Thoughts on a pellet stove for a large shop

[Oaktree]

Is the shop insulated??
My shop is 57X45,, and up to 22 feet high,,

I modified a "Papa Bear" type stove to "SUPERCHARGE" it,,
That stove does almost zero towards heating my shop.

Two big wheelbarrows of dry hardwood (like oak),, will raise the shop temp maybe 10degrees F,,

My shop is all steel walls, but, I do have six inches of ceiling insulation.
I insulated the ceiling to keep out summer heat,, that was successful.

I'd say the difficulty in heating stems more from non-insulated steel walls than with any shortcomings of the stove. Pretty large building too. I have a Fisher Mama Bear in my 24 x 24 shop/garage and it does a decent job heating it. Yeah, if it's below 20 it takes a few hours to get there (detached building that's not normally heated), but it does the job. This is in northern N.H.

 

[jyoutz]

I’ve never understood the appeal to pellets. For what they cost you might as well burn propane and not waste time carrying it.

Pellets have been cheaper than propane for me. I can buy 2.5 tons of pellets for $750 and heat my house all winter, using propane only when I’m gone for several days. I can’t heat all season for $750 worth of propane; probably double the price. A few years ago I was able to bring in natural gas, so I no longer have either pellets or propane.

 

[MattB4]

I have both a wood stove and a pellet stove. I put in the pellet stove 5 years back because I was getting a bit old to be cutting and splitting wood for my Winter's heat. I still use the wood stove when the weather gets really cold but the handiness of the pellet stove is a major positive.

The pellet stove lights itself and can be turned off if the house or outdoor temperature rises enough. It is hard to turn off a wood stove other than to allow it to burn out. The pellet stove is great for those days in early Fall and Spring that a few hours of heating is all I want.

The downsides of the pellet stove is the high cost of pellets in my area plus having equipment to get and unload the pallet. I just was looking recently and it is now running close to $350/ton. My usage is around 1 ton per heating season. When I put the pellet stove in the price was closer to $200/ton. The pellet stove also requires a bit more attention to maintenance and clean out. Like others have mentioned I deal with the weight of the 40lb sacks by pouring the pellets into two 5 gal buckets before bringing inside for easier handling.

 

[Snobdds]

It's like they got everyone hooked on cheap pellets and then raised the price to the point of it longer being economical.

It will be interesting to see if pellet stoves are still a thing in 10 years.

 

[5030]

50lb bags would mean I'm the only person in my house that can feed the stove.

They only come in 40 pound bags, not 50. 50, 40 pound bags to a ton skid.

Been heating my machine and fab shop with a multi fuel (pellet and corn) stove for years now as well as the house. Same units in each and I own a large woodlot and I am always culling trees from storm damage and I give away all the saw logs as well as everything 3" in diameter. All the rest gets roasted in the burn pile.

Having said that, I do have PEX in floor heat in the shop as well because no biomass stove will run longer than maybe 2 days with refilling the hopper so if I'm not out there, the PEX in floor heat keeps things from getting too cold. Only have propane here and normally, 2 500 gallon bottles at 85% full, lasts the entire winter.

Don't expect any biomass stove to be able to heat a shop (unless it's very well insulated and mine is), to a toasty temp, not gonna happen with a biomass stove that outputs only 85K btu running wide open.

Mine will hold the temp in the shop (20 x 40) at a comfortable level but certainly not at a sweat temp.

 

[David in KY]

Knowing that 90% of your heat goes out the chimney, have you considered a rocket mass heater. It burns a fraction of the wood (or pellets) and depending upon the design, keeps the majority of the heat inside the structure. In lieu of building it yourself (as many do) there are commercial units available. Here's one for example:

Liberator Rocket Heater

The unit above acts much like a traditional stove, unless and until you build the MASS to absorb, and then over time release, the thermal energy. This puts the heat into the building, and not into the outside atmosphere.

- These things use much less fuel in relation to traditional stoves.
- They emit much less smoke and pollution.
- They burn the creosote in the main combustion cycle, so no build up in the chimney.

The guys on Permies.com (permaculture website) have been pioneering the Rocket Mass Heater initiative and made great headway in design efficiency. Here are a few links:

Permies.com- Rocket Mass Heaters
Youtube video explaining RMH
Wiki- Rocket Mass Heater




.

 

[MattB4]

Wood has a btu value. Thermal mass heating schemes does not change the physics. Rocket mass heaters are not going to warm a space any better than a traditional air tight wood or pellet stove does. Though you will never stop the snake oil purveyors.

 

[David in KY]

Wood has a btu value. Thermal mass heating schemes does not change the physics. Rocket mass heaters are not going to warm a space any better than a traditional air tight wood or pellet stove does. Though you will never stop the snake oil purveyors.

Where is the "snake oil" in the MASS?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

It's like they got everyone hooked on cheap pellets and then raised the price to the point of it longer being economical.

It will be interesting to see if pellet stoves are still a thing in 10 years.

My first pellet stove, they were about $150 a ton. Now at $350 ton.
I would not use one for a shop, but like it in my family room.

 

[mx842]

Pellets are great but kinda expensive compared to free wood from your land. Ken Sweet

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I know I heated my old shop with a homemade boiler type stove but that's not an option for me now. I lost all my pex I had in the old floor. That was the best of both worlds because I heated the floor and also got the radiant heat off of the firebox too.
I've also been looking at mini split units but the cost for a unit the size I need would be through the roof.
My shop is 57X60 and divided into three separate parts. Well actually it's just 44X60 that is to be heated because one side is just a lean to that's 12 wide and 60' long. The inside of the part that needs heat is divided into three parts. The first 20' in the back has a divider wall separating the front from the back. Then I have a lean to on the right side of the main part of the building that is all enclosed that I use for my machine shop machines. The ceiling in there has 9' high walls. The walls in the main part have 14' high walls with a 3/12 pitch roof, and it is all open. I had spray insulation done with 2" on the wall sections and 3" on the roof parts. It's really tight all accept at the two big doors on the front and back. There are no windows but I have 2, 3'-man doors one on the front wall and one on the back. I'm trying to fine some kind of door sweeps for the big doors because they are roll up doors and there is about a 21/2 inch gap at the top. I know there will be a lot of heat loss because neither of the big doors are insulated.
That's what I've got and how to heat it is still on the table. I'm thinking now a mini split in the machine shop section because I think that part will be the easiest to heat and to cool. The other 2600' or so well, I don't know.