shop heat

[longshot47]

My heated shop is a 28' x 28' section, which is part of a larger barn/garage. The shop has a 14' ceiling height over the main bench area and 8' over the remaining portions. It has an above grade, un-insulated concrete floor, 6" insulated walls [8" in ceiling], and quality windows on three sides. I was in there for a coupla seasons with various kerosene heaters which never really did the job, and were a PITA. While on a construction job I got to talking with an HVAC contractor who offered to stop-by to look things over. He recommended a propane furnace, and ultimately installed a 125K unit in the loft. Fabbed and hung two large, building width, wall mounted, runs of duct and a single return in the ceiling. It's been glorious ever since! The place heats from dead cold to 60+ in ten minutes and has been surprisingly economical to run. My shop cats send a Christmas card to the HVAC guy every year.

 

[JerryK]

Zero outside, both ends of the barn about 32 degrees, with a toasty center.... that's shop heat... [ actually just checked, it's -3 now ]

 

[arrow]

Some of you guys' shops are better than my house.
A shop is like a bathroom. You may not spend all of your time in there, but when you have to go, the nicer the better.

 

[skyhook]

Some of you guys' shops are better than my house.
A shop is like a bathroom. You may not spend all of your time in there, but when you have to go, the nicer the better.

LOL, ya, and no one likes a cold seat.

 

[LD1]

 

[Rowdy Redneck]

About to start construction on a 28x50 workshop. Have been searching for a cheap used Vermont Castings or similar wood stove on Craigslist. We used to have a couple of those in our house and i loved them.

 

[Ivan1547]

30x90 un insulated steel Quonset. Home made wood burning stove.

Really only heats up the surrounding area in a 10 foot radius when its real cold out. But it is better than nothing.

 

[oosik]

All you guys with your free standing wood stoves. A small fan will help spread the heat a whole lot. A stack robber is good also.

We had a "stack oven" on our wood stove in AK. Seldom baked anything in it - too difficult to control temps for an extended baking period. We opened the door on the oven and let all the stack heat back into the cabin.

 

[LD1]

Gotta watch with the stack robbers.

Take too much heat from the flue and you have creosote problems

 

[DJ54]

Instead of one of the heat robbers on the flue pipe, and needing a heat shield of some sorts to protect a post in the shop, I came up with this. A heat shield/scavenger combo. All made from some scrap pieces I had laying around, except the 140 cfm blower I already had, and still use on my forge, and, an adjustable temp. snap switch, to make it pretty well automatic on & off, eliminating a thermostat. I have the snap switch set @ 90ｺ. It will turn on when the backside of the shield gets to 90ｺ, and will shut off, when it gets down to 70ｺ.

Like in the past week, where temps were pretty frigid, and I kept it fired pretty good, it'd kick on every 5 minutes or so, when the upper flue temps stayed around 300ｺ - 325ｺ. That's the magic number it needs to keep a good draft, if there is little wind.

It could use a larger blower, but just using what I have. I just wanted to scavenge what heat that was there, and blow out across the shop, yet not stir up dust.

The last pic is the whole shop heat setup. The trusty ole' Reznor RA-110, 110,000 waste oil burner, vintage 1974. My oil refiner, made from a NOS upright air compressor tank, with two separate filters. First one contains a 200 mesh convoluted filter, to catch the solids, and the second, a standard HHO filter. to catch the non-desirable liquid types, like the Thompson's Water Seal a buddy left in one of the cans of oil he gave me last year, and gave me fits for 1-1/2 months last winter. Not the prettiest, but it ought to be between 54ｺ, and 64ｺ when I go to the shop here in a bit. I'll jack the thermostat up to a more comfortable work temp., and fire up the coal stove to hold it there the rest of the day.