On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:07:20 -0500, Ignoramus30927
wrote:

The so called "wood gas" is carbon monoxide, with all related safety
issues. Something to be kept in mind. Not as big deal on a moving
vehicle, but a big deal with a furnace type use.

Yeah, there's some potential disaster in using that, and then
there's all the sludge and other gack that doesn't vaporize that you
are going to have to deal with somehow.

Might be a whole lot safer and simpler to build a wood fired steam
boiler and use a small steam engine to drive the generator. Also a
good source for steam space heating and process heat.

If you want it to run automatically when unattended you could have
it switch to wood pellets or chopped corncobs, etc., and an
auto-stoker. The safety controls part (low water shutdowns, etc.) is
already time tested and proven safe WHEN USED AS DIRECTED.

Gee, I wonder if you could build a stoker that would feed dried tree
chippings - you can get them for free. But they would have to be in
covered storage to get dry and stay dry.

Lots of small boilers run totally unattended except for startup and
shutdown. Granted, most of them are burning oil or natural gas.

And you can get a non-hermetic compressor and have the steam engine
drive a refrigeration compressor for space cooling - build a big
ice-bunker tank and you only have to fire the boiler once a day to
keep the house cool.

-- Bruce --