dwyl / tiny-house

Research repo for our off-grid tiny home [on wheels] 🏡
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Research: Biomass Pellet Machine #32

Open nelsonic opened 2 years ago

nelsonic commented 2 years ago

Opening this issue as a placeholder to close tabs on my laptop. ⏳

One of the most energy efficient/effective ways of heating a tiny house in the dead of the winter when there is limited sun light for solar energy is a biomass pellet oven (fireplace).

https://www.leroymerlin.pt/Produtos/Aquecimento-e-Climatizacao/Aquecimento-pellets-e-lenha/Salamandras-pellets/WPR_REF_82039639 image

Note: More research on the pellet oven/fireplace is required. (there are definitely cheaper options!)

The problem of biomass pellets is the price: https://www.deco.proteste.pt/comunidades/energias-renovaveis/aquecer-o-ar-e-climatizar/conversation/10260/preco-dos-pellets-a-disparar image

Basically 2 years ago a 15kg bag used to cost €4 (I suspect an introductory market-share grabbing price) and now costs €7 ...

But given how much biomass we would have on the land https://github.com/dwyl/phase-three/issues/116

we could probably make a few hundred kilos of pellets ourselves each year just from wood chips, leaves and fallen branches.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000562889051.html image

One of the other major advantages of a biomass compactor

Free And Virtually Unlimited Fuel To Heat Your Home: https://youtu.be/2aLZ88_DZz8 image

Note: I don't think we would sell the pellets we make commercially. There are already plenty of sellers. The idea would just be to make enough for us and the Tiny Houses on our land.

How?

The idea would be to collect all the "woody" biomass on the land during the autumn when the leaves/branches fall and annual crops are harvested e.g. corn 🌽 run it through a wood chipper to reduce the size of each particle then compact it into pellets using a biomass compactor.

Store the resulting pellets in a dry place e.g: Greenhouse https://github.com/dwyl/phase-three/issues/130 and then steadily use it throughout the winter while putting the ash on the compost heap.