Hi. I am in the process of building a pellet fired furnace. As prototype developing goes, Using recyled found equipment before buying specialty parts that are the right thing ie; barbie rottiserie motor till I get a real gearmotor. Designing around readily available preferebly inhouse packratted jewelry. Looking to co fire with gas to run it up. Air supply for the pellet combustion... right through the burner (nozzlemix) Will be dumping bags into a chute and testfiring into a quanset hut frax lehr. Burner will roll around as a seperate device. If I can get it working then I will kick down for or build the small silo, a second auger and dependeble dc gear motors. because of our locale the plan is on wood pellets out in the midwest you look into corn or grass pellets which may be available in your area, and price it against your fuel.
No instruction manual, out of buisiness mfg, so I have been looking up a lot about pellet stoves at around the same time I'm getting ready to design the next glass furnace. The "light" came on. I started to thinking about pellets or dried corn for glass. What makes these two fuels attractive is their size and shape compared to sawdust or woodchips. I?ve run various wood kilns with sawdust blowers and wood chip augers and used related apparatus on farms. There can be a lot ot them.
So now fairly I'm involved with research and determining which auger variety and sizes, non-dc servo motors, variable blower configuration, chute angles, pit size shape and departure angle, a firepit cleaner/ removal system I hopefully won?t need, and sizing this whole deal. Most commercial is shooting into a wet boiler and although BTU?s are high temp isn?t and here?s where my wishful thinking is hoping the flyash is nill with the higher temp. Checking out the smaller 12 foot x 4 foot galvinized grain silos.
Pellet stoves haven?t changed much cept the home models got a lot of fancier electronics (to go wrong) ? This is no more rocket science then the "3rd world Rocket Furnace" (google that ) Wondering what sort of burner and flue placement is best.
Do I have a fly ash worry.. Do I have to keep burn and exhaust below the crucible (what if the burn passes through a tube of frax) sidefire near the top exaust at the bottom ect.. ..do this on the side ?on the back?on two sides? Like designing any furnace a lot of questions. Test firing this pellet burner a few times will help illuminate furnace crafting.
The tube of frax (from above) density diameter length thickness?
Will the pot need a lip to keep the combustion (fly ash if any) below?
This lip would make a furnace oh so comfortable to gather out of.
Ramable Narcospar for the firebox?
I have questions I am working out.. Will I need to have a silicon carbide heat exchanger instead of inconel because will fly ash if there is any eat on the steel harder? ?
Current drawings envision a nozzle or regular head burner providing the air for the pellet burn (or heat to start or back up failsafe, or till all is comfortably dependable.
I have a small Quonset hut folded frax lehr ? bring that ?furnace? to the burner with this 6 cubic foot testing chamber. Once the burner is in a decent stage of development design a new arch tailored for this next campaign and door wall and exhaust recuperation details.
What?s cool about these home pellet stoves consumers own is that here there are two knobs. Air and pellet speed. You adjust them just like you do for a glass furnace!. All these people that have these furnaces get a feel for adjusting them just like the feel for the fire just like we get!
Here?s a useful link to calculate energy / fuel cost with
Then there and woodchips. The reason I?m not into chips is consistency variables. Its hard to get enough of friable product. Seems there are always strands and crap getting bound up. For a power plant this is absolutely no obstacle but when your only firing less then 300,000 BTU?s the scale of the auger and motor are not up for it. Maybe another feed style, but right now,
I wish so because chips are vastly less expensive then pellets. ?a snip?.?Put another way, the cost per million Btu for fuel oil is $23.47; for electricity, $39.73; for wood pellets $17.86 and for grass pellets provided by a producers' co-op to farmers who grow the grass, at $10.20.? from a grass pellet article. Chips aren?t on the fuel cost page. I?m wishy-washy on chip. Open to hearing any potter, kiln, or glass wood chip stories involving feed aspects.
Guilt reduction alone for lessoning the dependence on petrochemical industry worth its weight in gold. Similar in value to saying a lot of hail Marys. Having always been a tree hugger (with a Stihl) promoted energy efficient shelter, organic agriculture and all that , I got a strong notion that there is some truly deserving feel good in this technology. I mention this to warn you ahead of time, because as you start researching this area of study, you will note there is a great deal of tree hugging going on. Tree Hug Central.
This is a survey for folks interested to help me ascertain with greater certainty some basic facts, to help me size stuff right and for use in discussions with my advisory personnel How much propane to run a 100 pound pot a month in gallons two melts a week
How much more to run a 100 pound pot a month then a 60 same 2 melts a week ?
What size propane BTU burners would you folks recommend for a 100 and for a 60 pound setups free standing crucible all this stuff. ?
What are the latest kilowatt hour usage figures for a? mid-life? electric furnace of similar sizes? (No not which is the best element.. ;-) )
I am absolutely positive this technology is going to help the glass community and would like to thank anyone who helps posting with the survey, offers me help or suggestions links advice of any sort. Volunteer number crunchers and those with doses of reality encouraged to apply.
I?ll get a few sketches into an URL pretty soon.
Here in VT you can only legaly burn used motor oil if you actually generate it (jiffy lube/oil n' go) or go around to all the McDonalds and collect fat. I'm leary of wood chips because with pottery kilns I have seen stringy chip material (poor QC) which could jam a small scale unattended auger
Are their any other boards other than shutes to inquire as to technical assistance perhaps with numbers advice? Plaese be so kind as to let me know.
Thanks a lot for any help or advice or various/partial answers to the above survey.
Kraig Richard Shelburne VT
from shute-board
Thanks Ed.
Great site. I couldnt find the pellet system exactly yet, but have found a lot of other great stuff, especially the flox burner, as I search.
The flox is Very interesting burner technology and worth a thread.
I learned an interesting method for keeping the fuel gas cool in a preheated air system.
Most importantly is this organisations goals and strivings. What GAS almost had a smidgen of for a brief period in the 70's. This group is striving to help technology in studios. How nice !
Glass Research Institute of Sweden has accomplished a great deal.anyone who dosent buy redibuilt should check this place out. If any one knows Swedish, for certain appropriate pages on their site, not also in English, to be translated w/be great.
Thanks again
Kraig Richard
: You can find a pdf at this site that gives a brief rundown of a pellet fired : system. :