Generator question wood fired

[forgeblast]

I am thinking of how much firewood I have on hand, and How much I should be cutting from my woodlot every year.
I am wondering if anyone has made a wood fired electric generator? It would save my propane for cooking/heating.
I would like to be able to have the unit outside.
Just wondering if anyone has made something like this,
has found plans on making something like this or knows of someone selling something similar.

Just to brain storm,
I am wondering if using wood fired gasification could power a gas genny, or
would I have to go to wood firing a steam system to generate electricity.

I did find this
GenSets
About Wood Gas
***Miniature Wood Gasifier*** - Forno Bravo Forum: The Wood-Fired Oven Community

Thanks

edit**just found this site that has plans http://www.gekgasifier.com/

 

[IndyIan]

I think the B&S steam engine idea might be a good place to start.
Briggs and Stratton Steam Engine Conversion - YouTube
Free engines is an advantage when figuring out a system.

 

[charlz]

The first I had ever heard of using wood gassification to produce electricity was in Mother Earth News in the early 80's:


Backyard Wood Powered Generator - Renewable Energy - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

and a follow up article:

Update: Wood Gas Power - Renewable Energy - MOTHER EARTH NEWS


I have read some other articles since and IIRC one of the chief problems is the gas is pretty 'dirty' and hard on the engine.

 

[charlz]

I just looked at that gekgasifier site you linked to, gasification sure has changed since the 80's

 

[KTurner]

I am thinking of how much firewood I have on hand, and How much I should be cutting from my woodlot every year.
I am wondering if anyone has made a wood fired electric generator? It would save my propane for cooking/heating.
I would like to be able to have the unit outside.
Just wondering if anyone has made something like this,
has found plans on making something like this or knows of someone selling something similar.

Just to brain storm,
I am wondering if using wood fired gasification could power a gas genny, or
would I have to go to wood firing a steam system to generate electricity.

I've thought about the same, but not done any serious research. What would you use this generator for? If you're trying to run your house while the power is out due to the ice storm or heavy rains, it's going to be rough having to keep going outside and stoking the fire under the generator. It also requires some work to get going, so no auto-transfer like you could get with an electric start generator (if wired properly). Or are you looking to offset your electric bill?

With steam or woodgas, there are inconveniences to keep it running. You should be able to come up with a comparison between the two, say kilowatthours per cord to see which is more efficient.

Keith

 

[forgeblast]

If you're trying to run your house while the power is out?
Yep what is gettting me thinking this way is seeing the trouble people are having with getting gas, something I can control (wood) would make the difficulties even out. (if I needed to make a windbreak, or a little shed to run it in that would not be an issue.
I understand the work, heated with wood for years and know heating with wood even wood you can cut yourself shows there is no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[KTurner]

If you're trying to run your house while the power is out?
Yep what is gettting me thinking this way is seeing the trouble people are having with getting gas, something I can control (wood) would make the difficulties even out. (if I needed to make a windbreak, or a little shed to run it in that would not be an issue.
I understand the work, heated with wood for years and know heating with wood even wood you can cut yourself shows there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Another idea - why limit yourself to one fuel? set it up for multiples - woodgas, gasoline, propane.

Keith

 

[MossRoad]

Buying that gekgasifier system is $20,000.00 for a 10KW unit. You can purchase a nice one for well under $5k, plus a whole house transfer kit, plus a large fuel storage tanks, plus a fill it with fuel for under $10K. It just isn't cost effective. Plus, if you read it, you have to use wood chips. Not logs. Chips.

I don't think gasification is the way to go.

I would look into steam.... and get a good steam whistle, too. I love steam whistles.

 

[forgeblast]

I do a lot of spoon carving, so chips of wood are always around, It is expensive, thats a big negative with it.
I like the multi-fuel idea.
Seems like i need to do some more searching.

 

[MossRoad]

Here's a pretty neat article and company. Good read....

Is steam power in your future? by Skip Goebel Issue #43

 

[KTurner]

Buying that gekgasifier system is $20,000.00 for a 10KW unit.

You can build a gasifier out of junk too, if you have the right junk laying around.

Keith

 

[dodge man]

Just me thinking out loud, but I'd think a steam engine would be the route to go. You see them at tractor shows and such all the time. The problem would be the way the engine would be loaded, its not going to be able to handle a load change as well as a tractor would powering a PTO gen set. It seems like the best route would be to have some kind of battery storage system and inverter that would "buffer" the load usage. But that would also get into more money.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The governors on steam engines work very well, and the flywheel stores enough momentum to handle starting surges.

The problem is maintenance. Steam engines rust. Building one out of stainless would be expensive.

 

[forgeblast]

Pole Shift Survival Information
a whole lot of gasifier info

http://www.woodgas.net/files/Home_made_generator(12v).pdf

 

[MossRoad]

Here's a pretty neat article and company. Good read....

Is steam power in your future? by Skip Goebel Issue #43

Reading this link that I posted to earlier, the guy brings up some excellent points...

1st, a gallon of water contains a stick of dynamite..... yikes! Steam is dangerous.
2nd, he did a lot of math and concludes you'll need about 30 pounds of wood an hour for a 10k generator.... that's a lot of wood. I heat my house for half a day with that much wood.
3rd, he says if you have a steam boiler to run a steam engine, you will have to be there watching it full time, constantly monitoring it..... that doesn't sound too fun in a power outage.

I'd seriously consider large diesel fuel storage options over wood gasification or steam to power an electrical generator long term, now that I've looked at it for a bit.

 

[newbury]

If a SHTF event occurs you'll need really large diesel tanks to survive long term (months) and a big investment in diesel. Wood powered is a good niche if you have wood, and many of us have acres of growing woods. I agree that a few jugs of diesel are handy. But even 600 gallons won't last long.

 

[MossRoad]

If a SHTF event occurs you'll need really large diesel tanks to survive long term (months) and a big investment in diesel. Wood powered is a good niche if you have wood, and many of us have acres of growing woods. I agree that a few jugs of diesel are handy. But even 600 gallons won't last long.

Sure it will. You just have to not run the generator 24/7. I can get by with my little gas generator on about 2 gallons a day just to run my freezer, refridgerator and well pump. We heat with wood and sleep when its dark. 600 gallons of gas would last me 200-300 days.

 

[charlz]

Thanks MossRoad that was a interesting read. He did say that if you want to generate your own power you would need to monitor it full time. On the other hand he also discussed just running it long enoug to recharge your batteries etc. maybe a few hours a day. If you are already off the grid with a solar/battery set up and use a generator once in a while when the batteries need a recharge and the sun isn't going to do it this might be a solution. He also mentioned that steam power tends to appeal to retired machinists.... I think we need 3RRL to build a steam power generator to supplement his solar/diesel setup and let us know how it works I could go for another long and incredibly interesting 3RRL thread myself

 

[bcp]

We need some cells to produce electricity directly from heat, like we do for light. Burn anything. No engine involved.

Bruce

 

[KTurner]

We need some cells to produce electricity directly from heat, like we do for light. Burn anything. No engine involved.

Bruce

They exist, Thermoelectric generator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Keith