Super insulated...er...barn. Heating options

[5030tinkerer]

I am going to be building a 40x60x16 barn/shop with a gambrel roof providing top level usable space of another 1200 sqft. Walls are going to be polyurethane SIPS, maybe from thermocore.com and maybe from Earthcore SIPs. Regardless, walls and roof are going to be a true R40. So...way tight.

With all the equipment I've gathered over the years, I am thinking of a waste oil heater as a heat source, but electricity is way cheap for me at $0.031/kwh in the winter. I've been looking at Clean Burn - Waste Oil Heater, Waste Oil Furnace, & Used Oil Recycling.

Does anyone have any experience with these guys or with waste oil furnaces in general? Any comparisons to this as a heat source vs a mini split system vs using a geothermal system from a 1.5 acre pond I am building?

Thanks!

 

[user.69169]

ONE question, how many gallons of USED (NOT waste) oil you already got, and how many gallons a month can you get every month from now on? You ain't got the oil ain't any point to buying the burner.

Do some thinking on how you going to seal the floor and frost fencing the foundation where you located or you turn the barn into a steambath.

 

[George2615]

Clean Burn is one of the popular brands. But check the needs of the burner you get. Some waste oil burners do not have an on board air compressor. That would require it to be connected to your shop compressor. Make sure you look at all the requirements needed. I have also been looking for a waste oil burner for my garage. I don't want to build one and I really don't want to pay new price. Used ones in my area are hard to find.

 

[Gunny]

Mother Earth News used to have plans to build your own oil burner, but I just checked them out and now you have to pay to download the instruction book.
As best as I can remember, it used commonly available parts and anything that needed to be fabricated could be done with most common tools, mostly a welder.
You could check the site out, then decide if it would be worth $22.95 to download the book.

 

[LD1]

With that insulation, and cheap electric costs, for me it would be a no brainer, I'd be putting in a 5 ton heat pump.

Those rates are 1/6th of what I have. I am paying ~$0.12/kwh

.03/kwh is some seriously cheap BTU's.

 

[Gary Fowler]

At those electric rates, you may want to consider putting in a large hot water heater and some radiant heat tubing in you floor slab. I would think that 8" of high density foam insulation under the slab should be sufficient insulation. The heat pump might not be too efficient at temps much below 20 F so additional supplemental heat is going to be needed. Lots of folks up in the frozen north use the radiant heating in the slab with good results.

 

[MossRoad]

I'd heat it with radiant heat. You can heat fluid with anything; gas, oil, electric, solar, geothermal, etc....
With the high insulation factor you are giving and the cheap electric rates you have, two electric water heaters could be used to heat the entire place.

 

[Loadstar]

I vote for the slab heat. Waste oil heating can be picky. They don't like big mixes of different oil that people like to feed them. Not a lot of people can/should work on them either.

 

[Egbert]

Haven't heated my new 30x50 barn just yet but I did put heat in my 24x48 garage. I found a used mobile home electric central heat unit. Cost me a couple hundred bucks and can turn the garage into an oven in about 3 minutes. The thing takes up about 12x24 inches on the floor and sits in the corner out of the way - no venting, no ducts.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Radiant heat in your floor with at least solar. Back it up with either some sort of furnace (wood boilers are the most cost effective but the most labor intensive).

But the radiant heat is the key. Its a big space where heat rises, having it on your floor will be a big help.