burning hay for fuel?

[blunosr]

Hi, have any of you thought of burning hay bales for heating? I have loads of hay that just rots in the fields, and I would like to build a "wood" stove, that burns the small square bales, and would heat water for in-floor heating.

Seems to me that would be frugal. I'd save heating costs, and have a way to get rid of excess hay.

There's a family in Missouri who burn big round bales in a stove of their own design. They heat their chicken barns, shops, and their house, and save about 65% off their natural gas bill.

Rural Missouri - JANUARY 2008 - Heating with Hay

Any thoughts? Design ideas?

Thanks,

 

[Sonny580]

If you do go for such idea,--make sure it dont VOID your insurance coverage!---also put the burner 500 feet from the nearest building!---acouple nights ago my buddy burned his house down with this sort of contraption, but he was proud that the lp truck hadnt filled his tank all winter!---NOW he has NO house!---lost everything!---Ins. wont cover because he didnt read the part that states NO aux. heaters! thanks; sonny 580

 

[powerpace]

I have read there are few of these round bale burners in the midwest. All are owner build and connected to the heated areas by heated water transfer.

 

[MasseyWV]

I think the real question should be, why is so much hay being left to rot? Surely it could be sold, even if at heavily discounted prices, and the money used as needed.

 

[Whatswrong]

I think the real question should be, why is so much hay being left to rot? Surely it could be sold, even if at heavily discounted prices, and the money used as needed.

The producer has to try and see how he can get the cost of production or more from his product ,this isn't Wall Mart where you pay a dollar and sell for one cent over cost on a lost leader and make it up some where else.

 

[rambler]

Moisture might be a problem, would need the hay drier for burning than for feeding cows?

As crop prices go up, wonder if you could make enough on the hay to buy wood or whatever for a more conventional fuel.

I think a hay burner would be problematic to make it efficient - the hay is going to be kinda wet, and it is difficult to make it burn efficiently, without being a smouldering mess.

Seems like a lot of work, with a lot of things that need to be just right to make it all work out.

--->Paul

 

[MasseyWV]

The producer has to try and see how he can get the cost of production or more from his product ,this isn't Wall Mart where you pay a dollar and sell for one cent over cost on a lost leader and make it up some where else.

I'm not a farmer so I don't know all the details involved with hay production but I do know about making money. Hay is a product, and when you have a product, regardless of what it is, there is almost always a way to make money from it.

In this case, if production costs (labor, machinery, fuel, time, etc...) are a problem, perhaps there is someone willing to cut it themselves. The point I'm trying to make is that where there is a will, there is usually a way. One just has to find it.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Hi, have any of you thought of burning hay bales for heating? I have loads of hay that just rots in the fields, and I would like to build a "wood" stove, that burns the small square bales, and would heat water for in-floor heating.

Seems to me that would be frugal. I'd save heating costs, and have a way to get rid of excess hay.

There's a family in Missouri who burn big round bales in a stove of their own design. They heat their chicken barns, shops, and their house, and save about 65% off their natural gas bill.

Rural Missouri - JANUARY 2008 - Heating with Hay

Any thoughts? Design ideas?

Thanks,

Strange idea, I have seen the way compressed baled hay burns, slow, smokey and not much heat unless it is a whole stack burning from the inside as a result of spontaneous combustion. I remember when sawdust burning furnaces were common, they fed the sawdust in a slow stream (stoker) with lots of air. Take your hay and run it through a chipper and feed it into a boiler or furnace with some kind of similar stoker arrangement. Ground coal was fed that way also in the past.

 

[powerpace]

In the Willamette Valley a few years back there was research done for co-generation using straw. The grass seed farmer had sanitized their fields after harvest by burning. The Department of Environmental Quality shut down most burning after the city folk complained each year.

I don't believe the co-gen was built. The farmers found a better market for their product. They highly compressed bales of straw are shipped in containers to Japan, Korea and others. They use it for roughage in animal feed. Last I heard it was about 1 billion ton each year.

Oregon has fancier crops, but hay and straw are doing just fine | OregonLive.com

 

[crash325]

Too bad you are so far away. Around here hay is up to around $16 / $18 a bale.

But to me a better idea (And I have seen it done.), get the hay up off the ground, cover it and let it really dry out. Pour a good & wide foundation a make storage sheds or other out buildings out of it. Plaster it on the out side and the buildings will last almost forever. Best insulated buildings you could get.

I sort of wonder why you go to the work and expense of baling it if you can't use it. There must be someone around that could use it. Maybe trade it for something you can use.

Just me