Garage Workshop Heating - Pot Belly Stove

[Dan Hintz]

A greater concern is burning a stove too hot! A flue thermometer can tell you how hot things are getting. Over 400 deg. is too much. Turn the damper down before it gets Too Hot! Another real concern is burning green wood only, especially at low heat settings. This causes creosote to cook out and condense in the flue. Eventually, a very hot fire may set the creosote ablaze, which can be serious indeed!

I would consider 400 to be too cool to fully burn the wood and doing so on a continual basis will require chimney sweeps more often. I try to keep mine in the 550-600 range for complete combustion. If I'm notpaying attention, it'll shoot up 900+ within a few minutes, and then I jump into action with some water to cool it down (and that's even with the air dampened off). Once I get it in "the zone", though, I can shut the air dampers completely and it'll burn around 500-550 until it needs more wood.

Of course, those days are gone for me now as our new pellet stove was just installed yesterday Noisier fan on high than I would like considering it's in the main TV-watching area, but we're already getting used to it.

[David Helm]

+1 on most of what Chip said. I heated with wood for about 80% of my adult life. Since I'm 67 that is quite a few years. My shop is heated with a freestanding wood stove. Yes I do use some regular firewood (cut from my property) but it is also an easy way to dispose of all those pesky off cuts that I don't seem to have a good use for otherwise.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I'm assuming you are only goinig to heat the shop when it is occupied. Sustained cool temperatures can lead to condensation\rust challenges on your tools. Some of this can be mitigated with a dehumidifier; some with wax finishes. In the summer, same argument can be made for needing A\C. Just something to think about.

[Charlie Stone]

I can speak from experience, corn stoves are a great source of heat. I have 2 of them in my house. I live in Iowa, the past few winters, we have gone at least 3 weeks straight without breaking +10 in the winter. For 2 years we used nothing but corn to heat our 7000 sq foot house. It got a bit chilly a few times, but we were never in danger of freezing. That is running 2 standard size free standing corn stoves. They each ate 1 bushel of corn in 24 hours. That came out to about 1 ton (a full pickup bed) every 2 weeks. I am sure shop could be heated much more efficiently than what we were doing. I bushel should last 2 or 3 days in your shop. Its about $5 for standard feed corn and that's what we used. I am currently debating using one to heat my shop once I get it finished. Granted, I like the idea of hitting the magic wall switch and having near instant gratification, but there is just something cozy about a fire.
I would go with a pot belly stove if my wife would let me get away with it. However, my "shop to be" is a 130 year old brick building. Not to much fire risk there.

[Dan Hintz]

They each ate 1 bushel of corn in 24 hours. That came out to about 1 ton (a full pickup bed) every 2 weeks. I am sure shop could be heated much more efficiently than what we were doing. I bushel should last 2 or 3 days in your shop. Its about $5 for standard feed corn and that's what we used.

Holy schmoly that's a lot of corn to move around! On low our pellet stove burns one pound/hr... two tons will get us through the entire season, most likely. I'd rather move two tons in a few hours once than do a full ton every other week!

[Charlie Stone]

Well Dan, yes, it was a lot of corn to move around. Notice I say WAS, as in I have had enough of that. Now days inside the house (and I will whisper this part to avoid angering the gods of all knowing home heating) we are using vent-less gas heaters. And only keep about 5 bushels of corn laying around for "topping off" when it gets REALLY cold.
As to heating with a wood stove, I noticed that Mathas's (woodgears.ca) fathers shop in Canada is heated with a wood stove and has been since the dawn of time.

[Dan Hintz]

Yesterday I dropped by the store that installed our pellet stove this past weekend to find out how to have our free ton of pellets delivered. Yeah, they're free... you only have to pay $129 for delivery Well, that's not going to happen. So off to Google...

I just found pellets online for $219/ton with free shipping if ordered before Oct 31. I'll take three, please This should let me know how much of this stuff I can expect to burn a season (I expect less than two right now), and if I order earlier next year it should be cheaper per ton.

[Charlie Stone]

Dan, One of the issues I ran into with corn was where/how to store it. Our solution, good or bad was trashcans. I think 1 ton filled about 10 cans. This was a couple years ago, so my memory may be off.

[Lee Schierer]

Yesterday I dropped by the store that installed our pellet stove this past weekend to find out how to have our free ton of pellets delivered. Yeah, they're free... you only have to pay $129 for delivery Well, that's not going to happen. So off to Google...

I just found pellets online for $219/ton with free shipping if ordered before Oct 31. I'll take three, please This should let me know how much of this stuff I can expect to burn a season (I expect less than two right now), and if I order earlier next year it should be cheaper per ton.

If you could get one ton for $129 delivered locally and paid $219 per ton for the free delivery from the internet, where did you save any money?

[Dan Hintz]

Lee,

I didn't give all of the details. $129 was the delivery fee... not counting the "freebie", a ton of pellets itself was $229 (and I need at least two for the winter). I'll sell the "free" ton for $200 to a neighbor who has the ability to pick up themselves (i.e., a truck). They save money, I make nearly enough money to pay for a ton from someone who delivers right to my door.

It was also the principle of the thing... I was never informed it was going to cost so much with every delivery from this store (they tout guaranteed stock for anyone who purchases one of their stoves, even when stock gets tight, like it did a couple of years ago). Sure, I have guaranteed delivery... if I want to pay through the nose. Maybe not false advertising, but certainly very sketchy. I would rate this place 5 stars for install, but I'd rate their overall sales experience a sad 2 stars due to a number of poor communication experiences (telling the customer the vent is similar to a dryer vent in size during the quote phase, installing a hideous 1.5' pipe straight out of the wall during the install phase, and then telling the customer "Those dryer vents are no longer installed due to pressure issues" during the "WTH?!" phase is one example).