Finally received some more info on the Portage & Main Optimizer 250 Outdoor Wood Gasification Furnace via video clip. It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkNm6517bg
Portage & Main Optimizer Video
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Looks good but I will be concerned about the small dia. tube ex. I don't think that I would ever go any smaller than 2" for ex. tubes. At least they are easily accessible.
Nice. I thought it was a pretty good explanation of how the thing works, except that they never mentioned the (obvious to us) need for dry wood. But it's good to see OWBs going to gasification.
I notice that it has an "off" cycle. Hopefully, the manufacturer is familiar with the vast numbers of corrosive compounds which are a result of the off cycle....which ended up eating right through some of the best boiler steel made in many earlier models.
It's one thing to get something like this working - the technology is pretty simple now, having been common for 20+ years. It's quite another to have a model that you are certain will provide 15-25 years of service in the field without having the firebox fail.
Other than direct experience.....using a particular unit for many years....I don't know how one would accurately test for this. You can't really simulate the effect of vast numbers of on-off cycles combined with different wood and weather (seasonal shutdowns, etc.). In fact, the usual methods would work against you, as the more you use it, the less it is subject to corrosion!
Personally, if I was designing one of these for the long run, I'd hop, skip and jump to Europe and somehow talk to a number of the long time manufacturers to find out how they isolated the particular problems and then solved them. I know that massive storage which eliminates the off cycle completely will help, but there is probably not a lot of chance that most buyers of an appliance like this will install that.
It's one thing to get something like this working - the technology is pretty simple now, having been common for 20+ years. It's quite another to have a model that you are certain will provide 15-25 years of service in the field without having the firebox fail.
Other than direct experience.....using a particular unit for many years....I don't know how one would accurately test for this. You can't really simulate the effect of vast numbers of on-off cycles combined with different wood and weather (seasonal shutdowns, etc.). In fact, the usual methods would work against you, as the more you use it, the less it is subject to corrosion!
Personally, if I was designing one of these for the long run, I'd hop, skip and jump to Europe and somehow talk to a number of the long time manufacturers to find out how they isolated the particular problems and then solved them. I know that massive storage which eliminates the off cycle completely will help, but there is probably not a lot of chance that most buyers of an appliance like this will install that.
As we've said many times, when you buy a new design/model, you're basically buying a prototype, and you should probably pay a lot less than a tested, proven-over-time design.
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