Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How hard would it be to keep the heater fired at a slow burn long term? Like set it up with a pellet feed or something?

This is one of the "problems" with these heaters is that they have to run full blast for them to work the best. I can can put less wood in it and it will burn cooler, but I would still have to fill just as often. I have a few idea on how to make a pellet feeder so it can run all night. That may be another video in the fall.

HI Rob!
Just caught up on the last 6 months of this thread, and watched those videos. OMG, you are incredible! I was feeling all impressed with myself, but now I feel like a lazybones again!

As I understand RMH the system automatically "feeds". You just need long enough wood. The burn only occurs at the bottom so if the feed tunnel is raised then all the wood can be placed in it and as the wood is consumed the weight of the wood above pushes it all down. You just need to make sure that it doesn't catch on anything. So perhaps using some of the exhaust pipe as a feeder tube would (wood) work.

Right, I've been experimenting with a feed tube. You wouldn't believe what the wood gets snagged on! It doesn't take much!

Thought about a longer feed tube that would allow longer pieces to be fed in without catching on the edge. Maybe make one out of stove pipe, as you were saying, but drill holes in it to allow the air to flow around and into the feed tunnel. Small enough holes to keep the wood from catching. Tall enough pipe to allow for a longer burn.
Or an angled feed tube with an air intake below the feed tube.

It's all about experimentation. I've got plans to build one sometime, so keep us posted on what works and what doesn't.

Was think'n of the options that you have..

If you can have it[furnace] working on pellets could you not use a screw type feed mechanism that will operate on a timer to feed small amounts of pellets into the system..

That way you could have the pallets slow load into the burn area and hopefully have the area nice and toasty all night long..

Juergen

I was thinking even lower-tech than an auger. Make a funnel hopper for the pellets and have a pipe dump the pellets into the burn chamber. The bottom of the pipe will be off the floor a bit so it create a pile and "plugs" the pipe. As the pellets burn, the pile will slowly decrease and auto feed more pellets. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's worth experimenting with it!

Rob knows all about augers

Like the book said, you may have issues with the bottom part of the pipe deteriorating due to all the oxygen/fuel mixing and burning right at that spot.

Hate waiting until the next video comes out. And the teasers are torture.

Unfortunately, it may be a couple of months until the next video....we're fairly frozen now which really slows down the construction!

I need to spray in the insulation into the walls with a closed-cell foam and it can't be applied until the air is over 50 and I can keep the tanks over 75. I can't apply the tape on the polycarbonate until it's over 60, and the sand in the floor is frozen so I can't compact it to lay down the bricks.

Oh, those wacky high-temp chemical reactions... Can't live with 'em, can't move out of this universe...

Was think'n rob if you go funnel how about having the bottom section of the funnel as a wire/mesh..

The only thing I can think of which may make the system come unstuck is if the pellets form a blockage and can't move due to the blockage..
Some form of vibration maybe need to move the pellet's..

I have seen system that use an out of balanced motor to act as the vibration source.. IT only needs to run for a few min every 15-30min to help settle any blockage..

Juergen

You could get a lot of ideas about wood gasification hoppers by looking at the gek systems and other gasifiers out there. Some have vibrating feeds or augers to keep things from blocking up.

http://gekgasifier.com/

Also the fed down draught gasifier plans are interesting to look at. There is so much stuff on you tube on this and I am dead keen to build something very soon

Ultimately you need auto hopper feed and auto char removal. Else you are going to be running down there all the time to keep things from freezing over...

I see some serious upgrades here in the future

I made a design revision to the rocket mass heater. It makes a huge difference with being able to remove the ash out of the burn tunnel.