Heating:Return to sustainability menu

 

My idea on heating is that one should have many alternatives but mainly based on direct sunshine when the sun is shining. For my main backup I am using a biodiesel oil heater. It requries no electricity to operate. The biodiesel heater at this point needs a lot of cleaning which could be the result of poor biodiesel. I have been working carefully to get a better biodiesel. The solar air heater works amazingly well without much attention!

Sunflower Biodiesel definetly burns a lot hotter and a lot cleaner. As of March 14, 2007 I have developed a better version of the biodiesel heater that incorporates a removable bowl for cleaning purposes. As of Mar 18 the cleanout bowl does not need cleaning as there is no residue from the burning now.

 

The new window glass I installed. It took some time to find this special glass but it sure made a difference for me seeing the flame and then adjsuting the damper!
At the bottom of the picture is the sliding damper assembly, (from my woodsorking dust collection system) The air then goes down to the combusion intake on the left middle of the photo.
OK here it is the next to final version..... the intake from the outside air is the aluinum pipe on the left the outside cold air goes into a heat exchanger in the exhaust chimney pipe and comes out at the top of the picture, goes down to the damper then finally the heated air goes into the combustions chamber... which you can't see!

When the warm weather gets here I will redo everything with nice paint and clean it all up. But for the Moment I am overwhelmed at this success!~ It was a long hard development to get to this state.
AHA !!!!!!There it is the famous blue flame. I now have control over the flame with the damper setup! This was a hard picture to capture.
The newly developed Biodiesel Heater! This is a great improvement over the other one! Note the air intake and the damper at the rear.Now to add the through the wall outside air intake!
That is actually burning.... rather colourless in the sunlight but it is mainly a blue flame. When I let the ourside air in the flame turns yellow but still no smoke! I shot this picutre just as I opened the door.
The addition on the chimeny pipe is a preheater for the intake air.. it is not connected in thei picture. Note the blower just in front of the intake.. .certainly got a trememndous heat going with that!
The actual flame that is produced is blue and many times not visible. when I opened the door to take a picture it came up with a yellow flame. The one thing about this new development is that it uses outside air that is heated from the exhaust.
March 14, 2008. The newly devloped biodiesel stove.
Even when there is lots of snow the solar water heater and solar air heater heat the house during the day.
The biodiesel heater is still working well! As I produce better biodiesel there is less cleaning to be done.
The new battery monitor mounted in the house.
The solar cells on a cold morning
Jan 8, 2008 That's the temperature of the incoming air from the small solar air heater.. I think thats impressive at 61 degrees celcius!!
Dec 21, 2007, I opened the solar air heater in the early morning.. and by noon it was producing 60 degrees celcius hot air
Dec 5, 2007. The new position of the Biodiesel heater. This produced more heat in the room with the angled stove pipe and certainly produced more hot water. I still need to have a method to regulate the air intake. In high winds the draw is too high and the burn pot gets cooled. My feeling is that on my second attempt I will have a control on the air intake as well as have the intake get air from the outside and then heat it before entering the burn pot.
Dec 5, 2007 -This is the new rear entrance that Will is building so that there is an airlock between the two outside doors.
November 2007

The south side of the house with the solar air heater, the solar water heater and the chimney for the biodiesel heater.Note the opened door on the solar air heater. I close it a night. Theres a lot more space for more solar air heaters!!!!
The Biodiesel heater! Yes this is an old stove oil heater.. uses no electricity and heats very well. The copper pipe you see is a preheater to the solar hot water heater.I have the cover off of it as i play with the water preheater coils.

Feb 2007

The solar heater on the inside...before I added the controllers.... little bit of a mess but a work in progressas always.
The solar air heater mounted on the house. Note the wmall 15 watt solar cell to the right of the window.

Winter 2006-7

Luckily I have a well equiped woodworking shop on the property. The soalr air heater is against the back wall.
Winter 2006-7

This was the box that I constructed to fit the recycled glass I had found.