Shop Heat Question

[Steve Goetz]

I live in southwestern Ohio and have a 24'x36'x12' pole barn that I will soon be insulating with R-19 and R-38 in the walls and ceiling respectively. I have an opportunity to purchase a brand new US Stove 2500 wood burning stove from a friend for about a third of the cost of a new unit ($500). He also has some triple wall and black piping to go along with the unit. I have NG ran to the building and have intentions on putting in a NG forced air heater once insulated, but what are everyone's thoughts on wood heat? I thought maybe I could install this wood stove and use it while I'm in there working and use the NG heater when I'm away to keep it at a constant temperature in the winter. Any thought, suggestions? Thanks in advance.

-Steve

[Steve Goetz]

I forgot to add this! Here is a link to the unit I'm looking at:

http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hv...500-112000-btu

-Steve

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve,

In a well insulated shop, the amount of NG you will use isn't huge.

My shop is 24'x30' with 10' ceilings. I insulated the walls and ceilings to R-19 and R-36 respectively. We T-d the output side of our home's gas meter and ran the shop NG line. We didn't see a negligible increase in our heating costs. Typically the temperature in there is about 58ºF and if I am going to work out there, I turn the thermostat up to 64ºF and come back into the house for another cup of coffee. In less than 30 minutes the shop is at 64ºF.

[Ray Newman]

Check with your insurance carrier if you have the building insured. Back in 2001 I had a detached shop constructed. At the time, I found that some carriers will charge a higher premium there was a wood bunting stove for heat in a work/wood shop.

As an side, determine what is the maximum R value installation that can be installed, then price it out. I did that in my shop and found that the price difference between R-19 and R-21 in the walls not that different vis-a-vis cost of material and energy savings. Labor cost was the same. Glad as I did as utility costs are not cheaper and the shop is more comfortable with greater heat retention.

[Steve Goetz]

Ken,

Thanks for the input. Your situation sound precisely like mine except I have 12' ceilings. What kind of heater did you use, if you don't mind me asking?

-Steve

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve,

I was gifted by my wife with a Lennox 75,000 btu NG hanging furnace. It works well.

There are others here with alternative brands of gas heaters that work well for them.

I heated for 2 winters while I finished the insulation installation and performed the finish carpentry with 2 small electrical space heaters. What a farce! There is no comparison.

[Marty Tippin]

Check craigslist for used gas furnaces - HVAC contractors remove older units all the time that work perfectly well and they show up on CL for $200-$400 or so. Easy to install, you can have a short square plenum fabricated to fit and add a couple of vents to direct the airflow as needed. A shop your size would do fine with maybe 75k btu or so.

If you're not comfortable doing the installation, it shouldn't cost mouth to have a contractor do it for you.

A nice benefit is that you could add a used A/C coil and compressor later to cool in the summer.

[Yonak Hawkins]

There are special considerations regarding using wood stoves. If you don't have experience with them, there is a definite learning curve to use them efficiently, safely and comfortably. I have been using wood stoves in my home and in my shop for ten years and every season I learn something new from various combinations of factors. In my shop (1500 sq.ft.), it normally takes 20 minutes to get the temperature to a comfortable level after starting a fire.

Regular maintenance is also required. Creosote, both in the chimney and from leakage, are ongoing concerns. On the other hand, the cost of fuel is right.

[Roy Harding]

There are special considerations regarding using wood stoves. If you don't have experience with them, there is a definite learning curve to use them efficiently, safely and comfortably. I have been using wood stoves in my home and in my shop for ten years and every season I learn something new from various combinations of factors. In my shop (1500 sq.ft.), it normally takes 20 minutes to get the temperature to a comfortable level after starting a fire.

Regular maintenance is also required. Creosote, both in the chimney and from leakage, are ongoing concerns. On the other hand, the cost of fuel is right.

I couldn't agree more. We've been heating our home with wood for the past nine years (we still have the forced air NG furnace that was there when we bought the place, but it is only used as backup - it's rare that it comes on). Wood heating can be tricky - I don't recall how many times we turned our house into a sauna in the first couple of years - it still happens occasionally, and as Yonak says - every year I learn something new.

