02 May, 2011

Stainless steel biomass heater produced in-house - by Jose

Update: If you wanna make this project on your own, I advise you to not put the horizontal steel sheets to avoid problems with smoke; those sheets cool down the fumes a lot and it is bad for verting, the tar and slag will stick to the tube. To avoid this situation the temperatures of the smokes must be over 300ºC.
If the tube is long, we have to put an insulated tube to maintain the ignition temperature inside of it.

This entry I will devote to the project of Jose, who kindly sent me photos and details of his proposed home in stainless steel boiler., As I am concerned by the crisis and the environment. Hope you enjoy it as much as me.
Project Details


Photo of the stove in operation in the absence of cover with drywall

(This document was translated using Google Translator from the original spanish article

Jose, another hands of Toledo has developed a wood boiler full of stainless steel., And assures us that is like a shot, in 10 minutes take the set temperature 60 degrees and starts pumping, the house is large (210m) and 2h hot. Is supercontento, of which I am very happy because it saves money and uses renewable energy such as wood (= 0 Co2) and get some exercise step carrying firewood (with saving him from the gym ;-).
Started commenting on this post , in which he commented that before light was paying € 500 every two months using a heat pump, while the neighbors, heat radiators "blue" spent € 600! per month, an entire salary.

Advantages of biomass
There will be people who think "gas is the most comfortable, give it to the thermostat and forget." And it is true, only that the discomfort comes from the ax € 150 per month, money that goes out of Spain, in addition to increasing climate change.
Wood waste helps the local economy, providing jobs in the collection, cleaning and transporting forest biomass.
Besides these stoves, wood metiéndoles good, they just need loads every 3 or 4 hours, about 15 kg. can heat up a house of 100 square meters, and is a good exercise to eliminate the daily stress, thereby relaxing the contemplation of the fire!

Heat the house with the stove: Place a coil in a Hergóm stove

The stainless steel coil and placed

(This document was translated using Google Translator from the original spanish article
Last weekend a friend and I were staying with a friend in Lazagurría . It is a small and intimate, you saw the south of a hill cottages, most over 50, who has managed to survive the decline of population on little towns on Spain (20 km to he city Logroño).
Noa, an impressive skillful woman, intending to heat the house with the fire of the plate in the kitchen, she wanted to better distribute the heat for the house of your old wood stove and saw on my blog, and in the end we put a coil efficiently adapted to your kitchen, with which it heats the radiators. Cost of the modification: 100 € and 200 € coil installed accessories for it.
We have made very good impression, we have been so pleased with their hospitality to revisit more often ;-). (Will accept requests from the entire peninsula, see the email in the top-right of the blog: D).
The kitchen is typical Hergóm still present in many old houses of Spain, which gives considerable heat and uses very good wood for their manufacture refractory brick and reinforced molten metal.

In Hergóm still making this type of cuisine, with more modern lines:

Adapt an electric water heater for use as heat storage by adding a coil

Copper coil to heat household water tank
(This document was translated using Google Translator from the original spanish article)

Install a system for using solar energy or biomass to produce hot water in winter is profitable within a few years (particularly in areas where solar power is not enough), but can be very expensive for many, especially in developing countries.
With this tutorial you intend to use an old water heater 200 liters. of 'Cointra' brand and add a coil to heat the water inside. Quite a challenge considering we have to keep the seal and put it in without enlarging the tank ;-)-.
Before deciding on this, I had several options for heating water for hot water in a simple and economical, each with its pros and cons:

  • Buy me a plate heat exchanger high performance to bring the heat to the tank. This solution has many drawbacks, it affects the lime, is expensive (between 60 and 300 euros), you need a second engine to circulate the water tank (thereby generating mousse) and if you want to give priority to the ACS have to put a three-way motorized valve to divert excess heat after reaching a certain water temperature.


A copper heat exchanger standard.