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[burnit0017]

Greetings, I created a gravity feed pellet burner. The pellet burner works very well. It has a 8 hour unattended burn time. My challenge now is to recover as much heat from the pellet burner and transfer that heat into the building. My first attempt using a stainless elbow positioned over the flame to heat the air inside the vent has failed. Basically the project is to have a fire box outside the building and then try recover as heat as possible and transfer that heat to inside the building.  I am looking for ideas that are low cost and easy to fabricate. I found some videos on youtube showing heat recovery systems. If anyone has any other ideas please let me know.
Best regards.

Gravity Auto-feed pellet burner

Pellet Burner with Gravity Feed and Heat Exchanger

[RSI]

Are you trying to heat air or water?

[burnit0017]

Greetings, This is a first attempt. I am trying to heat air.  I am currently trying to add a plenum to the top of the metal box containing the burner.  I am adding a loop to the exhaust with aluminum fins. I am hoping that the increased surface area will improve performance.   


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[tulenutn2o]

Water is a much better way to transfer the heat. Hard to transfer lots of warmth with air over long distances.

[burnit0017]

Greetings, can you provide any links that show a basic block diagram of such a system?

[RSI]

To heat air, find a newer forced air fuel oil furnace. I don't remember the brand of the one I am thinking of but it is green. There is a pot that the fire shoots into. If you pull the whole assembly out your burner might fit in the hole.

Is the burner safe enough to leave unattended while you sleep as close to your house as you would need it for forced air? You can probably find a gas or oil boiler that you could remove the burner and modify to accept your burner. This way you could put it far enough from the house that if it catches on fire to be safe.

[burnit0017]

Greetings, this is a experiment. So far I have tested the current configuration twice for a total of 16 hours. I measured the temperature of the metal case with a K thermal couple and found the highest reached was 120 degrees F.  I recently purchased a infrared thermometer so the numbers may change with continued testing. The size of the flame does very but the burner limit’s the amount of fuel so there is a max temp but it appears to be constants. I am still constructing the plenum and within a few days I should know more.  So far the unit seems to be safe and operates with out the fire traveling up the feed tube, but safety is a major concern. I like your idea of converting an old oil furnace to accept the pellet burner.