Giant Wood-Burning Furnace Heats Shop

Giant Wood-Burning Furnace Heats Shop ENERGY Wood Burners 65 Clair Wilson and his sons operate a farming and fabrication business near Winchester Ill They have a huge 120-ft sq shop To heat it they built a giant woodburning furnace into an embankment next to the shop “We use a skid steer with a grapple to load up to three logs at a time The logs measure 14 to 16 in in diameter and are up to 6 ft long ” says Clair “A pair of big hydraulic cylinders are used to open the lid The cylinders are powered by a hydraulic pump inside the shop ” Located just outside the shop walls the furnace was built from 1/4-in thick steel plate and measures 7 ft sq There’s a fullwide door at one end of the stove that can be opened to remove ashes with the skid steer The furnace’s hinged lid contains a water jacket that will eventually be connected to pipes embedded in the shop fl oor The plan is to circulate heated water just beneath the fl oor For now the shop is heated with hot air that’s pumped through a plenum and into the shop by two large furnace fans The plenum runs up one wall to the ceiling and across to the other side of the shop A blower mounted outside the furnace pushes fresh air into the fi rebox to feed the fire The shop’s in-fl oor heating system goes back a ways “We installed a home-built radiant fl oor heating system in the shop in 1994 and used a commercial liquid propane boiler to heat the water ” says Clair “We placed a series of 1-in schedule 80 pipes 1 ft apart under the shop floor We built the wood-burning furnace because of rising propane prices ” He says they load logs into the furnace about once a day A 30-ft length of 10-in dia irrigation pipe serves as a flue for the furnace Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Clair Wilson and Sons 129 Hillview Rd Winchester Ill 62694 ph 217 742-3918

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