Just moved from Florida to Colorado and the detached garage (built late 90's) has a wood stove. I'll be doing car-related things here all winter.
Having a wood stove is a dumb idea and I should take this thing out, right?
Related question-what TF should I replace it with? Garage is roughly 29x29 and appears well built and insulated. 4" cement floors and 8 foot ceilings.
In reply to CrustyRedXpress :
Aside from needing to keep a supply of dry wood somewhere and constant feeding, what's wrong with a wood stove?
Personally I'd probably go mini pellet stove, but then that requires keeping pellets on hand, and they're a little more picky than wood on storage.
Could go electric heater or mini split. It'll spin your electric meter, but nothing to bother with keeping dry and taking up space. That's probably your best option for keeping things as hands off and maintenance free as possible.
I don't think that a wood stove is any more of an ignition hazard than a compressor switch kicking on, a piezo ignitor on a gas furnace, or the brushes in the fan of an electric heater. If you have enough concentration of fuel vapor that it's combustible, you're likely already dead from breathing it, so the fire just adds a nice challenge to the coroner's investigation. Many folks just put their shop wood stove on an elevated platform. Some kind of downward airflow (box fan, squirrel cage fan, etc) will help the fact that the ceiling will be 150 degrees while the floor stays 40.
The bad part is the need to get that thing going well in advance of when you want to work out there. Once it is going I bet it will keep the garage toasty.
I have an open flame wall mounted gas heater in my garage, and the only issues with the open flame are when you have any kind of gas vapors in the air they do burn and make it so that you shouldn't be out there and give an unpleasant smell as warning. I have to turn it on an hour or so before I go in the garage when it is quite cold out, but can also leave it on thermostatic control. I only have it as someone gave it to me.
If I were doing it over I would put in a mini split. No open flame, mounted up high out of the way, controllable remotely, and a/c for the summer.
I had one for years. The problem is that you can't preheat the shop. You have to go out there and spend some time to get the stove going and then come back in the house until it warms up, or else you go out there to a cold shop and work while the shop slowly warms up. If you spend a full day there it's fine but if you only go out for a couple of hours in the evening like I did you don't really get the benefit of the heat. I have a big chicken barn propane furnace now. T shirt warm in ten minutes.
I loved having a wood stove in my shop when I was in the North.
Ineffective in the short term but I really like them.
I put one in mine, on the weekends I'll go out and get it started a few hours before I plan to work and it's been nice. It motivates me to stay out there longer since I had to work to get the heat in the garage.
Doing it again I would just do the extra work to run a gas line out for a furnace but if it's already there might as well use it. It will narrow down the insurance companies willing to write you a policy.
I had one.
Shop insurance was 30% more with solid fuel heat.
Took it out and replaced with oil.
Now I have an excuse to build a sauna.
If you decide to keep the wood burner, here is what a friend did in his garage. He stacked brake rotors on top of it which absorbed heat and acted as a big "heat sink". When I first saw it, I laughed 5until I leaned against it and quickly found out just how much they heated up. DAMN! He had 4 stacks, each 3' tall which were secured with a piece of tubing welded to the stove. The rotors slip over the pipe and keep the stack from ever falling.
My friend has one in his shop, probably 30'x40'. He also has an oil furnace. That's set to ~50 degrees. That stops the shop from getting too cold when he isn't there and he burns wood all day. I think as a stand alone it wouldn't be great but it sure saves him a lot of oil.
I had one in my first Colorado garage - I built my Locost in that shop in a fairly short period of time. It worked great - came up to temp surprisingly quickly and really pumped out the BTUs. The garage was insulated well enough that it never got all that cold by Canadian standards, so I'd start off in a sweatshirt and end up in shirt sleeves.
I have gas infrared in my current shop, set to 60-something. It's somehow not as satisfying.
I keep the shop warm all winter with a wood heater. It's nice. We have a ready source of wood from fallen trees, lightning, etc. When it's up and running there is very little visible smoke.
"output of 110,000 BTU/h. EPA certified at 1.32 g/h, this non-catalytic appliance represents an eco-responsible heating source."
Just clean the chimney. A friends lost a lot of coool cars due to a fire in a barrel stove in his shop.
Yep. And use 2 45's rather than a 90 if you have to turn the flue. I found it interesting that my heater's instructions recommended an insulated flue all the way out the top. Makes sense. It's to retain the heat energy for draw.
I have not used one in a shop, but I have one in the basement so I can share what I have learned.
First, be sure to size it properly. I bought mine on a whim, it was on clearance for 80% off so I grabbed it without researching. It is capable of heating about a million square feet, but sits in a 20 x 10 room. OK, I am exaggerating, but in the winter we in our shorts if that sucker is blazing.
Second, make sure you have some kind of air control. Mine just has open vents and no way to adjust the air coming into the fire. I think that with vents you can adjust, you can adjust how quickly your wood burns.
Third, buy a flue fan. It used to take a long time to get a fire going, and we often filled the house with smoke. With the fan, we simply turn it on and it pushes air up the flue. When you light the fire, it pulls all the smoke out and fans the fire, super quick and easy. After the fire is going, turn it off. I would never have a wood stove without one.
Finally, can you get wood? In my area, Craigslist is full of sellers so I never worry. Not sure if that is the same everywhere.
Love having a wood stove in my shop. Gas cans and the like are stored in a separate shed outside, so no worry about errant vapors.
It'll take a little bit to get warm in there, but it'll be so nice once up to temp.
Just make sure your clearance to combustibles is correct (look it up online), run a brush through the flue once a year, and burn seasoned wood (and burn it hot for a bit every time you use it). #1 cause of chimney fires is unseasoned wood being used repeatedly with too cold of a fire.
In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :
Yup, if the flue doesn't stay hot it won't draw.
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