Garage heat, What do you have?

Rossco said:

Yeah heating an area ain't the problem, its keeping it in. Or atleast leaking less than the appliance can produce.

I imagine the paints gonna come off the walls when this PE is glowing orange and steady.

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Hopefully it doesn't actually glow!

Rossco said:

Yeah fingers crossed. The Only orange glow I wanna see is through the glass (Super clean glass)

Gonna miss that with the black, dead and dirty BK.

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My BK glass is nice and clean!

Rossco said:

Yeah fingers crossed. The Only orange glow I wanna see is through the glass (Super clean glass)

Gonna miss that with the black, dead and dirty BK.

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I have the same setup, a nice noncat in the shop and a nice cat in the house. It's a good deal, you get your fire watching, trash burning, fire starting thrills in the shop and the house stays boringly warm with cat supplied 24 burns.

Oil-fired furnace in the bahn, which is 6" stud wall construction and fully insulated. My shop (which requires "maintenance heat" for my commercial sewing machines) is upstairs, 2 garage bays below. We purposely didn't insulate the duct work and the bays have never fallen below 32F on the coldest of nights. The programmable thermostat in my shop is set to 45F, brings my shop up to 60F at 5:30AM and reverts to 45F by 7AM.

I light the fire in my Woodstock Classic at 5:30-6AM and between good insulation, seasoned firewood, a rising sun, and a great stove the furnace doesn't kick on until well after I've left the shop in the afternoon (sometimes it never kicks on at all). I will chuck a few splits into the firebox during the day, but I definitely don't "load" the stove unless it's really cold and really windy (NW is the worst!), brutally cold or the forecast is for a heavy storm that may result in power outtages. My business has yet to pay for a re-fill of the oil tank (knocks on her head for luck).

To meet code with our barn if we wanted to install a wood stove on the slab, we'd have had make sure the garage bays were 1 1/2-2" below the level of the stove and we'd have had to install a firewall between the stove area and the bays, Uninsulated duct work was easier! And a few baffles gets the job done if we want more warmth "down there".

I get a lot of satisfaction out of my garage/shop wood stove. It's just an old Lopi smoke dragon, but it cranks out the heat and makes it very pleasant to work in there when it's cold outside. The last two winters I've managed to keep the garage above freezing all winter long, by intermittently using the wood stove to seriously warm the place up, and as long as it's not too cold outside it takes a few days or more for it to drop down to freezing again.

About the code, garage stoves are allowed, but they are suppose to be 18" above the floor. My WETT inspector said that 18" is to any part of the stove, including the bottom of the legs. So, going by your picture he would not have passed you installation.

I have a similar set up, 28x36 two story, Fully insulated first floor walls -ceiling, 12x28 motorcycle work area 10x8' overhead door on this side, No Fuel-gasoline in bikes ever!!. With separating wall with a large door wall to 24x28 to wood working shop, With wood stove in wood shop selkirk class A through roof, with small N/G hotdawg heater fully vented though wall as back-up, Both are 20" above floor. 2 through the wall fans 1-in, 1-out, provide heat to the cycle work area when working in there. I use a DustGorilla cyclone dust collector up in the attic with 6"drop down suction line I can hook to the planer-sander-router-lathe as needed, The return air with filter drops back down to help return the warm air, So no negative air pressure with the stove, And makes removal easy to take out and clean. Makes a sweet spot to work, I just wish I had put a toilet in there for the little lady as she is the lathe wood turner, Work still in progress no TV or computer or good seating in there yet, Computer is a must for specs and plans. Jay

Rossco said:

Wodda ya use? And what kinda results?

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2 car attached garage: direct vent propane
3 car detached: dual mini splits
2 car detached at other property: resistive electric

All do their job. The propane is only run occasionally. The resistive was just set to 45-55F all the time, when I was using it as a shop. The mini splits get set to auto cycle heating/cooling, 55/85F.

Not sure I'd want to waste shop space on a wood stove, or deal with running out there to load and set it up for a long burn every day. I like to keep my shop in the 45F - 55F range all winter, as I leave paints and chemicals out there.

Joful said:

Not sure I'd want to waste shop space on a wood stove,

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You just need a bigger shop.

