shop heat

[Old Red]

20' x 30' metal shop building, 2" spray foam on walls and ceiling, 8' insulated garage door, insulated steel entry door, un-insulated concrete slab. 36K BTU Mr. Cool mini split keeps it comfortable summer and winter. Only change - needs more spray foam.

It is really the best way to go in my opinion....I do miss not having some logs to burn or look at while burning, but it is what it is I reckon.

Dumb question...how would you insulate your concrete slab?

 

[Deere Dude]

I bought a house and the insurance guy came out one day when we weren't around (busy moving) and he complained there was a woodburner because he could see the smoke stack in the garage. He said there was a $50 surcharge because of that. I agreed.

Then I figured I might as well throw a woodburner in the house as long as I got dinged anyway, but I had to get a contractor to sign off on the plans and check the work when done.

Luckily I was a crack fireplace installer and had a new contractor friend.

 

[DJ54]

Shop is 30' X 32' X12'. Insulated OH door, and walk in door. 1-1/2" Styrofoam between purlins, and between trusses. Then covered it with white cover sheet metal barn siding. I have 2 sources of heat. #1, is a Reznor 110.000 btu. waste oil furnace, I leave on all through the winter, set at 55º. #2, Is a 1939, Florence Hot Blast wood/coal stove I fire up when I'm working out there, to conserve oil. I had the oil furnace in the other shop, at the other place, and brought it with me. The shop there was 30' X 36' X 12', and I would go through approx. 400 gallons of oil an average winter. Myself, friends and neighbors pretty well keep me in oil. I saw an ad on Craigslist 2 years ago for free coal. It's industrial steam coal, 2" down to bug dust. I ended up getting around 12-14 tons, and barely put a dent in the pile, but, that's all the room I had at the time to store it. I get a good wood fire going, then keep adding, maybe a #2 flat shovel of coal every 1/2 hour or so, then add more, and a bit of wood. It's pretty well banked up when I'm ready to quit, so I set the damper just so it's cracked, enough to keep it going. It will settle down to where the flue temp is around 300º. Worked out there until about 7:00 p.m. last evening, when I shut it down. Didn't get back out there until around 1:30 today, and still had a good bit of hot coals left, to start it back up with a little fine kindling, after shaking it down. A few bigger pieces of wood, then went to coal. Kept it pretty well simmered down, and as still 70º in there.

Last week when we had sub zero temps at night, then barely into double digits, the old stove kept it at 68º, once I warmed it up to 70º, with the oil furnace. It took the oil furnace 6 minutes to take the temp. from 51º, to 73º, until I got the stove going good, and kept it fired it pretty decent all day. At most, I used 1-1/2, 5 gallon buckets of coal, and a several big arm loads of wood. There is some maintenance to the furnace once a year, and I have to clean the ashes out of the stove, and stock wood & coal, but, I like the idea of nearly free fuel, and a warm shop.

 

[JLwoodworks]

Wow, that is one tight shop there! I bet you can heat that thing with a candle.

Yessir quite comfortable. We have had Thanksgiving out there the last two years. I put together 5 tables to make a single 15 foot long table after I move everything out of the main shop. I have a nice bathroom out there as well so it functions as a pretty good party hall.

[/url]Thanksgiving in the shop by Jason, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[kthompson]

Old Red in my part of the country slabs are not insulated in any manner I know of and my sister's house in Ohio slab was not either. A friend of mine worked for electric company and I asked him this question before we built on slab and he shrugged his shoulders and said it seems it is not worried about. But a slab is a heat drain near walls on sunny shining on them in hot weather and on cold days.

As to insurance companies and wood burners a few yours back if fire place had to be built to code if metal stove or fire place UL listed. Might have been small charge but nothing serious.

How about for a shop those outside wood or corn burning units I think they would a closed water or steam system for a shop? I always saw them in ads in snow and for some reason I thought were popular in the midwest. Not sure ever knew anyone who had one.

For those using the electric resistant heaters, I sure would think propane would be less costly, know that use to be the most expensive type of heat few years back. That is why your clothes dryer is your second or third most costly user of electric in your house. Do realize there is cost to have propane tank and keeping tank filled can be a pain.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My daughter works for an independent insurance agency. The only way they will insure a house with ANY type of wood burning heat is if the furnace is completely removed from the house. Or some companies have a huge surcharge for wood heat.

RSKY

My insurance company has no problem with my wood burner at all, my agent came out to see that it was safe. He took a couple picts., said "good job" and left...

SR

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I not only insulated under the slab in my shop, I also put up a perimeter frost wall...

SR

 

[arrow]

It is really the best way to go in my opinion....I do miss not having some logs to burn or look at while burning, but it is what it is I reckon.

Dumb question...how would you insulate your concrete slab?

Not a dumb question. An existing slab would have to be retro fitted with some type of foam sheet such as Polyiso. You would have to "rebuild" the floor with something over the foam sheet.

 

[oosik]

My shop is a 16 x 24 uninsulated log cabin. I use a propane fired salamander heater. No wood working in the shop while the salamander is running. I'm always concerned about a dust explosion. I turn the heater up high - then off to do any woodworking. Otherwise, its a good heat source.

