Thoughts on a pellet stove for a large shop

[mx842]

Lol.

Telling a guy they're wrong is easy. Explaining how they're wrong takes talent. Especially with a guy, with experience.

Don't take the easy route. Knock me back in my seat with your knowledge.

Also, quote my entire comment next time, there's a little more to my comment than you're portraying.

I've had a lot of people tell me that what I had as a water heater would not make enough hot water to keep the building from freezing. All I did was cut the top of the stove out and then made a collar around where the flu pipe left the stove. I made it out of pieces of 6x6 SS box tube and welded in, in and out bungs. I had a small pump that was controlled by thermal switch that would circulate 150 degree water to a 50-gal hot water tank that sit beside the stove. I had a larger pump that was controlled by another thermal controller set at 100 degrees to send hot water over to my manifold then into the floor. It took me about 3 years to get everything tuned in but in the end, I had cut my wood usage in half and no matter how cold it got the floor always averaged around 65 degrees. On really cold nights It would cool down 10 degrees or so but once I got in the shop and loaded the stove back up it didn't take long to get back to temp. I would load the stove fully up at night then get it going good then cut the air off and let it idle all night and it would have plenty of coals in the firebox the next day. I would burn old trash wood during the day and let it burn hot then at night the cycle would begin all over. If I ever had to go off a few days, I would get everything good and hot before I left and even if I was gone 3 or 4 days it never lost everything. Now leaving for a whole week once I got back, I had to start all over again, but I never lost a water pipe or piece of pex, manifold or anything the whole time I ran that thing.

 

[mx842]

I went out and bought a Fisher, papa bear stove I found on Craigslist the other day and I'm going to try that and see how it works for a while. I'm not thinking that it will heat the whole shop but if it stays warm enough to keep the water pipes from freezing that will be good enough for now. It's not ideal and I know I'll probably burn a lot of wood but right now it's all I can do. I have more wood than enough, and I know what I have piled up will last until spring. After that I'll just have to wait and see what happens. That will give me enough time to either build something else or come up with some other way to get heat into that shop.
Now I'll need to come up with a way to build a smokestack and get it through the roof. That will be somewhat of a challenge because I have to get up to roughly 18' before it even goes through the roof then another 4' or so to get it high enough. I wanted a stove with the smokestack that comes out of the top so it could hold some of the weight, but this has an 8" rear exhaust, so I'll have to come up with some way else to support the weight. I know I can put a clamping collar where it goes through the roof to hold some of the weight, but I'll probably have to come up with something else before I'll be happy with it. Maybe somebody here could pass along their thoughts to help me out.

 

[KennyG]

If you have decent weather sealing and a concrete floor, you shouldn't have much trouble keeping well above freezing. It would really help if it was insulated, especially with an insulated ceiling, of course. I have a stack that goes up to a 12 foot ceiling, then another 8 feet or so through the roof. It's good to have as much single wall pipe as possible in the heated space because that gives off a lot of heat. If you have a ceiling, it has to be double wall in the enclosed space and it should be double wall outside to retain heat for draft.

You might consider going vertical up to near the top of the wall, then go through the wall and up outside. It might be a little simpler, but require more support. Whatever you do, put some kind of offset in the vertical run. When you need to sweep the pipe, you might think you will just remove the cap and sweep from the top. My cap is stuck so tight I can't get it off. With an offset, I can move the pipe enough to separate it and sweep it from inside. Also even though you will probably have an adjustable pipe section, don't assume it will move after a couple of years of use.

 

[mx842]

If you have decent weather sealing and a concrete floor, you shouldn't have much trouble keeping well above freezing. It would really help if it was insulated, especially with an insulated ceiling, of course. I have a stack that goes up to a 12 foot ceiling, then another 8 feet or so through the roof. It's good to have as much single wall pipe as possible in the heated space because that gives off a lot of heat. If you have a ceiling, it has to be double wall in the enclosed space and it should be double wall outside to retain heat for draft.

You might consider going vertical up to near the top of the wall, then go through the wall and up outside. It might be a little simpler, but require more support. Whatever you do, put some kind of offset in the vertical run. When you need to sweep the pipe, you might think you will just remove the cap and sweep from the top. My cap is stuck so tight I can't get it off. With an offset, I can move the pipe enough to separate it and sweep it from inside. Also even though you will probably have an adjustable pipe section, don't assume it will move after a couple of years of use.

Yeah, the cap on my flu pipe at my house did the same thing, it was stuck fast and would not come off. I ended up cutting the liner right below the cap so I could work on it on the ground. I finally got the cut piece out without destroying the cap. I put a little high temp copper type anti seize around the edge then slipped the cap back on and never had any problem after that. It still would be kind of tight but with a little twisting and turning it will come off now. I think I'll go straight through the roof because every turn you put in the pipe gives a place for creosote to build up. My old flu pipe I had on my other stove was built out of schedule 40 Iron pipe so I never had to worry about getting a little rough when I was cleaning the stack. I have enough 6" out back to do that again but with the fear exit it would be hard to do because there would be nothing to support the weight of the pipe. My old stove the flu came out of the top of the stove and it just fit right down on the collar I made.