According to Danny Farkash, he is preparing for the day if and when there is an energy crisis. He is moving his farmstead closer to being an off-the-grid residence using a water boiler constructed from upcycled material.
Farkash has designed a unique water boiler which he is currently using to heat his 50 x 80 shop, and he also hopes to one day be able to heat his residence as well.
“What the boiler does is we take the waste from my sawmill or whatever and burn it. The wood is burned so slowly from a lack of oxygen; therefore, it burns super hot. To clarify the process, we place logs in the sealed boiler, and when the logs burn, they produce smoke, and the smoke then makes the wood burn slowly because of the lack of oxygen. So when the logs or waste material burns without oxygen, it burns slow, and when it burns slow, it burns super hot and efficiently,” explained Farkash.
Farkash went on to say that the heat produced is a type of convection heat and what they are trying to do is utilize any waste product and turn it into heat.
“The floor heating in the shop uses convection heat, so we are trying to utilize any waste energy that we have and turn it into heat. We will probably never go off the grid completely, but we are trying to get to a point where we are sustainable without using fossil fuels,” said Farkash.
Farkash went on to explain the heating process a little further.
“The floor heat in my shop is water lines, and what it does is the heat from the burning process heats the water in the lines, which in turn heats the cement floor, and the cement works like a battery. The heat transfers into the cement, and the cement stays warm for 1 or 2 days before it starts to cool off. So we are using waste material very efficiently to heat the shop instead of using natural gas. One cool thing about this is after burning for a week or more, the amount of ash left from the burning process is extremely small,” explained Farkash. Farkash added that other places make outside boilers, but most of them are very inefficient, and what is unique about this one is that it gasifies the wood, which burns very slowly and very hot, making it quite efficient, and it is made completely from upcycled material.