I purchased a 40kBTU rated cast iron wood burning heater for the garage. I was using a 30k-80kBTU propane convection heater prior to that but I was only using it on the lowest setting which I assume would have been the 30k setting like it stated. Worked EXCELLENT in about 10-15 minutes but was going to get expensive. I put my new heater in the corner and ran the suggested black pipe and stainless triple wall insulated through the roof and used all the required flashing and cap, etc... I did buy a damper because the guy at the store had mentioned that the pellet stoves and mush higher BTU burners were what those were designed for. would just a simple damper make all that much of a difference? There is a vent adjustment on the front of the stove that will choke the heater out when closed and the fire will blaze when opened....same thing? I ran the stove using seasoned dry hard wood that I picked up from my local gas station and it was going for like 2-3 hours and the heat on stayed in that corner of the garage (2 car-ish garage) where the heater was, couldnt tell it was on...burned like a whole bundle of wood and used a couple pressed fire bricks. Why not any heat? Pic included of my setup (anything stand out?):
This really don't have anything to do with hot rods but,,,, You flue needs to be dampened and you vents need to be almost shut once you get a good fire going,,the object is to keep all the heat in the stove,, A smart thing to do is get some sort of sheet aluminum or steel behind the stove and put a fan close by to circulate the heated air. BTW,,some insulation in the roof area will help a lot. HRP
I didn`t see the Damper in the Stove pipe. You need that to hold the heat down in the stove or else it goes up the pipe. Open it up when you start your fire but then in a little while , once the fire gets going, close it down about 1/2. I put a small fan behind and just above the stove to move heat out of the corner into the garage area.
Thanks, sorry I didnt know where else to post this...I figured alot of you guys would have some help on this subject. I'll go buy a damper and small fan, I can just install the damper into on of the black pipes? Just need to drill 2 holes straight across from each other to install?
Looks like the one in my house. I use no damper on pipe. I have a thermometer on the pipe so I know when to damper the slider on the front. My pipe goes straight up on a single story house. The chimney end MUST be high enough compared to the roofs closest point or it wont draw. With the slider open, to the right, it warms quickly when lit. Had it for 20 years.
That thing should be able to cook you out of the shop. You might want to put some tin on the walls behind the stove, looks like you're fairly close to the wall. First off, don't waste your money on gas station wood or presto logs. You're going to need quite abit of wood to heat up the stove. The idea is to open the air control wide open and even have the door cracked open for the first 5 or 10 minutes. Obviously, you'll want to start with small pieces at first. If you have trouble getting it going, just remember, make the pieces smaller at first. Then you're going to put in some medium ones, you only want large pieces in there once you have a good bed of coals in there. Because you don't have a firewood supply right now, I'd suggest keeping an eye out for old pallets wherever they are left behind buildings, home depot, etc. Cut them up with a skil saw, don't worry about nails, they will come out with the ashes later. Be careful burning pallet wood, alot of them are hardwoods like oak, and can burn pretty hot. You don't want to overfire your stove (leaving air draft wide open for too long), but conversely if you don't have enough air, all you'll do is make creosote and waste your wood. Good luck. You will love having a woodstove. Every backyard shop should have at least one edit: do some research on a website called hearth.com, lots of good woodburning info there. Your stove is probably an EPA model which means it will have secondary combustion air to burn the woodgas in the smoke. Look at the ceiling in your stove, it should have either a plate or tubes up there with holes drilled in it. For these systems to work properly, the stove must be quite hot, then the secondary air supply can "light off" the woodgas, and you'll see blue flames out of there like a torch. These stoves use about a third less wood than the old smoke dragons. Good advice above, by putting in a probe thermometer into the chimney stack, about 16" above the stovetop. Try and maintain flue gas temps between 300 to 400 deg F. And yes, a fan helps big time.
Some wood stoves have a T handle on the front of the stove than pulls a plate in and out..located above the door. HRP
Mines about the same deal, All of what was said before will help, Two holes across from each other to install dampner, and yes in the black pipe is fine Tim Jones
X10 what everyone said abaout the damper. You need to "lean it out" in HAMB terms to get the most BTU out of your firewood Edit: and a fan
here's my take on your stove. 1. stove is too close to the wall. 2. crap is too close to stove. it well catch fire and also block heat from getting into the rest of the room. 3. put damper as high in the pipe as you can reach. 4. put a ceiling fan in the opposite side of the shop. it will move the most air with this setup.
