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[muffin]

I have been interested in getting electricity out of my boiler since the day I got it.  Seems there should be a way.  Then, when I lose power I will still have heat.  I only need a 200-300Watts to run the boiler I believe, but since I have forced air in the house I would need some considerable power to drive those blowers.  Also be cool if it could power my dehumdifiers in the pool room.  I recently ran across this engine "stirling engine" and it seems it might be able to work.  Not sure about how much heat it needs to operate though.  Was even thinking I could cool the cold side with the pool water which would recover the heat to heating the water.  This would put 180-190F on one side and 80-85F on the other.  Could the boiler water be hot enough?  All the demos use a flame.  Anyway, just wondering if anyone ever tried this and what kind of wattage one could get.  Ideally I need 5KW to really run the heart of my house I think, at least 3KW anyways.

[MattyNH]

I have been interested in getting electricity out of my boiler since the day I got it.  Seems there should be a way.  Then, when I lose power I will still have heat.  I only need a 200-300Watts to run the boiler I believe, but since I have forced air in the house I would need some considerable power to drive those blowers.  Also be cool if it could power my dehumdifiers in the pool room.  I recently ran across this engine "stirling engine" and it seems it might be able to work.  Not sure about how much heat it needs to operate though.  Was even thinking I could cool the cold side with the pool water which would recover the heat to heating the water.  This would put 180-190F on one side and 80-85F on the other.  Could the boiler water be hot enough?  All the demos use a flame.  Anyway, just wondering if anyone ever tried this and what kind of wattage one could get.  Ideally I need 5KW to really run the heart of my house I think, at least 3KW anyways.

           Why not get a gen tran hooked up to your house..get a generator 5500k or larger..It will run everything thing..My owb and oil burner are hooked to it.. Your forced hot air is nothing for power..My well pump ya thats power considering its 220amp....like i said 5500k or larger generator..should have no problem on what u want to run..

[slosh250]

correct me if i am wrong but i think he's looking to power his house with his boiler even when the power isnt out. I don't know a way but a local flooring mill has a huge boiler type aparatus that generates electricity back to the electric company in town when the mill is closed as they only run 1 shift. It does not provide enough while they are in operation but it helps a lot to have it. They just burn the cut off that run off a floor type conveyer system that feeds this "boiler". Pretty neat i thought

[johnybcold]

Great thread I have been thinking about it, I think to get elec from the boiler we would need to set something up go make steam to turn a turbine , let's get some ideas going here

[Bull]

I was wondering about gasifaciation from a gasser to run a generator?

[birchbark]

MattNH,  I think you mean 220 volts not amps

[AirForcePOL]

Check out this website.  This is very interesting and now you have me thinking....lol

These guys even mention creating electricity by using an outdoor wood boiler.  Here you go. http://www.tegpower.com/

[mattNH]

One more step towards getting off the grid.  If generating electricity from an OWB is viable I'd be interested. 

[MattyNH]

Check out this website.  This is very interesting and now you have me thinking....lol

These guys even mention creating electricity by using an outdoor wood boiler.  Here you go. http://www.tegpower.com/

Def interesting..I guess the question is it really worth forking up the money to do something like that??...Considering that most obws only run a short period of time depending on where you live.. Yeah the heat will keep the boiler going but you still have to have power to your existing furnace to keep your house /hot water up to temp..To me my boiler is pennies to run..Pretty sure I got something in my house that uses way more power than my owb...Just my opinion.

[Bull]

Very interesting website, I have lots more reading to do. LOL

[Firechaser]

Man I love the idea of this. If it could be cost effective.

[johnybcold]

Cool I will check the site out more later, tomorrow is my turn off and clean up day

[Bull]

Check this out thermal electric generator home made

[MattyNH]

Check this out thermal electric generator home made

Thats neat!

[RSI]

Check this out thermal electric generator home made

Thats neat!

Yeah but unfortunately you will never get a usable amount of power off that. The amount of power he was generating, he would needs hundreds of them to get close to what a AA battery will put out.