Straw Bales

[Capcave]

Does anyone have any experience of straw bale burners and what they are like to run? Loads of farms around here and straw/hay can be pretty cheap and I guess is the ultimate renewable fuel I thought it might be worth seeing if I can justify installing one.

[stephen]

I have just installed a Dragon 85kw boiler. I have invested £7000 total installation cost. So I hope I am right or my wife will lock me in the boiler.
I have not yet fired the boiler and we have rewired it to accommodate some intelligence and have integrated it with our existing oil boiler.
Basically if the Biomass is cold, start the oil boiler and light an LED in the room to indicate where the heat is coming from.

In short once people know you have one of these, wood is not a problem. It costs about £45 ton for companies to dispose of waste wood and most skip companies will give it to you with free delivery. As long as you are not causing a fire hazard i.e. large mountains of wood you are not classed as a waste management company.
I have 3 trailers 2 at various companies I drop one off and collect the full one.
If you would like to see ours working it should be lit some time after next week. We live in Chesterfield Derbyshire, your more than welcome.

Regards
Stephen
 

[Capcave]

85kw is more than I'll need for a long time!! I take it from the rest of your post this is a wood burner rather than something that is designed to take whole bales of straw? I did see one post somewhere about someone who has built themselves a boiler that took whole Euro pallets so they did not have to break them up.

[stephen]

The unit will burn round bales square bales or timber.
85kw is also dependent of fuel type and quality.
I dont like advertising but these are the people i used.

http://www.dragonheat.co.uk/index.html

there is also Farm2000 which is more expensive but they have a better controlled system.

I chose an 85kw as we have a very large house with 3.5m ceilings so insulating is a real pain.
they do have smaller units of 15kw +.
I hope this helps.

Regards
Stephen

[Capcave]

Hmm, they certainly look interesting - thanks for the info. I'll have to look at how much hay/straw I can lay my hands on without paying over the odds before going ahead - at least I know how much I'll need.

[stephen]

Small bales should set you back about £0.75 - £1.00.
If you’re friendly with the farmer he may be able to bale you some linseed or rape seed straw. Both have higher amounts of oil in them so the calorific value is higher and produce a longer burning time.
Old grain (sweepings up) is very good it burns very slowly but hot. Offer to clean up around their corm mills or around their drying bins. You won’t need too much to keep you going.
If there are any shed / fence builders near you, they are also a good source of fuel. Be careful not to use pressure treated as it has lots of nasties in it.
As I said once people know you have a burner people will bring you all sorts to get rid of.

Good hunting.

Stephen

[stephen]

OK, we are up and running with the boiler.
I have only been running since the weekend but I appear to be using about 2 small bales of straw every 2 days and a small armful / bundle of dry wood.
This has provided all the heat for 10 big radiators at 21C for 24hrs.
The problem I am having is that if I load the boiler when its convenient for me and there is no heat demand then the system smoulders. I may have to put a timed boost after loading but this will run the temps up to boiling point if I am not careful.
I will keep you posted.
Cant wait for it to go cold (never thought I would say that lol)
 
stephen

[Capcave]

That makes for a pretty cheap to run boiler (and if you make the straw pretty green as well). Be interesting to see how it works out over the winter.

[stephen]

Yep,
you can get the system to boil. well at least it sort of controlled its self after some muppet loaded it too full.
well you have to try these things don’t you .

The heat output is fantastic and it has not gone out yet.
My advice would be don’t over spec the boiler and if you can get an accumulator tank even better.

your more than welcome to come see if it helps.

Stephen

[Capcave]

Fortunately I have an accumulator but I also have a wife who only just sanctioned extra panels etc. I am actually in France so couldn't pop round but thanks for the offer. I'll be interested to see how you do over winter though.

[stephen]

That’s the problem with the internet, you don’t know where people are in the world.
There is something rewarding that you put your hand on a radiator and you know it’s free heat and your not doing the environment any harm.
I am defiantly having a boost switch timer on the boiler as it will prevent smoldering when the boiler is loaded.
I am planning to get the solar panel installed over the next month or so which will also help with the hot water.
 

stephen

[stephen]

Ok, I have now been running for about 3 weeks. I have boiled it twice but found the flue to be drawing the fire so got that sorted.
The unit is running on 2 small bales per day or one ton of wood per week.
I raked it out after 2 weeks burning and got a level barrow of ash out.

If anyone is installing a heat unit like this make sure you have the capacity to cover the expanding water.  I miss calculated and hence spent from 4am mopping up one morning. 

regards

Stephen

[smudge]

these look very interesting, like capcave i'm also in france, brittany. i have a very big house that i'm resotoring.
I fitted an Aarrow 29kw stove with backboiler but i'm looking at getting something with at least 50kw

I've already planted 400 fast growing hybrid willows for short rotaion  copising, and intend to plant another 1000 next yr. i'm looking at getting a gasification boiler, does anyone have any experiense with these?

http://www.solarenergyireland.com/wood_gasification_boilers.html

cheers
 

[silas]

I have installed 14 Wood gasifying boiler this year, mostly "ATMOS" but some "ETA" boilers.  What would you like to know about them?

Regards
Simon Ducker

[Ivan]

Hi Simon,

Yes, that would be great - can you start a new thread on the subject. I assume you are talking about gasifying wood by burning in a limited air supply....this is useful if you want to produce an engine fuel, but I am interested to know why this system would be used to supply a boiler



Ivan