Wood stoves in a pole barn

[GPintheMitten]

You better double check using double wall for burning wood
I think it's for propane and natural gas. You need a class A insulated HT (high temperature) chimney. It needs to be stainless steel for sections that are outside the building.

 

[Scaper]

I heat now with a 225.000 BTU contractors upright LP heater and it does a great job when I'm in the shop. I start it 20 min before I plan on being in there and when I open the man door it's getting toasty, as I stated walls are done but ceiling is a work in progress. I do have double bubble insulation under the metal roof now. I have used not quite 2- 100 pound tanks so far this year and it has been a cold bugger. I set it on full heat for no more then one half hour and then turn it down to low. I have a 10x30 loft that I use a fan to direct heat back down to the floor level and it works fairly well this way. I do have a new Trane XR 70 LP heater that came out of my friends business after his partner told him he wanted to buy him out. He only fired the unit twice and then removed it. Like new condition and it can be use horizontal or verticle. All flex ducts and registers plus disbursment box included. I'm also luckly to have a friend that sells propane and delivers. 100 pounders are $68.00 and a 420 bottle would be about $270.00 so I'm wondering if this would be a good set up also? You are right wood is free but time consuming but darn good exercise. Then I would have to rent or buy a splitter to get it ready to use. Rented a 22 ton unit local and paid $80.00 for the day. So maybe Lp for my use might be better. What are the thoughts? Scaper

 

[KennyG]

You better double check using double wall for burning wood
I think it's for propane and natural gas. You need a class A insulated HT (high temperature) chimney. It needs to be stainless steel for sections that are outside the building.

Class A comes in double or triple wall and stainless or galvanized. I would get the stainless because it's not much more expensive but galvanized works also. I don't know that the added cost of triple wall is worth it for most applications.

 

[Looking4new]

You better double check using double wall for burning wood
I think it's for propane and natural gas. You need a class A insulated HT (high temperature) chimney. It needs to be stainless steel for sections that are outside the building.

Double wall insulated pipe is what is called for in Ontario.

You need a class A insulated HT (high temperature) chimney. It needs to be stainless steel for sections that are outside the building. I don't know what that is.

 

[tcreeley]

I use pipe from these guys- Selkirk Metalbest - Chimney Pipe, Stove Pipe, Fireplace Vents, Metalbestos
on my wood stove- Holding up well after 22 years of daily use.
I used to burn coal for heat- 3 years in an old 1/2" cast iron stove. It threw a lot of heat. I started it with a wood fire and then worked coal in- top loading. For every bucket of coal I put in, I took out a bucket of ash, almost daily. I had to get the clinkers out to keep the air flow. Wood is easier, cleaner, less ash to take out. Faster to heat up.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I guess it's a matter of terminology. You don't want to use B vent for solid fuel (wood etc). B vent is double wall and is intended for gas fuel fired exhaust. That is what I thought you meant by double wall.

There are double wall insulated class A chimney products that are for wood stoves.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Regarding opinions on what to heat with I recommend propane for you. You have cheap or free furnace and the tanks can be rented or if purchased you can sell them down the road if it doesn’t work out.

I have used wood in the past and currently use propane. It certainly is more convenient to use propane. The time I would spend getting in the wood can be spent doing the work in the workshop.

But it is getting expensive.

 

[leveled]

one point I would like to add is that you do not have to use dura vent pipe (or other pipe) for the whole run, just from where you exit through your combustibles and outside. Also you could run galvanized and build it in a chase. Also remember that you have to be 2 ft. above anything 10 ft away, you can use a level to determine this.

 

[roygage]

I have built a new 30x52 pole building and am considering a wood stove for heat.

My son heats his house with wood. Works very well as he loves to cut and split wood. He also heated his outside garage with wood until the insurance inspector stopped in and saw it. They will insure the house with wood heat but will not consider letting him use it in a auxiliary building. He has since built a new shop and again under no circumstances can he have wood heat.

He uses it for wood working, he would gladly switch companies but when he asked about it on a network dedicated to woodworkers they all reported none of the companies will cover wood heat anymore.



I have an old friend with a auto repair shop in which he has used wood heat for years, he was also forced to switch this past year

In my farm shop I have a Reznor overhead infrared. I keep it set at about 40 degrees then when I work I kick it up to 60 and it feels like I am working on the beach as the rays beat down on me while it comes up to temp. Am lucky in that I have access to natural gas

 

[BigE_]

A few years back someone else posted here about heating costs and also shared a spreadsheet. I can't find the post, and now the silly TBN file attach app won't let you attach Excel files to a post, but here's a link to the XLS spreadsheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8aif5t10n0sghjn/Heating%20costs.xls

Anyway, you just modify with your values and it will tell you which is most cost effective.

I will say that in the long run getting a high efficiency wood stove is much better than building or buying a cheap stove. You don't burn as much wood and save money / time in the long run. Plus you aren't putting out pollutants. When my wood stove is running in the house or in the shop, you don't see any smoke. If you look closely you can see a shimmer where the heat is, but there is no smoke (after initial warm-up period).

This also saves on chimney cleaning time. I run a brush on a rod down the chimney each year and get maybe a cup of soot out. Compare that to the gallons of soot I used to get out each year with the old style stove.

I also used to burn 6-7 cords of wood a year in a 2800 sq foot house, and now I'm down to about 4 cords per year in the same house. In the shop, I burn maybe 1 cord per year, and that is mostly cedar. I generally only burn in the shop on weekends, though.