I'd echo what he said about the maintenance requirement (it isn't much - in my case I have a straight pipe - no elbows, so I'm able to clean the chimney myself in half an hour or so), I clean the chimney every summer - but it's not an onerous task.

I heat with infrared and a small electric furnace in the shop (25' X 50' w/ 10' ceiling) - and it's fine, but I'm leaning toward wood heat in here as well. I have a wood stove which was in the house when we bought it (sitting in the basement, not in use), and since I've created a separate finishing room, I think I'll probably install it properly next summer. It's a great way to get rid of mistakes and cutoffs - but you will need backup of some type, as you outlined in your post.

[Tom Clark FL]

Hi Steve,

Born and raised in Dayton/Beavercreek long ago. Now live at high altitude in New Mexico. Lots of friends use pellet stoves out here. Being lazy I think they are a pain. Always shoveling ashes and carrying/storing bags of pellets. No natural gas where I live, so my 36x36x12 shop has propane. Well insulated so it never goes below 45˚, and when I go out in the morning it heats up to the 60s in 10 minutes. I can live with that… The tiny heater is hung from the ceiling and doesn't take up precious floor space. Had a heating contractor install it. Name says Hot Dawg (by Modine). Dumb name but it sure works great. Something else to consider. Wood stoves take a lot of space and need lots of clearance around them…

However, don't forget air-conditioning. Hot and humid is even worse than a cold shop. That wood stove isn't going to help in that department.

[Yonak Hawkins]

1.jpg

Nice shop Tom. ..Very neat and organized. I'm ashamed.

[roger wiegand]

For gas I think a unit with a sealed combustion chamber (drawing combustion air from outside) is prudent, as well as generally being more efficient. I'd rather not be pulling dust and solvent fumes into a flame or be concerned about backdrafting. I have the 75K btu Hot Dawg with sealed combustion, works great to heat my 34 x 36 ex barn in Massachusetts. Lots of insulation is a very good investment.

[Chris Friesen]

For gas I think a unit with a sealed combustion chamber (drawing combustion air from outside) is prudent, as well as generally being more efficient. I'd rather not be pulling dust and solvent fumes into a flame or be concerned about backdrafting. I have the 75K btu Hot Dawg with sealed combustion, works great to heat my 34 x 36 ex barn in Massachusetts. Lots of insulation is a very good investment.

From everything I've read, in order to present any danger the concentration of contaminants in the air would have to be so high that you'd need to be wearing SCUBA gear or equivalent. In other words, it's not likely to be a problem in a home shop. Also, I wasn't worried about make-up air, the power vent on my unit has no problem drawing air through the flexible seal under the garage door.

Given that, I didn't think the added cost of the sealed combustion unit was worth it. (When I was shopping it was almost double the cost for the heater itself.)

[roger wiegand]

Even in a shop with decent dust collection when I shared the basement with the household furnace it accumulated quite a bit of dust and dirt, to the point of drawing cautionary comment from the repair guy. It probably wasn't actually dangerous in the sense of about to burst into flames, but there was a lot of it and it seemed prudent to keep it out given the opportunity for a do-over when we moved. In a cold climate going from an 80% efficient furnace to a 95% efficient one can repay in a reasonable period; all of the high efficiency furnaces use sealed combustion, as far as I know. (The sealed hot dawg gets only modestly higher efficiency, so that's not an argument in its favor). The barn got spray foam insulation and new windows so is now quite tight (for a 110 year old barn), so I decided, again out of prudence rather than proven need, to supply the MUA from outside.

[Randy Henry]

I use a Bryan outdoor wood furnace, which is forced air. It sits about 3 feet from the back of my shop, with a supply duct, and a return duct. Works great for my situation. I go out in the morning to break the dogs, and while they are doing their thing in the field, I start a fire. While I am changing their water, etc., the fire is coming up to temperature. By the time I get done playing with the dogs, then eating breakfast, the shop will be at 60 degrees. I keep my supply of firewood just in front of the stove door, so it's very convenient, no mess or open flame in the shop. Cleaning the ashes is simple. There is a tray at the bottom of the stove, just pull it out, and dump it in the grass out in the field (when they are cool). My shop is insulated very well, and usually, the fire I start in the morning will last me all day, rarely having to add any more wood throughout the day.