Wood burner with 55 gallon barrels?

[Wannabefree]

Bee I saw a blog somewhere on the net where thay talked about putting the smaller barrel inside the big one surrounded by sand and customized the pipes to fit that made it radiate heat better and hold better with smaller fires. I would have done that with mine, but there was a family that needed that stove worse than we did this year, so I sold it to them. I was actually planning on finding one of the 30 gallon barrels to try it with the sand. We had a sand base in our, with about a dozen fire bricks, and it kept us toasty warm. We just had to be careful to not let it get too hot. That happened ONCE, then DH was more careful the next time It didn't get red hot, but I had to open the front and back doors to keep from smothering to death! I may try that next year though with the 30 gallon barrel inside. I have another barrel and would have to get the hardware. That top part just acts as a heat reclaimer, but with the smaller barrel design you wouldn't really need it.

 

[doc_gonzo]

i built the stove that dawn pictured on the 1 st page. i tried to talk the greenhouse owner into buying the vogelzyme kit but he wanted to do everything on the cheap with stuff he had laying around. so although not very elegant it was quite functional. we used the dbl barrel at one end and a single barrel at the other end of a 3000 sq ft gutter connected greenhouse that i also built from pieces parts that the owner bought at salvage.
in gh's and outbuildings, the vogel kits are great i'd be leery of putting one in a dwelling though. i am intrigued by wannab's thoughts of putting a 30 gal indide a 55 gal with sand, it wouldnt take very much modification to pull that off, a little torching and a little welding... the thermal mass would be a great benefit, and probably make it much safer.
has anyone seen the stuff on the thermal mass rocket stove???? very interesting!!!! we are planning to try one of those in a gh in the near future. i'm not good with pics and links, hopefuly tomorrow night dawn can come by and "bat cleanup for me".
if the wood door for the stove i built had been in the end of the barrel i would have wound the flexable copper tubing around it and piped hot water under all the benches that would have made the whole system far more eficient. but again i was at the mercy of a cheapskate.

cheers

doc

 

[ScottSD]

if you put anything homemade out of 55 gall barrels for heat into a home your homeowners insurance will almost absolutely drop you.

out building etc yea I can see it but in a home, no way. that I can see.

a real wood burning stove with EPA standards and all that sure, but if you 'make anything' homemade in your home ins. will have a fit.

and if you put one in, and it is determined it burned down your home, ins. sure won't pay a penny.



not sure on the application of this but be careful.

A guy I work with bought a wood burning stove and put it in a shed outside his garage, then ran the heat to his garage. I have not seen it, but he said it works well.

 

[Wannabefree]

I found that web page for you Doc. This outlines how to do the thermal mass barrel stove for in home use. Let me know if you do it!! I will be making one next year!

http://www.endtimesreport.com/thermal_mass_wood.html

 

[doc_gonzo]

thanks wannab,

that's pretty much how i envisioned the project. the guy did mention using galvinized stove pipe, NEVER use galvinized stove pipe indoors it will give you a dose of heavy metal poisoning that could kill you. kinda gives new meaning to "death metal"

doc

 

[Wannabefree]

Yeah I saw that on there too. We didn't use, nor would we use the galvinized. I am aware of that.

 

[k15n1]

A bit of refractory and adequate airflow is all that protects the furnace my father uses. Only other difference I can thing of is that it's heavier gauge than a 55-gal drum. Oh, and there'a baffle to make it more efficient.

 

[WilliamLaurence]

I bought one of these from ChimneyHeaters.com . I installed and it works fine. Heats my 2000 square foot house. I have the pump connected to a UPS but I am not sure how long the pump will run if the electric goes out. I had it installed all winter and did not have to turn on my Electric heat once which saved me about 200 euro a month here in Romania.

The Electric is not stable here so I had to rush to take out the fire a couple of times because the water pump had stopped and the pressure valves were going off. The UPS will solve that but I dont know how long a UPS will keep my central pump going. I will attach a pic of what chimney heaters are in case you are not familiar with them. The pump is a Grundfos and has three speeds.

 

[the_whingnut]

Have looked at a rocket mass heater? Fairly straightforward design and efficient. Should also reduce wood fuel consumption and you can burn every part of the tree / pallets the works.