrary to a lot of the rocket stove designs. I'd like to see some more diagrams, and then I'd like to try adapting it to run continously, rather than in batch mode.

Anyway, his arguments about how green wood can be burned efficiently - in the right stove - are very interesting.

paul wheaton wrote:I think the optimal stacking would be to have it all vertical:  ||||||||||

It might be optimal to have an air layer between layers of wood.

But I just don't see an obvious, easy way to do something like that.  So - the jumble stack rules! 

Richard Hauser wrote:My question is about the most efficient way of collecting wood for a RMH.in My plan is to plant black locust in a permaculture orchard style layout. To get the most out of the black locust as a nitrogen fixer, I will coppice the tree as suckers reach about three feet long and use them as cut to feed an RMH.

My questions are about whether the prunings need to be debarked or if not how long would that change the drying times especially since I want to leave them so much longer than standard.

The alternate idea would be to create a system that would cut them down to 1/2" lengths to turn them into a pellet media.

The whole idea is to create firewood with minimal equipment and the least amount of labor and then burn them with the least amount of labor.

The reason I am interested is I am working on generating power with an RMH, so my fuel needs would be much higher than normal.

Peter Ellis wrote:

Richard Hauser wrote:My question is about the most efficient way of collecting wood for a RMH.in My plan is to plant black locust in a permaculture orchard style layout. To get the most out of the black locust as a nitrogen fixer, I will coppice the tree as suckers reach about three feet long and use them as cut to feed an RMH.



The name of the game is dry(er) air flow.
If I were going to organize something along the rough lines you've provided, I would bundle my sticks at harvest into bundles sized for my RMH. I would tie them with a jute twine that can go right into the fire. The bundles would be stored in a simple solar kiln to dry them out. With thin sticks and the heat and air flow involved with a solar kiln, each bundle should dry in a matter of weeks. Feed them into the solar kiln at one end, take them out at the other so you are always rotating stock and taking out the oldest bundles.

Minimizes handling, minimzes energy inputs, fast drying time.

I think this system would work well for the Scotcbroom that covers much of the 5 acres that Emerald Group is planing to develop. I think a row of pallets one on the ground and one fastened vertical at right angle with clear plastic roofing over the south face would work well.

Peter Ellis wrote:Michael, it seems to me that the only downside to your system is the chipper. How do you recoup the cost? It is a relatively fragile link that needs maintenance and repair, are the time and cost there worth the benefits? It is an energy intensive approach, does it really save labor?

Mostly, I think, the problem of green wood is a scheduling issue. It can all be avoided with a bit of planning.

I am minded of something from a tv show, "Prairie House", I think? where they told the homesteaders any time you are not doing something else you need to be chopping wood for the winter.