Rossco said:

Pop some pics up guys

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Here's mine though it had just been installed and I've since finished the walls with OSB. The ceiling will be steel like the outside of a barn except gloss white. Not sure how to finish the cement board behind the stove yet. I'll likely put some sort of tile or stone there. Oh and the stacked CMU block pedestal is 18" tall. I wouldn't mind replacing it with some sort of steel table for a more stable looking pedestal and for some storage.

US code is 18" to first spark, glow, or flame. In other words, the bottom of the firebox and not the bottom of the stove feet.

Rossco said:

Lumber jack : Best part of sitting in the garage is the stove. Gives me something to do out there Ha Ha.
If they whine I will pull the pedestal and instal more bricks (They line my entire garden)

Pop some pics up guys

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That is basically how mine is sitting, no stove pedestal, but on a concrete pedestal I made.
Mine is an old insert stove so it never had a pedestal in the first place.

I do keep gas cans and our motorcycles in the garage, but keep them stored and sealed well away from the stove. The idea of the 18" code is to help eliminate the chance of heavy gas fumes from seeping over and into the stove. Personally I'm very conscious of flammable fumes, not just wood stoves, but any tiny spark can ignite them. I had a friend who lost his life in his garage where he use to work on cars. He was going away for the weekend and just locked up the main doors he always had open. Before he exited through the side door that was still locked from the inside he somehow dropped a trouble light and the spark ignited the fumes from his parts washer solvent tank, and like most any of us would do he stuck around trying to put it out, and was overcome by the fumes, but not before calling for his wife to get the garden hose. Unfortunately she was unable to get in because all the doors were locked and he stopped responding to her calls to open the door. The son happened to arrived while this was going on and he tried to smash the door in, and the fire departed arrived soon after that, but by the time they finally broke in they found him in the back storage room on the ground, dead. The fire wasn't that bad, it was the fumes that killed him. Very sad, and it was very traumatic for his wife and son.
Moral of the story is it doesn't take a wood stove to ignite fumes, any little spark will do. Lots of fires start in basement when people have tiny gas leaks, or store or spill gas or leaky propane bottles in there and the fumes accumulate until something sets them off. Often it's the furnace pilot light, or electric igniter.

Rossco said:

Jay : Sound's like "Stars and there million dollar cars" rarther than a 'Run of the mill' garage

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LOL lots of work still in progress, I bought most of my tools and tooling used. When we had the down-turn 8 years ago, craigs list was loaded with cheap quality equipment . I retire fully, soon so I hope I can make a few bucks out their. Theirs money to be made in fine wood, I found a little nitch here in my area close by. It's called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosse_Pointe And their not afraid to spend some money. I actually have 3 lathe's out their. the older big one is set up with a duplicator and I turn porch and stair spindles for home restorations on that machine 3 at a time. I did 300 of the little one's that ran along the top of a 1800's home- Wrap around porch this spring. Paid off handsomely I might add!! In Detroit a company is salvaging real nice old wood from home's that are being demoed. There warehouse is loaded with old growth, 1800's to early 1900's mahogany, hickory, maple, chestnut, most still has the old sawmill saw lines on it, And it's priced right. It's a wood workers dream warehouse for sure. I just have to keep this as a hobby business that I Enjoy. The motorcycles are just my personal get away hobby that I should let go of, But just can't yet. My stove and heater are on a blocks mortared together filled with sand to hold some heat caped on top with 4" block, 18" is code here from the door, I went 20 for my Back less bending over. jay

Rossco said:

Still debating double wall pipe, I have the clearances but DWP is just nice.

Wodda ya use? And what kinda results?

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I initially bought double wall, but changed my mind and returned it for single wall and a substantial refund. Glad I did, I use a fan mounted up on a shelf behind the stove to blow heat from the behind over the top of the stove, that insert has a double wall and takes a while to heat up and start throwing off heat, but the single wall pipe heats up fast and initially that where most of the heat comes from to warm the garage up fast. Creosote build up in the chimney is a non issue, I run the brush down it once a year for the heck of it, but it has never needed it.
The worst thing about this old stove is the pathetic burn times. I'm luck to get 4 hours, even with it choked right down and burning dirty (not an EPA stove). But the good thing is I can have that garage toasty in less than an hour, and if I can keep a fire burning in there all day, the concrete heats up enough to keep it from freezing for days as the residual heat bleeds off. In three years now it has yet to drop below freezing in there.

Highbeam said:

You just need a bigger shop.

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Are you new here? As if I ever do anything small...