How large a space can you heat with a pellet stove?

[jamlam1]

Hello to all.I am looking for some advice and this seems to be the place to get it.I am wanting to get a pellet stove to heat my shop/garage.My area is 3000 sq.ft,but the ceilings are 17' high so it is really 2 floors worth of space,so like 6000 sq.ft..I see alot of the stoves say around 2000-2500 sq. feet.I do have a few things going for me though.I would just use the stove about once a week.Also the shop gets heat from my house(it is really one big building with half being shop and half being house,but the dimensions I gave were just for the shop).I have a ground souce heat pump and have some vents cut into the shop,which keeps it around 60 degrees.So the pellet stove would really only have to bring the temp up about 15 degrees,not totally heat it from scratch.Also any recommendations would be appreciated.I am looking at the breckwell big e.Since it is a shop looks and some noise is not really an issue.Thanks for your time.
J.Miles

 

[webbie]

Jam, it is all about the BTU's....NOTHING ELSE.

You can buy Pellet stoves and furnaces with enough BTU's to do the job that you are trying to do. But it might be good to get an exact handle on exactly how many BTU's that is!

Here is a suggestion - on a very cold day rent a space heater (LP or Kerosene) and a tank from a local rental place. Rent something with a fairly high output - like 120,000 BTU, etc.

Use it in the space and see how long out of each hour you have to use it to bring the space up to the desired temp. Then do the calculations.

For instance, if you have to use it 15 minutes out of each hour to keep the temp right, that would mean the space needs 30,000 BTU per hour OUTPUT. This would mean you probably want a Pellet stove that can max out at 50,000 to 60,000 BTU input.

Please do not use the manufacturers sq ft ratings for anything. Use the actual pounds of pellets per hour that the unit can consume, and figure approx 6,000 BTU output - in other words, if you need 60,000 BTU output, your stove must be able to burn 10 pounds per hour.

 

[petejung]

Would it make any sense to install a ceiling fan or two up in that 17' ceiling to push the hot air back down towards the floor?

 

[hearthtools]

The Enviro Maxx in 70K BTU
that is about the larges NON furnace pellet stove you can get
I think Daneson (glo boy)has a large one also.

It depends on heat loss and hight of walls also
I have people heating over 3k Sq feet houses with a pellet stove that is rated to heat 2k sq feet.

 

[jamlam1]

That is something I forgot to mention,I do have 3 industrial fans with a speed control on them so I can move the air around fairly well.

 

[jed12674]

can you change the rotation of the ceiling fans so they suck the air up and distribute it gently around and down the outside walls? that seems to work best IMO. How well are you insulated in the shop? If you have very little heat loss a 40,000 to 50,000 btu stove with those ceiling fans on reverse rotation may do the job of heating the whole shop.