Shop Heat

[OldMachinist]

I have a 2500 square foot fully insulated shop divided into two rooms with a 12' wide by 10' high roll up insulated door between them. The front room has my machine shop equipment and computer. The larger room has a 15' wide by 12' high door to drive vehicles and equipment in to work on. I heat with a 112,000 BTU add-on wood furnace that has two blowers and outlet ducts one going to each room. It sits in a separate insulated room under a overhang. I built special log rack pallets that I pick up with the Bobcat and move into the addition as needed. This allows me to bring wood to the furnace without opening the main shop door and keeps all the ash and dust out. I only have to load the furnace once or twice a day depending on outside temp and if I'm heating both rooms. I only have running water in the front room and have a small electric back-up heater in there just in case I'm gone and can't feed the furnace. In the summer I run a air conditioner mounted thru a wall in the front room where I spend a lot of my time but it will cool the whole shop if needed.

 

[coreya3212]

I will amend my earlier statement a bit. I think that wood heat would be the nicest. It always seems toastier. my 2400 sq ft shop is 16 foot hi by the by. Case anyone is looking to calculate btus off volume for there own needs. Door is 12 wide 14 hi. I used R22 batts in the walls. Ceiling is R40 blown in and sheeted with a 3/8 inch radiant reflective material/foam that give me R55 in theory. Anyone has questions about building there own shop, by themselves on evenings and weekends, let me know. Thats a area I may be of use....since my bobcat mechanic skills are still fairly juvenile....

 

[Tazza]

I will amend my earlier statement a bit. I think that wood heat would be the nicest. It always seems toastier. my 2400 sq ft shop is 16 foot hi by the by. Case anyone is looking to calculate btus off volume for there own needs. Door is 12 wide 14 hi. I used R22 batts in the walls. Ceiling is R40 blown in and sheeted with a 3/8 inch radiant reflective material/foam that give me R55 in theory. Anyone has questions about building there own shop, by themselves on evenings and weekends, let me know. Thats a area I may be of use....since my bobcat mechanic skills are still fairly juvenile....

This is why i'm glad our winters never get really cold. Its rare to get below 0c, and when it does its for a few hours at most. My hands don't function well when it gets cool, i can't imagine how i'd be working when its sub 0c!!! I'll think of you poor people in winter while i'm sipping on some nice warm chicken soup
Ken told me how much wood he used to heat his house and shop last winter, it was an insane amount, but it does get rather cold up there!

 

[skidsteer.ca]

This is why i'm glad our winters never get really cold. Its rare to get below 0c, and when it does its for a few hours at most. My hands don't function well when it gets cool, i can't imagine how i'd be working when its sub 0c!!! I'll think of you poor people in winter while i'm sipping on some nice warm chicken soup
Ken told me how much wood he used to heat his house and shop last winter, it was an insane amount, but it does get rather cold up there!

I carry my wood into the shop and leave it in my snow bucket. I also use the same bucket to bring wood to the house, unfortunately I can't drive into the basement with it. 2 days of heat in the shop will keep it from freezing the water for the week. Although when around it usually gets a stove full a day to keep it 60 to 65 f
Future plans call for adding a boiler to the shop stove to heat the floor of the shop and the floor in the house addition (about 800 of 2200 sq feet) and the remainder of the house would be forced air also from the boiler.
I have been thinking of saddling a boiler tank over the barrel stove, (just sittng on top as opposed to welded to) how do you think the heat ransfer would be?
I handled about 12 cords of semi dry ash this season for both buildings. ( it was a fairly long cold winter, still getting some frost at night.)
Is anyone using a new "gasification" wood boiler?
I keep telling Tazza its only as cold as you dress for, but when its hot you can't take more off!
Ken

 

[Tazza]

I carry my wood into the shop and leave it in my snow bucket. I also use the same bucket to bring wood to the house, unfortunately I can't drive into the basement with it. 2 days of heat in the shop will keep it from freezing the water for the week. Although when around it usually gets a stove full a day to keep it 60 to 65 f
Future plans call for adding a boiler to the shop stove to heat the floor of the shop and the floor in the house addition (about 800 of 2200 sq feet) and the remainder of the house would be forced air also from the boiler.
I have been thinking of saddling a boiler tank over the barrel stove, (just sittng on top as opposed to welded to) how do you think the heat ransfer would be?
I handled about 12 cords of semi dry ash this season for both buildings. ( it was a fairly long cold winter, still getting some frost at night.)
Is anyone using a new "gasification" wood boiler?
I keep telling Tazza its only as cold as you dress for, but when its hot you can't take more off!
Ken

