shop takes forever to warm up

[benbru23]

Ok I am running an Atlanta homesteader in my shop. It has stove pipe straight out the back through the wall and ran up past the roof line. Has good draft fire burns good after I finally get one started. I'm confused on why it takes atleast 4 hours to go from 40 degrees to 60 degrees. Building was built in 2009 and is fully spray foam insulated with a drop insulated ceiling. Is this a normal warm up time what can I do to heat it up faster? What can I do to get a fire started up faster wood is split and we'll dried and seasoned.

 

[benbru23]

And yes I am running a damper on the stove pipe about 12 inches off the stove

 

[Grisu]

A stove thermometer will help to determine whether you get the stove really hot enough. You may also leave the air open more which will pull cold air in from the outside. That said, how big is the building? 20 F difference is quite a heating load. It takes time to heat up all the walls, furniture/equipment etc. What kind of floor do you have? Any insulation there?

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Yes how big of an area are you trying to heat, how tall are the ceilings, how hot are you getting the stove......

 

[Rossco]

My shop isn't the easiest to heat when its real cold.

Again it was built in 2009 and is insulated to the hilt.

Thing is the air leaks. I have two doors, man door and it originally had a doggy flap in the wall.

Find the leaks and allow the air inside to be warmed instead of being replaced with cold.

 

[Corey]

Things like high ceilings, concrete floor, shop contents, etc can all have a drastic effect on how much 'heat' is required to warm the space. A house generally has relatively low thermal mass...wood or carpet floors, wood/foam furnishings, 8-10' ceilings, etc. A shop of equivalent size can have much higher thermal mass due to things like 10-16' ceilings, exposed concrete floors, heavy metal contents (ie cars, machinery, etc).

If you don't already have one, a fan blowing air on your stove can turn a lot of the radiant heat (which goes right 'into' things like exposed concrete, metal, etc) into more convective heat which will warm the air first.

 

[begreen]

It takes a lot of heat to warm up the mass of the walls,ceiliing, equipment, shelving, cabinets and especially the floor. A small wood furnace might be a better heater. But first check for leaks to be sure the hot air is not escaping the shop envelope.

FWIW I found my shop area hard to heat until I insulated the floor. That made a world of difference. Cold concrete is a great heat sink. My shop area is small, just 15 x 12 so the cost was reasonable and I had the tiles down in an afternoon. Now I heat it with just a simple electric heater.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stalwart...in-Foam-Garage-Floor-4-Pack-75-6402/205062641

 

[sportbikerider78]

Do the math and estimate how many btu's your stove is putting down and your normal temp delta.
http://www.calculator.net/btu-calculator.html

 

[coaly]

Are you saying the stove pipe goes up, outside single wall without a chimney?

 

[begreen]

A couple pictures of inside and out would save some questions here.

 

[lectraplayer]

Best I can tell, he has about 6 foot horizontal, and then a good run up outside. Is this right?

 

[peakbagger]

I have an old fan forced woodstove called a Kaukauna Freedom furnace in my garage. Its a very basic metal box stove with cast iron bottom grates surrounded by second sheet metal box with a fan on the back of the box and a snap disk. It warms up my poorly insulated garage very quickly as the fan really moves the heat around. I have seen people put a metal hood over a regular stove and install a duct with a fan to move the heat to the far end of shop. That's seems to really speed up heating the shop.