Thinking about a stove for the workshop

[Wilbursan]

My shop (detached) will be used for both working on cars and some woodworking. It is fully insulated, including the garage doors. It doesn't get that cold here and I only need to bring it up to 60 degrees, give or take. I really don't want to run NG to the shop and I hate to use electric heat. I had been planning to just use kerosene or propane heaters as needed but was thinking about something a little more substantial. My original thought was to use something like a potbelly stove - put a small load in it and let it run hot until it burns out, maybe an hour or two. But then I saw the clearances required on one of those old stoves and I'm reconsidering - I don't want to donate that much floor space. I'm actually leaning toward a pellet stove. I'll have firewood already, but given how much I'll burn in the shop I don't think I'd need more than a few bags of pellets a year and it seems like it would be easier to shut it down when it's warm enough rather than having to wait for the wood to burn down. Plus the chimney is easier and cheaper. I'm sure some of you heat your shop - what do you use?

 

[bholler]

We use a pellet stove in ours it works very well we keep it heated minimally all the time to prevent condensation on cast tops and keep things from freezing. It is also ok with most insurance companies as long as you run outside air to it because it is sealed.

 

[Wilbursan]

How many bags of pellets do you run through per season?

 

[bholler]

About 2 tons to keep a 24 by 36 shop at 55 to 60 all winter

 

[Highbeam]

Woodstove in mine. Permitted and I had to use a new insurance company to cover it but it's all good now.

I love it. My shed is a bit bigger than most and I don't have a ceiling in yet but I do have slab and wall insulation up.

I can burn lumber scraps, cardboard from packaging, etc. It is silent and I wouldn't want it to run unattended anyways. A quick warmup is imporant and I don't think a pellet stove makes as much heat as a large 750 degree woodstove.

 

[Wilbursan]

Well that probably comes to 1/2 a ton for me. I can live with that.

 

[bholler]

That is true about the fast heat up but we keep ours heated all the time so it isn't an issue and it would be a real pain to heat all the time with a wood stove.

 

[Wilbursan]

I don't mind the blower noise in the shop, but I would have thought it would warm up pretty fast. The only one I've seen running was pumping out a ton of heat, but it was a big Quad IR. All I mainly want to do is keep the shop above freezing most of the time, then warm it up when I'm in there, mostly on weekends. How long would it take to warm up a 1200 sf shop from say 40 deg to 60?

 

[bholler]

That depends on the stove and the insulation. Ours is block insulated on the outside so it takes along time to heat up but we usually just keep it at about 50-55.

 

[bholler]

on my last post I didn't mean it is a pain to heat with wood all the time in the house but going out to the shop to stoke the stove would be a bit of a pain

 

[Bobbin]

Seamstress. Second floor shop over a garage. 2007 building, 6" stud wall construction, "attic" truss roof, fully insulated, no water to the building. Oil fired furnace with programmable thermostat keeps the shop at whatever base temperature I select (45F). Furnace kicks on at 5:30 AM and brings the space to 60F, holds until 7AM. I light the Woodstock Classic at 6-ish and I'm all set for the day; I may reload in the coldest of weather, but if it's sunny I usually don't have to. I generally prefer to let the space cool down and save the seasoned firewood. (which has been handy this winter... we used up the house stash and are now poaching wood from my shop's stack!).

I love having a stove in the shop! esp. when I have to steam out old foam... it dries in no time flat. It's cozy, and alteration customers always appreciate a warm shop. The oil tank is (I think) 275 gallons... I haven't used anywhere near half a tank in a solid year.

 

[Highbeam]

I wouldn't use a woodstove for primary shop heat. If you need to maintain a temperature, say above freezing, all winter then you need something thermostatic out there. A pellet stove will work but I chose to install 1800 LF of pex tubing in the slab and use a boiler to keep the shed above freezing, then use the woodstove to bump it up to comfortable working temps for the time I am out there only. A two stage approach.

 

[Bobbin]

My brother has pex tubing and radiant in floor heat for his huge garage (guessing 28x42'), 12' ceiling to accommodate the lift. Oil fired boiler (Buderus) and he raves about how nice the set up is; burns minimal oil in a building that is insulated fully and has a full second floor above the garage bays. In floor radiant heat is "the balls" for newly constructed green house operations, too.

 

[Don2222]

I don't mind the blower noise in the shop, but I would have thought it would warm up pretty fast. The only one I've seen running was pumping out a ton of heat, but it was a big Quad IR. All I mainly want to do is keep the shop above freezing most of the time, then warm it up when I'm in there, mostly on weekends. How long would it take to warm up a 1200 sf shop from say 40 deg to 60?

Hello

I use a 34k BTU Santa Fe in the shed to heat it up to 70 Degs on a T-Stat. I can turn the T-Stat on from the house with a toggle switch. It takes a half hour to 45 mins to warm up the 10x10 shed from 20 Degs F. The 2x4 walls have R15 fiberglass batts with R4 foil stapled on top with paneling over it to look nice. The roof has R13 under the rafter vents that go from the soffit vents to the ridge vent and the floor has 2" foam board under the 3/4" plywood between the joists resting on runners. I use maybe a bag or two a week!