A few questions from a prodigal son

That is fine. I was just trying to get a feel for where you were exactly. You are a lot further then most. I would try a charcoal gasifier to get your feet wet again. You already have what you need. You just need the larger chunks. The rest go in the compost. (technically, fuel grade should be run to a bit higher temp then biochar as it gets more of the tar out, but you may be doing that anyway and once the bed is heated up it will crack the tar anyway.)

Unless you have a mansion, that is significantly more then the typical house. You might look at insulation or filling up drafts and cracks. I know folks with a wood boiler that had a heated shop and 4 or 5 bedroom house that only used 5 full cords a year.. The wood might not be dry enough, and is using too much heat boil off the water, which maybe what you were indicating in your comment.

You might want to check out this section (probably backwards) He is using a hoop house for wood drying. It is similar to a solar wood kiln. You might want to make some adjustments so you can get your tractor in or make it sectional so you can move it over your wood pile.

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