hello woodgas friends, i am new in this very interesting forum…last year i built with my son the first charcoal gasifier unit for little engine briggs 5 hp . with this unit, what works well i run a bandsaw for cutting firewood for the house stove…now the idea comes up to cook also with the gas . i know the CO is very poisoness when it is not burnt. so the cooker should have a security switch with bimetal if the flame goes off… but in the gas are also other components what not get burnt as N and CO2. are this components dangerous when cooking indoor for an hour?
in winter we cook direkt on the woodstove, but in summer is very hot here in italy so cooking with the woodstove heats up too much the room, so we use normally propane in this period…outdoor cooking is also in summer a bit scary because a lot of flys are here on the farm…
have someone experience with indoor cooking with woodgas?
thanks for every answer
god bless you
giorgio
Good morning Giorgio and welcome to the woodgas site .
Over the years I have made and used a LOT of wood gas but none for cooking inside. I am very afraid of something that can be deadly that I can’t see, hear ,taste , smell or feel 
My only advise would to maybe use a fume hood over the stove with a fan perhaps? That or perhaps set up a stove just outside of the house in a covered area. Carbon Monoxide poisoning collects in your system, has long term effects even from small exposure.
You could also make a rocket stove and then you would not need to make charcoal for cooking. A rocket stove takes advantage of woodgas just as good as anything else and it doesn’t need any extra input, naturally aspirated.
Welcome to DOW, Giorgio. Check out this DOW thread:
The chinese JXQ-10 gasifier that I bought about 12 years ago actually came WITH a 2 burner stove for cooking in the house. Instructions showed how to hook it up and properly??? vent the area. I did try it out once before starting to modify it for producing more-or-less engine grade gas.
Here’s a really embarrasing video of my first attempt at getting it to run, feeding gas to the 2 burner stove.
The video is a bit over 51 minutes long and is a waste of time but there are a few still pictures in the last 20 or 30 seconds that show some results of actually getting the stove to run and do some heating of water and eggs.
Pete Stanaitis
hello to all and thanks for your answers, my question also raises up because of this link i have found, seems they use it indoor without problems!?! -NO SMELL; NO SMOKE-they write, but this is exact the problem of indoor using of woodgas when it escapes unburnt!!! and what happens with the big amount of nitrogen what comes in a room also when CO burns regularly on the stove? is nitrogen dangerous for health?
but maybee, in indonesia, from where the link is, they have not so closen indoor kitchens as in colder climates…
https://stoves.bioenergylists.org/beloniowoodchar
I would hope Nitrogen isn’t dangerous, it’s a major component of the air we breathe at all times! Jokes aside, Nitrogen is an inert gas, it isn’t harmful.
Hello Giorgio. None of the products of woodgas burning are harmfull. In fact, every kind of gas burner will produce CO2 and nitrogen.
I too am still weighing the indor woodgas question… Havent yet decided. Bimetal safety for sure, then a couple of CO detectors, and a good fumehood, maybe enaugh. And a good pilot flame! Kerosene based?
I do however plan to hack my indoor wood stove to run on woodgas in summer months, perhaps you culd do the same? The plan is to install a burner and insulate the cooking plate so that only the rings are heated. Even if the gas fails to stay lit it will all evacuate trugh the chimney
All the old gas stoves burned carbon monoxide (CO). People survived it. If you find an old stove that was burning propane or natural gas, you can adjust the air fuel mixture and convert it to carbon monoxide.
The caveat is that CO is deadly. It bonds with the hemoglobin (red blood cells) and replaces the oxygen. It’s not a reversible reaction. Your body has to make new hemoglobin. You turn blue and die.
You pays your money and takes your chances…
If you’re worried about gases leaking in your home, you could put rotting eggs in your particulate canister, or gas filter, so that it gives off the same smell as natural gas when you have a leak?!? And if the smell doesn’t burn out, it’ll let you know when you have exhaust gases leaking as well.
hello, thanks for answers to all, originally the idea with the rotten eggs!!!
christians idea is also very interesting , building a closen system so no gas can enter the room, maybee the unit with a little fire resistant glass for controll if the gas burns…maybee made as a little door to ignite the gas…
on the foto the first try of the burner “cup” with woodgas flame…
here the air for burning comes from outside to the gas…the same system when we burn the first gas at the gasifier start.
often is to see that the burner cup has holes for air near the bottom. who knows the difference of these booth systems- what is better?
ciao giorgio
yesterday i made another try with the burner cup, because it seems not enough gas can pass through the holes and the flame remains more or less weak… so i drilled up the holes at 3,5 mm and this works really well how you can see on the foto, very strong flame and the wind was not able to blow it off , in opposite to the original holes- see the other foto, where the flame was very sensible to go off with a bit wind…
i also tried a propan cooker security switch, what nowadays is not more bimetal based but it is thermo-electric system…
when i make the try with the switch on woodgas only a very small flame like a candle flame comes out - because obviously the propane equipment seems generally being to narrow, the holes to small, so i think it is not possible to use this kind of security switch for woodgas…
the base of the cooker with mostly 3/4 " tubing
here the updraft charcoal gasifier, at left the gas-cooler unit, at right the handblower with about 1200 turns/minute- the gear is from bicycle sprocket. for cooking the handblower will be substituted by an electric 12 v fan, powered by a little photovoltaik paneel
here a detail of the gasifier… on this retangular box is fixed the handblower…
for lightning the gasifier from outside the box is filled with some charcoal pieces, than some alcohol on the coal and lightning with a cigaretlighter…when the coal gets a bit read, the blower will be fixed on and after a short while with open top of the hopper the coal inside begins to glow and smoke comes up, then the lid of the hopper is closed and so on flaring the gas…next foto