 

[oosik]

All this talk about wood/pellet stoves. It made no difference to my insurance company. As a matter of fact - in the 36 years I've been out here - they have never once been here.

 

[jdom84]

It is really the best way to go in my opinion....I do miss not having some logs to burn or look at while burning, but it is what it is I reckon.

Dumb question...how would you insulate your concrete slab?

Up here in the frozen north... You put down 2-4" of blueboard, then if you are smart you run miles of 1/2" pex (even if you dont plan to do a boiler at the time, o2 barrier pex is cheap) and then you pour your concrete on top of all that. I have in-floor radiant heat on both levels of my house and there is nothing like having toasty feet when walking around barefoot! But I don't think the people who built the place insulated the garage slab.. nor did they do the pex out there... So I hardly make it out there in the winter because its so **** cold... and the mice ate all the insulation out of the walls before I bought the place. I do have an older pacific wood stove that heats it up pretty good once its been going for a couple hours...

Not a dumb question. An existing slab would have to be retro fitted with some type of foam sheet such as Polyiso. You would have to "rebuild" the floor with something over the foam sheet.

They do make the over the floor foam board with the pex tracks in it for inside houses... I'm sure something like that would work for a shop. Its pricey stuff though

 

[aczlan]

My daughter works for an independent insurance agency. The only way they will insure a house with ANY type of wood burning heat is if the furnace is completely removed from the house. Or some companies have a huge surcharge for wood heat. It may be different in other areas of the country. Twenty to thirty years ago there a guy I worked with that had trouble getting payment after his house burned because the insurance company didn't know they had installed a wood burning stove.

Our insurance company (Liberty Mutual) has no problems with our indoor wood boiler, it is noted, but the agent said that it wasn't going to cost us more to have it on there.

Aaron Z

 

[timswi]

220k BTU Diesel/Kero torpedo for me--Probably the most cost inefficient method I'm sure..Does a nice job, but getting a furnace of some sort soon. 30x48 shop w/12' ceiling.

 

[arrow]

220k BTU Diesel/Kero torpedo for me--Probably the most cost inefficient method I'm sure..Does a nice job, but getting a furnace of some sort soon. 30x48 shop w/12' ceiling.

How long does a fill up last Tim with these? Been thinking of a smaller one of these (or propane) for my 500 sq ft garage. Putting heads, cam and intake on my R/T and want something to heat up the place or else it ain't happening till spring.

 

[timswi]

How long does a fill up last Tim with these? Been thinking of a smaller one of these (or propane) for my 500 sq ft garage. Putting heads, cam and intake on my R/T and want something to heat up the place or else it ain't happening till spring.

For 500 sqft..You could go with around 75-100K...My 220K lasts the better part of the day with 5 gallons of off-road diesel depending on temp. I keep the garage at around 60-65 degrees depending on what I'm doing. 1500ish square feet with an open ceiling (right now)...Your mileage may vary

Torpedos are a little loud but they sure warm up the shop quick. Been using one version or another for 25+years.

 

[pmsmechanic]

20 x 30 x 8 high shop. R20 fiberglass in the walls and ceiling with cellulose blown overtop of the fiberglass in the ceiling. It was a real bear to keep warm until I dug 2 feet down all the way around the slab and installed 2" of R10 foam insulation. That helps keep the floor a lot warmer. This past summer I put a layer of tar paper and Tyvek under some new siding and that really helps to keep the breezes off of the floor. I heat with an old floor model natural gas space heater. 28000 BTU. It barely does the job of keeping the shop at 60F on a cold windy day so next summer I plan on replacing the heater with a gas fired overhead furnace. That will give me a better heat supply and more floor space. I might even blow some heat into my attached lean to.

 

[ultrarunner]

In Washington the pole barn came with the double 55 gallon drum wood burner... it worked well but the drums keep rusting out... it was crumbling the last time I saw it.

One of my friends is a mechanic... has a smaller bench area with a gas fired infrared overhead heater... said it keeps his bench/tools warm...

 

[TnAndy]

Wood stove, it does a good job...

SR

Same here. 120,000 BTU wood furnace. Shop is 35x75 with R-19 walls/ceiling. Have a 1,000w basebd electric in the bathroom, normally set on lowest setting just so water doesn't freeze in there when not using shop.

 

[LD1]

Same here. 120,000 BTU wood furnace. Shop is 35x75 with R-19 walls/ceiling. Have a 1,000w basebd electric in the bathroom, normally set on lowest setting just so water doesn't freeze in there when not using shop.

How high are your ceilings?

Same Btu furnace I use, similar sq ft at 40x60, but it's like heating a 2 story house .

I have no ductwork, just a scoop on top to blow the air out across the shop.

No issues even when it was 0 out keeping the shop a nice 70f

 

[TnAndy]

How high are your ceilings?

Same Btu furnace I use, similar sq ft at 40x60, but it's like heating a 2 story house .

I have no ductwork, just a scoop on top to blow the air out across the shop.

No issues even when it was 0 out keeping the shop a nice 70f

Ceiling is right at 14' in the center (24' wide), then slopes at a 45 down to 8' walls.
No ductwork either....just blows out the top thru couple 90's to flow out across the shop.