Ken, i have to agree. I rather the cold to the heat but to an extent! I need to build up "insulation" and i may handle the cold better, i just hate the frozen fingers in the middle of winter. I just find the cold makes my fingers really not like moving, so trying to hold a spanner can be fun, then you slip and hit something, a few words are uttered!
That or i'm just a big wuss hehe. And i just took up ice skating... Oddly enough, its rather cool in there

 

[Skiddy]

Ken, i have to agree. I rather the cold to the heat but to an extent! I need to build up "insulation" and i may handle the cold better, i just hate the frozen fingers in the middle of winter. I just find the cold makes my fingers really not like moving, so trying to hold a spanner can be fun, then you slip and hit something, a few words are uttered!
That or i'm just a big wuss hehe. And i just took up ice skating... Oddly enough, its rather cool in there

My home shop is 26x34 with 8' walls I heat it with a 40,000 btu reznor hanging heater. I usually burn about 400 gallons of propane per season. I have 3.5" insulation throughout. I have a question for all..... I am adding a 24 x 36 addition to this shop this summer and I want to install under floor heat via pex and a boiler. I get a super discount on my elec heat and am thinking about using an elec boiler rather than propane do any of you have any experience with under floor heat?

 

[coreya3212]

My home shop is 26x34 with 8' walls I heat it with a 40,000 btu reznor hanging heater. I usually burn about 400 gallons of propane per season. I have 3.5" insulation throughout. I have a question for all..... I am adding a 24 x 36 addition to this shop this summer and I want to install under floor heat via pex and a boiler. I get a super discount on my elec heat and am thinking about using an elec boiler rather than propane do any of you have any experience with under floor heat?

I have a buddy building a cabin. He has the floor in with the pex run for his in floor heat and is currently investigating if electric vs natural gas is better. It has always been my understanding that hi efficient gas is always cheaper than hi efficient electricity. Propane though may be a different thing altogether. Especially if you need a bigger tank to hold enough for between fills I guess. I will post what he researches and decides....I am sure part of the world will play into all this as well.

 

[Land-Tech]

Ken, i have to agree. I rather the cold to the heat but to an extent! I need to build up "insulation" and i may handle the cold better, i just hate the frozen fingers in the middle of winter. I just find the cold makes my fingers really not like moving, so trying to hold a spanner can be fun, then you slip and hit something, a few words are uttered!
That or i'm just a big wuss hehe. And i just took up ice skating... Oddly enough, its rather cool in there

Tazza, you are much better being in a warm place.I'm jealous of those who can work outside year round. Nothing I have now can be considered to be a real shop, Maybe by this time next year, it will be. Scott

 

[coreya3212]

Tazza, you are much better being in a warm place.I'm jealous of those who can work outside year round. Nothing I have now can be considered to be a real shop, Maybe by this time next year, it will be. Scott

LT is right. The cold weather sucks.

 

[Tazza]

LT is right. The cold weather sucks.

Land-Tech - thats true! but mid winter its not fun being outside, but there is no snow to cause troubles either. I always thought living where it snowed would be fun, but i'm sure that becomes old FAST.
Where i do most of my work is an open area with a roof, like a car port. There is no way it holds any heat in but its one of those things you just manage with by throwing on more layers and staying inside where its warm for longer!

 

[OldMachinist]

Land-Tech - thats true! but mid winter its not fun being outside, but there is no snow to cause troubles either. I always thought living where it snowed would be fun, but i'm sure that becomes old FAST.
Where i do most of my work is an open area with a roof, like a car port. There is no way it holds any heat in but its one of those things you just manage with by throwing on more layers and staying inside where its warm for longer!

Just a update on my heating season thats about over. My furnace is designed to burn coal also so this year I bought 2,700lbs of the local soft coal at $50 per ton. I found that its takes about 100 lbs a day to keep the shop at a toasty 68F when its around freezing outside. I still burn wood on the days its above 50F as the coal fire will make it too warm on these days. I used 3-4 fewer cords of wood this year using the the $70 of coal. I will say the if the prevailing winds didn't blow away from the house I wouldn't have attempted to burn coal. The winds blow towards a open CRP field and the nearest neighbor is a mile or so away or I might have had some complaints about the smelly smoke. I really liked only having to carry a few 5 gallon buckets of coal in a day versus all the wood I would have normally burned.