Replies

1. 
   bones | Dec 21, 2004 05:54pm | #1

   Welcome to the forum. Do an advanced search on the words heating and shop. There have been numerous posts and links to all kinds of different kinds of choices. I asked this question a short time ago and people responded with great suggestions.  Good luck on the decision.

2. 
   Thumbsmasher | Dec 21, 2004 05:55pm | #2

   If you can run a natural gas or propane line to the shop, then a great way to heat is with a direct vent heater.  It mounts on an exterior wall and pulls combustion air from the outside.  The flame is therefore never exposed to the indoor air.  These units come in all different sizes, are easy to install, take up little room, and aren't too expensive.  The are also thermostatically controlled.

   My ideal heating system would be a woodstove -- because I love wood heat and you need something to do with all the scraps you generate -- and a direct vent heater to keep the shop from freezing and for the times when the stove might be dangerous. 

   However, a wood stove is really only dangerous if your finishing process involves saturating the shop air with solvent fumes, or you let the sawdust pile up excessively.

3. 
   forestgirl | Dec 21, 2004 08:52pm | #3

   Hi Tom, welcome to Knots! 

   I suspect, though can't prove, that if the dust is thick enough to spontaneously combust, you'll hve other problems to worry about (breathing, pneumonia, stuff like that), LOL!

   I'm one of the Knotheads that has a woodstove.  I we'd had a grand or so to spend, I'd have gone with a heat pump or one of the other non-combustible methods, but the stove works great and it keeps the humidity down.  If you have a very well insulated, nearly air-tight shop, then you'd need to be careful not to conduct finishing in a dangerous way. 

   If you decide to go with a woodburning stove, see if you can afford to get a pellet stove -- much easier and less time consuming than a reguarl wood stove, and you should be able to get bags of pellets whenever you need them, rather than having to stockpile firewood.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
   Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   bernanos | Dec 21, 2004 09:20pm | #4

   I have a small pot-bellied stove in my shop which does a great job.  Problem is it doesn't hold a fire very long.  Recently I laid up a semicircular "wall" of brick around three sides of the stove.  This absorbes a lot of heat and slowly releases it after the fire has gone out.  This has greatly extended the heating cycle.  It won't keep the shop warm all night on a cold night, but I no longer have to worry about the shop getting cold if I'm away for an extended period during the day.

   Cy

2. 
   cherryjohn | Dec 22, 2004 02:12am | #6

   I have a stand alone shop of about 750 ft/sq and I am in NH .  There are may days I go to my shop and the temp in there is only 10F.  The shop is insulated but far from tight .  I agree with Forestgirl with the fact that a dust explosion in a shop would occur only after you are passed out on the floor for lack or air to breathe.  ( I sell explosion protection equipment to industry so I guess I have some knowledge on this fact) I use a wood burning stove for 2 reasons......1) I like the warmth form my scraps that would normally be thrown to the land fill  2)  I just like wood heat....feels so good when its 5 F outsifde .  In addition to my second hand airtight wood stove that I paid all of $50 for I have an oil fired Miller furnace ...the kind they use in mobile homes.  It puts out 60,000 btus ao it does a good job of heating.  Problem with it is it takes the air from the shop and exhausts to the shop.  So if I am doing any sanding or anything else that causes dust in the air I shut the furnace off till i am done.  The stove does most of the work anyway; the furnace is primairly there for back up.  With my shop at about 55-60F I dont need the furnace all that much anyway.

4. 
   Anatole | Dec 21, 2004 11:27pm | #5

   A number of us here at FWW use our garages as shops. The hands-down favorite solution is a direct-vent propane heater. That means it pulls outdoor air in to heat and vents to the outside, which is a safety concern in an environment filled with sawdust and occasional finishing solvents. If your budget allows, get one with a built-in fan and a thermostat that allows you to turn it down low, which will add comfort and save you on fuel on days when you don't use the shop. These units don't take up much space and will heat a small shop like yours in a hurry. One more thing -- if your shop could be considered a garage by the local building dept., check their code regarding installation. In my city, the unit had to be placed slightly above the floor.

5. 
   uncommontree | Dec 22, 2004 07:13am | #7

   Tom,

   Also being a contractor I have conections with the other trades so when I built my shop I went to one of my heating contractor friends and asked them if any of there suppliers had a floor model furnace they would like to get rid of. As it turned out I bought a 90+ forced air nat.gas furnace for less than cost. Great resale value and the heat is always there , I keep my shop at 55 deg. when I am not using it and kick it up to 60 to 65 when I am working in it. My shop is 18 x 36 and 2 storie and it was cheaper to heat and light than my hot tub, which has moved away. I super insulated the upstairs lid to R-47 and the walls are R22. My Father had a shop that was heated with wood and when you are in it day after day in the heart of winter  it is a real pain in the butt keeping the temp constant. This is why he to switched to gas heat also. Bottom line if you are planning to really use this space, than a constant source of heat is the way to go. It is better for your tool and lumber investment also. Rick.

6. 
   DennisS | Dec 22, 2004 07:56am | #8

   Tom -

   I just recently (yesterday) got a used airtight wood stove fully operational in my 24 x 40 shop. Mind you, I have a sliding barn door 8' wide at one end that has a full 1 1/2" gap up each jamb, the trusses for the shop were installed with vented bird screened blocking, that is with 3 2" holes drilled through the blocking and bird screed over the holes, .... a 4' x 6' "window" that right now has nothing but a big piece of styrofoam covering it .... About half the walls are insulated and no insulation on the roof. But -

   Today it was probably 40+ degrees outside and I kept the shop at 60 degrees or slightly better all day. Even into the late evening when I'm sure the outside temps were below 40. That may be mild in your area but considering my 'enclosure', I think you can just about count on a wood stove keeping your shop at a comfortable temperature.

   I wouldn't be concerned about sawdust explosions unless you can't see the stove from more than a few feet away. Wouldn't be spraying any lacquer with it going, though.

   Jamie, Forest Girl, makes a good point about using a pellet stove for the convenience but I personally like the idea of using scrap wood for heat as others do. Get an air tight stove so's it will hold a fire longer and you can control, to a degree, the amount of heat it produces.

   Lastly, pay attention to the installation. Maintain clearances from the stove to adjacent combustible surfaces such as wells. Use a double, better triple wall stove pipe at any penetration of the wall or roof. The stove may not cause a sawdust explosion but they do represent a fire hazard if not properly installed.

   ...........
   From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
   Dennis
7. 
   migraine | Dec 22, 2004 08:52am | #9

   I just finished installing a pelletstove in my 26x74' shop with 10'walls and so far, it seems to be working great, with only one drawback and that is that it takes a few hours to get the heat up to a good comfortable temperature.Which means I need to plan a fews hours in advance.  The pellet stove was free from a local stove shop, but the pipe wasn't.  It ran around $450 for a 20' high run and all the misc. parts.  With this stove being an older model, it doesn't have a auto light.

   It will probably work even better once the airscrubbers are installed on the ceiling and the ceiling insulation is blown in.

8. 
   Traveller | Dec 22, 2004 04:38pm | #10

   I've heated my shop with wood for the past 10 years. I have an big cast iron air-tight that I use (it takes 24"x6" logs). I have central dust collection, but no air cleaner. My practice is to keep everything within 5' of the stove spotless. This includes the ceiling thimble and the floor. I vac the area almost daily and web dust around it once a week. In all about 10 minutes work. I collect all of my firewood for free (freinds trees branches etc.) iin the summer which makes it more economical. I"ve had no problems yet, and I live in upstate New York where the winters are cold and lots of snow!