Wood/steam/electric-guidance sought

[Wes Trout]

Hello all!
This is my first posting here but not my first appreciation for the vast knowledge accessible by forum frequenters.

I have a small farm that I would like to bring into self-sufficiency. I'm trying to wrap my head around a dream I have about a wood fired, water sleeve, heating system with a built in boiler/backup electrical. I'm thinking a boiler submerged in the water sleeve system that can route to a pressure tank for on demand electricity or bypass to non-pressure heat. Am a I making any sense? Any discussions you could direct me to as my searches have come up with zilch? Also, as this is my first exposure to steam power, any helpful discussions on that subject would be well received.

Thanks in advance,
Wes in NE

[Lauri Koponen]

https://youtu.be/W4CeeFkiePQ

Hi, I fabricated a mono tube boiler. It may help with some ideas.

[Bill von]

I have a small farm that I would like to bring into self-sufficiency. I'm trying to wrap my head around a dream I have about a wood fired, water sleeve, heating system with a built in boiler/backup electrical. I'm thinking a boiler submerged in the water sleeve system that can route to a pressure tank for on demand electricity or bypass to non-pressure heat.
That can definitely work. However you will need a LOT of wood. Early steam locomotives (simple once through steam engines) ran around 2-3% efficiency - and that's before the generator, and that doesn't count warmup time when efficiency is zero.

To put that in perspective, a cord of wood might net you 100kwhr if you are very careful with your design. (Would run an average US house for about four days.) That's $120 for the fuel, or about $1.20 per kwhr in fuel costs. Most utilities charge around 10 to 20 cents per kwhr.

On the other hand, if you need all that heat anyway, then it's not much additional cost. But that's a lot of heat.