I was thinking of adding a freestanding stove in my house but am now leaning towards an add on in my shop. It's a big garage that's attached to our 2 car garage and the LP furnaces are located in the attic above it. We have around 2600 ft downstairs that we would like to heat and have major obstacles like vaulted ceilings in several rooms and a 23' ceiling in the living room. I don't have a bunch of extra money so I am trying to do this in the most economical way. We live out in the country and have plenty of hardwoods on our farm. The house was built in 2015 and is well insulated. I have researched the Englander add on and it seems like an inexpensive possible solution. I enjoy cutting and splitting wood and am willing to put forth the effort to heat our house with wood if possible. Thanks for any advice!
Wood burning add on in 2nd garage?
- Thread starter Newt243
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DoubleB
Minister of Fire
I'm not sure what I'd think is best for your situation, but maybe a little extra info could help. What are your objectives? Sounds like saving money might be a biggie in your situation (mine too). Are you trying to heat the whole place, or just as much as a certain investment will allow? Are long burn times important, or is a quick burst better to heat that shop?
Check with your insurance about whether they will accept a furnace in the shop. If it seems like a garage to them, they might not allow the furnace.
If you have obstacles for ductwork, a furnace in the shop might not be practical. Even if you find a path past the obstacles, remember that you want the ductwork to be rising upward towards the heated space, or at least horizontal. But not downward. Otherwise you won't get natural airflow in a power outage and your furnace/ductwork can overheat. Generally you'll find add-on furnaces in a basement for reasons like that.
For your figuring, the cost of the venting/chimney can be as much as the stove or furnace. So don't make your decision based on the cost of the appliance alone.
I'm sure there's more or better advice than this, but maybe this will get the ball rolling for you.
Check with your insurance about whether they will accept a furnace in the shop. If it seems like a garage to them, they might not allow the furnace.
If you have obstacles for ductwork, a furnace in the shop might not be practical. Even if you find a path past the obstacles, remember that you want the ductwork to be rising upward towards the heated space, or at least horizontal. But not downward. Otherwise you won't get natural airflow in a power outage and your furnace/ductwork can overheat. Generally you'll find add-on furnaces in a basement for reasons like that.
For your figuring, the cost of the venting/chimney can be as much as the stove or furnace. So don't make your decision based on the cost of the appliance alone.
I'm sure there's more or better advice than this, but maybe this will get the ball rolling for you.
I definitely would like to heat the house as much as possible. The main furnace for the downstairs is in the attic probably 25' from the shop floor. We have a secondary furnace that controls the MB and laundry room also in the attic that is around 20' above the floor. I am just trying to figure out the best way to supplemental heat or completely heat the downstairs if possible. I have hand cut around 4 cords of dead standing trees in the last week and have quite a bit more ready to split. I enjoy the work of cutting and splitting wood especially knowing it will save me on my LP bill. I am a novice to wood burning but want to figure out they best way for me to heat my house with wood and not have to buy propane. The industry I work in crashed about 2 years ago and I took a huge cut in pay so I am trying to do what I can physically to save us money!
maple1
Minister of Fire
Sounds like you have some challenges, in what you described so far. Pretty hard to get a grasp on how bad they are though, without being there & seeing, or a lot of pictures & diagrams.
A wood furnace should be below the space it is heating, ideally a basement - the hot air needs to be able to rise freely into a space that can take it, in the event of a power outage or fan malfunction. Simply speaking.
A wood furnace should be below the space it is heating, ideally a basement - the hot air needs to be able to rise freely into a space that can take it, in the event of a power outage or fan malfunction. Simply speaking.
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DoubleB
Minister of Fire
I can't quite make out your floorplan. But more so, I think your first step is to determine if you can run practical and acceptable ductwork (one large hot supply and one large cold return) from your shop to your living space. If not, then you needn't worry about the remaining requirements with a furnace. It sounds like the chances aren't good that you can run acceptable ductwork?
It would be easy to run a supply to my main furnace. I don't know if I would need to tap into the existing return or not as I don't know the ins and outs of ductwork. I did make my hvac guy run returns in each room when we built the house because he was just going to do one central return. The shop is insulated if that makes a difference on the performance. I know people have outside wood units but I am trying to see if there is a stove I could use in my shop to heat the house. Much better to walk through a heated garage to load wood than outdoors!
DoubleB
Minister of Fire
You might still have an elevation problem. If the main furnace is in the attic and you use its ductwork, then your wood furnace in the shop would have to send hot air up several feet, then at some point back down again several feet into your living space on the first floor. That could make a power outage exciting. You want to give the hot air an opportunity to travel up without going back down before it gets to the living space.
You could potentially rig up a dump valve to divert the hot air completely into your shop if there was a power outage, giving you a path to naturally cool the furnace.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Could be a difference in ducting requirements LP vs. wood also.
I.e., what you have in place now might not be up to handling wood heated air.
I don't know the different requirements, or exactly what you have now - so should check up on that.
I.e., what you have in place now might not be up to handling wood heated air.
I don't know the different requirements, or exactly what you have now - so should check up on that.
I had thought of running the stove to the intake on my main furnace after doing a little research. I would then use the furnace fan to distribute the heat. I do have a generator for power outages but it wouldn't be a bad idea to run a dump valve in case I wasn't home and the wife couldn't start the generator. What size house are you heating with your Tundra DoubleB?
maple1
Minister of Fire
When planning for overheat protection/scenario, you will need to assume there will be nobody home to do anything manually. It needs to take care of itself, in a fail safe kind of way.
DoubleB
Minister of Fire
2100 sq ft between the 1st and 2nd floors, old farmhouse with so-so insulation and air-sealing. Basement stays warm but no registers. I even pipe in heat to an extra bonus room but turn that off when it's really cold. My LP furnace helps out then, I'm ok with that.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
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