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[sdrockhauler]

any one have a p&m chip burner? how do you like it?Does wood have to be really dry. What do they cost? They look alot like the coal stoker series is it the same stove?

[slimjim]

I have one sdrockhauler, but of course I would as I promote them for corporate and local sales, speak with Rory or Brian at corporate on pricing as different areas are different quotes on shipping' they are much like a coal stoker except a different burn head and much stronger drive system as it takes much more hootspa to move chips, this boiler has been EPA certified with both dry and green chips, I happen to be burning one right now to heat my home and shop and the fuel was a growing tree less than 1 week ago, cut it, chip it ,burn it period.....

[hondaracer2oo4]

Hey slim, I had been meaning to ask you about the amount of chips that you actually go through. I really like the idea behind this chip burner seeing as I know a lot of tree companies have chips to get rid of. My question is though how big of a pile would you need to last a winter? I would think that the pile would be enormous. Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread.

[slimjim]

I am currently using about 1 cubic yard per day in the cold snaps, the bin holds about 3 yards or 2000 pounds of green hardwood chips, the chips need to be kept rain and snow free, they need a roof over them, I use a trailer with a roof for storage and take the trailer into the woods to have the loggers blow the load in right from the chipper and then load my bin with a skidsteer when I get home

[hondaracer2oo4]

How many yards does your trailer hold? Sounds like you would have to be making alot of trips to get your trailer filled. Also are the loggers charging for chips? In my area in New Hampshire there is a lot of places that are paying good money for chips. The Steam Plant in Concord uses all the chips that Hopkinton Forest and Land Clearing can bring them and they are a HUGE company.

[slimjim]

My little trailer holds about 15 yards, I'm looking for a road worthy, reasonably good condition 42-48 foot chip trailer and will build a ramp to get my skidsteer into it and will have the local loggers transport it at about 900 dollars per load, 25-30 tons at a pop.

[hondaracer2oo4]

So if you are going through 1 yard per day, that means you are looking at $900 bucks per month? Seems awful expensive. I go through 12 cords a season at $100 per cord.

[slimjim]

Last year which was considerably warmer than this year I burned 35 cord in my old conventional to heat my home and shop, I figure it would be about 10-12 thousand dollars per year for oil at current pricing

[hondaracer2oo4]

35 cords!!!!!! What is your heat load? Any idea how many cords in your gasser?

[slimjim]

About 3800 feet in the insulated house and about 3000 in my uninsulated toy box/ party central

[hondaracer2oo4]

Holy cow that is a big house. How much would it cost to insulate your workshop? Seems like it would be well worth it to insulate since I would think the vast majority of your heat is lost out of there.

[slimjim]

It's not insulating that's the problem it's getting all the crap that's hanging on the wall off and where to put it.

[hondaracer2oo4]

I got ya. Do you have customers running one as a residential unit? How much are they going through? I still can't believe how much wood you go through with your wood doctor. How often would you have to load that thing?

[slimjim]

Yes we do have folks doing it for residential but the price is a bit cost prohibitive. 5 foot firebox, 12 hour burn

[Lumberman895]

My calculation shows a 25 ton load of 40% moisture hardwood chips at 80% efficiency (83% for the boiler -3% losses throughout the rest of the system) would be equivalent to 1560 gal of #2 oil in an 85% efficient oil boiler system. $900 a load isn't too bad.  I burn a yard and 1/2 / day of mostly softwood chips in my P&M Enviro-500, heating 3000 sq ft house, 4800 sq ft shop, 300 sq ft office, + 4000 bd ft kiln in upstate NY. Since I have a sawmill, my fuel cost is about 4 hours of my time and about 5 gallons of diesel fuel (3 point hitch mounted Valby 260 chipper on 86 hp farm tractor) every other week all winter. I could sell these chips for 8-10 $/yd or the slabs for less $$ so there is lost revenue "cost" as well.Last year I estimated I offset over 3000 gallons of oil for about 100 hours labor and $300. of diesel; this winter,so far, I've already matched last year.