Interest in biomass heating systems continues to rise, especially in rural areas of the United States and Canada. Although plenty of devices are available that burn wood to heat water, the state-of-the-art device is a wood-gasification boiler.
The operation of such a boiler starts out much the same as a wood stove. You make a small “tepee” at the base of the combustion chamber with newsprint or a fire starter and some dry kindling, add a few more pieces of dry split wood on top and light it. At this point, a damper in the upper portion of the combustion chamber is open and the fire is burning in an “updraft” mode. A few minutes later, after the fire has grown in intensity, the operator loads the firebox full of firewood, closes the upper damper and flips a switch that starts the combustion air blower. This is when the magic starts.