I've got a low temp burner running on a 20,000 bu oats bin. It came off around 20% a couple of weeks ago and is no way close to dry yet. I'm wondering if I'm doing any good keeping the burner going when the outside temps are so low to begin with.
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The burners will raise the intake air temperature by about 4-6°C, but more importantly they make the intake air dryer, so that it will dry your grain faster.
I have some electric ones that draw 37.5 AMPs at 240 V, 9000 Watts.
9000 Watts = 30708 BTU.
So my electrics ones are the equivalent of yours.
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I just looked at Edwards grain guard and they say 60,000 BTU up to 100,000 BTU.
My electric one is 30,000 like I said before, but one thing that I don't understand is:
When you burn the propane, you get water vapor and carbon dioxide, so I wonder if the propane combustion is actually working against the drying process.
For every 74.4 grams of propane burned, 72.08 grams of water vapor is produced.
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the warmer the air, the more moisture carrying capacity the air will have (increased dewpoint) which will remove more moisture from the grain. In my experience, unless you can get the temmp at air inlet into the 20's with low humidity, not much drying will be done. It should though keep your grain from rotting to quickly at that moisture content.
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sisco,
Did 1500bu of soft white wheat... from 19% and ended at 12% after 2 weeks.
The Edwards eng. said that it drops about .5% per day... if the average temp can be kept above 10 deg C. Our average temp was about 5 deg C most of the time.
The top 200 bu out of 1500bu was still about 16% on the cone peak... it should have been leveled for even drying.
5hp fan... 100,000btu NG burner... 2 weeks non-stop day and night. THe bigger the burner... the dryer the bottom gets... it needs to be mixed is an obvious conclusion. Cooled bin without heat on last 3 days.
If it is 20,000 in one bin... chances are you can't get the 4-6 deg c without a huge burner... if average isn't above 8 deg c... it simply exponetially decreases drying by about half every 4 deg down in temp I am told. Below freezing ave temp I am told will not dry grain.
The temp rise of 4-6deg C... allows far more moisture to be removed... than the burner nat. gas produces in producing the temp rise.
Key... needs to have average temp ABOVE 10 deg C for effective drying.
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Fransisco,
Just removed yesterday from the flat bottom full floor 19 foot air bin. Wheat was only about 10 ft deep on sides. 5 deg was average outside temp... plus the 4-6 deg increase in heat the 100,000btu NG heater provided.
I couldn't find larger burners for big bins that are made. Edwards is thinking about making something for next year.
U trough hopper air tubes (with bottom open) I am told are near useless and often burn out burners. The air has trouble easily getting through the grain... (trying to go back through the fan) he also said rockets work well for even drying and good flow.
Open the top lid... if there is not good air flow out the top... watch out for burner damage. Also you should have water running off the inside of the roof onto the ground... if it is drying. Good luck if it is too cold... big ice problems!
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At some point I'll have to try turning it but right now bin space is a premium and I'm not done yet. 10 degrees during the day is doable so far but it does drop lower at night.
Was told not to turn it off as the drying front can crust in the middle of the bin. But had to(not a big enough electrical service to run everything) so as to dry some beans. A couple of days later we fired it up again and the air is still blowing through so I think we got lucky and maybe it's drier than we think.
Not fun, all this juggling but at least everything is slowly getting binned.
25% left to combine.
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