Heating a shop.. How big of a pellet stove

[BLSXJ]

I have a wood stove in my shop... If I ever have to replace it... I will be going propane.

with a propane set up I can leave the thermostat just above freezing all winter. that way when I want to work I can work....I wont have to wait for 3 hours for the wood stove to heat the place up.

pellets are just dumb... your better off burning wood you buy cut split delivered. I looked at pellet options and I found the pricing on pellets was like buying oreo cookies. they would be one sale over at one place, out of stock at another and expensive at place #3.

 

[HillStreet]

I built a new house 3 years ago, single story about 1700 square feet. I put a coal stove in the basement and it will heat the house to 85 when it is 35 outside. Problem is, it burns too much coal turned down to its lowest possible configuration. The house is heated by propane-fired radiant floor heat. Decided to just heat with propane because it is actually cheaper. Still have three tons in the basement for when I want to burn coal.

 

[oosik]

There is an up side to burning pellets - at least there was, at one time. Its relatively clean, its easy, it produces lots of heat, its expensive........... When we bought our pellets stove in 1987 - good pellets were $75 a ton. Five years later they were up to $195 for the same pellets.

 

[newbury]

So getting the final steps together for the shop, realizing I am going to needs some heat Now, I live in a temperate climate. Seldom below freezing, but it highs in the winter are wonderful if they hit 50. The overall shop size is 3000 sq ft with 26ft to the peak.. The area I am probably going to use pellet for is 2000 sq ft with 26 to the peak, the rest will get enclosed into a woodshop one day. Also, I want to buy used, its a shop, not a house.
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What is the purpose of the heater? Do you need to heat the whole 2000 x 26 cube? Can you get by with "local" heat where and when you are working?

One of my 4 shops in Mississippi

which I do most of my work in has a 40x40x12 section, it came with a Gas Garage/Workshop Unit Heater hanging from the ceiling, probably about 150K BTU, fueled by LPG. Other shops have smaller hanging heaters. Someone stole our two 250 gallon propane tanks (with about 400 gallons total of fuel) back in 2013. Since it's rarely below freezing there I bought a portable kerosene/diesel heater (salamander) about 80K BTU for the "interim". On sale for like $100 or $150. I put it on a $7 HF furniture dolly with the plan to roll it around to wherever it was needed.

I tend to work in a "small" area and found this sufficient for getting a work area warm QUICKLY and keeping it warm. It's a little noisy but I have easily rolled it to other shops and suppose I could use it outside. I'm seriously thinking of getting a slightly larger (in BTU) LP that I can run off a 20lb propane tank and still maintain the mobility. In my present method of operation I rarely need a "big " area heated. But I think IF I did the two heaters could warm the entire shop.

The "interim" continues.

 

[LouNY]

There are several options for heating,
Before deciding on one a person needs to look at many things;
Including there personal preferences,
Many people like pellets, I don't.
I like coal, many don't.
Attached is a spread sheet to calculate the true cost of heating that will be as good as the numbers you enter.
there used to be several but many of my old links no longer work.

Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating | Coalpail.com

 

[Jack Murdock]

There are several options for heating,
Before deciding on one a person needs to look at many things;
Including there personal preferences,
Many people like pellets, I don't.
I like coal, many don't.
Attached is a spread sheet to calculate the true cost of heating that will be as good as the numbers you enter.
there used to be several but many of my old links no longer work.

Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating | Coalpail.com

The attached comparison of fuel costs is pretty accurate ( at least for propane ) I have been a master gas fitter and have doing heat for over 40 years including wood / coal / gas ( natural and LP ) and depending on what time of heating system is best will influence the performance and efficiency and ultimately cost. If I was building my shop today ( I am not I have 3 kids in college ) I would do in floor radiant fueled by LP gas with a wood stove for back up. If that wasn't in my budget I would do high efficiency gas fired radiant heaters.

 

[nybirdman]

The attached comparison of fuel costs is pretty accurate ( at least for propane ) I have been a master gas fitter and have doing heat for over 40 years including wood / coal / gas ( natural and LP ) and depending on what time of heating system is best will influence the performance and efficiency and ultimately cost. If I was building my shop today ( I am not I have 3 kids in college ) I would do in floor radiant fueled by LP gas with a wood stove for back up. If that wasn't in my budget I would do high efficiency gas fired radiant heaters.

Sage advise;I just locked-in for propane at $1.90/gal.I burn about 800 gallons/year for my home and shop.
No cleaning,handling or bulk storage(I.E. try and store three or four tons of pellets).

 

[hawkeye08]

I have a pellet stove that I planned on using for shop (it was in the house until we switched to propane 20 years ago). I never got around to installing the pellet stove in the shop, but had plans to. I recently thought about getting a small propane heater to replace the kerosene space heater..

My pellet stove does not have auto start, so when thermostat kicks it off, it goes to lowest setting, which still burns a fair amount of pellets. The kerosene heater is noisy and the smell gets to me after awhile. So likely I will pick up a propane unit for the occasional winter shop usage.

 

[MoArk Willy]

Look here for some interesting numbers coalpail.com. They have a fuel comparison calculator chart.

It shows that pellets (@ $5 a bag) are more economical than most sources other than wood or coal.
Personally I would use gas, either propane or natural depending on availability for a shop that size. Electric is fine for small shops, even kerosene heaters are still sold as space heaters, both vented or non-vented.
But if you just want to flip a switch or turn up the thermostat I think you will be happier with a gas heater.
I have a ceiling mount heater in my 28 X 28 garage LP. It is a "Hot Dawg".
I am very happy with it.

 

[ovrszd]

I can't get past your building dimensions...…. 26ft ceiling height??

To make a logical estimate of heating BTUs needed we need to know Cubic Feet being heated and insulation/air flow data.

You mentioned R-19. Is that in the ceiling as well??

I've primarily heated with wood for the past 25 years. As time went along I began to supplement with Propane.

I have two sentences that describe my feelings about heating any building.

1. Build a good building and it doesn't matter what you heat it with.

2. Build a bad building and it doesn't matter what you heat it with.