Electric wood ignitor

Wood can be ignited electrically. One may wish to do so in order to use wood as heat in an intelligent or automated manner. This can potentially be more efficient than a traditional fire where wood must continually be added to keep the fire going.

Specifically, a rocket stove (rocket mass heater) has only small and infrequent burn times. Combining it with automatic ignition may make it's use more practical.

Electric ignitors are common in pellet stoves. They work by taking a cartridge heater, and placing a sleeve around it with an air gap around the heating element. There is a hole in the sleeve at the base, and the end is open. As air is drawn through the the pellet stove (pellet stoves have an exhaust fan which forces air through the system), air is drawn through the cartridge. Super hot air emerges from the cartridge, igniting the pellets.

Ignition is achieved in wood or other biomass through complex mechanisms. However, the very simple rule is that once the wood reaches between 250C and 350C, it will ignite. The hot air from the heat cartridge produces high enough temperatures.

An electric ignitor for a wood stove needs an additional component to provide forced air through the cartridge, because wood stoves don't have a built-in fan. Such a system already exists, it's called Greenstart for Lopi stoves and costs $349 I'm told. Ignitor elements for pellet stoves go for $50 - $100 on ebay. The Greenstart system includes one of those plus a small fan and a circuit board to provide an ignition sequence at the push of a button.

Generally these heat cartridges use 300 - 400 watts.