The two corners closest to wall edges will have cement board placed corner to corner and then faced with tin. I'm told cement board is better than the small expensive half sheets of fake brick they offer at home improvement stores near the heaters section? I do appreciate your concern for my safety but the surrounding items near the stove are a steel cabinet, steel work bench, steel cherry picker and steel roll around dollies so I'm not so worried about those items catching fire. Maybe a small 110v blower style heater to get the ball rolling from the front of the stove?
I've lived with wood stoves my entire life,,as a kid that's all we had. Lord only knows how many cords of wood I have cut and split in my life. HRP
To make it worth while you need to insulate the roof of the garage. Otherwise all the heat will be going out the roof. It also takes quite a while to heat up a garage before you start. I had wood heat in my shop but the lead time was too long, so I put in a LP radiant tube heater. I do heat my house with wood and have for the last 35 years.
I'll check code in my IBC book tomorrow, as far as wall distance. Yes, fireproof the walls, and install a damper as mentioned by previous posts. Your wood/fuel will greatly determine heat/BTU's - well seasoned oak is one of the best, only use pine or softwoods with sap or pitch as kindling or not at all. The pitch will end up coating your pipe/flue and possibly run the risk of a chimney fire. You want to get the fire well going and get hot coals, then close the damper to a point where there is no smoke choking the fire but just enough to have a nice glowing hot coals with little flame as possible, That way you're keeping the heat in the building instead going out the chimney. I'm not too far away, If you'd like PM me, and I can take a ride sometime to help out. Would not want to see a fellow member torch his shit... Oh yeah, one more thing. Get a fire extinguisher if you don't already have one. <------ Member on garage journal also
First follow what he said to the letter or you won't have a shop you will just have a pile of ashes where your shop was. You need the proper stuff to insulate the walls from the stove as they will catch fire from the radiated heat. That isn't an if it's a when. I'd suggest studying this site a bit. http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/installing_a_woodstove One excerpt from that web page On the Walls All stoves must be installed a safe distance from combustible walls. This distance varies depending on the stove model, from as little as 8 to as much as 36 or more. This distance can be reduced by one or both of the following methods: * Install approved non-combustible protection on the wall. The wall can be brick, stone, cement board or a UL approved stove shield, usually mounted on spacers with a 1 air space to the combustible wall. Check your owners manual or local building codes to determine the size of the wall protection needed. * Install a specially designed rear heat shield on the stove. Check with your Hearth Retailer to see if a rear heat shield is available for the stove of your choice. Links relating to Floor and Wall Clearances: http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Hearth_Design/ When you are done reading that and have your stove set up so it is safe to use follow what Modeleh wrote. The little bundles of wood you buy at the gas station end up costing you a bit over 500 bucks a cord if you stop and figure it out. I burned scrap pallets in my stove more than one winter and that stove is the only source of heat I use in the house. As a couple of guys said, you don't need a damper in the chimney as it isn't that style of stove, you adjust the air flow where the air enters the fire box. There is either a knob to turn or something to slide to adjust that. This by the way is the fireplace insert that heats my whole house
Please heed all the safety advice given above. all precautions for installation must be code approved. When you install the approved material on the wall behind the stove use 1x2 stringers to space it away from the wall to allow cool air circulation. 8 years Arson / Fire Investigator.
Just insulating and sheeting my entire shop warmed it up a few degrees. No matter how much heat your furnace is kicking out, if its escaping into the wilderness youre going to be cold! I paid less than a grand for insulation and sheeting in my shop. I even managed to get my hands on a good bit of insulation for free. I did my overhead door with sheets of styrofoam I scrounged and some spray foam to hold it in.
Drill a hole in the side run a pipe in and drip used crankcase oil on top of your burning logs. That will heat things up. How high is the flue pipe above the peak of the roof ? It need to be at least 3' above . If it is to low it will not draw right .
that always scared me, i dont understand how you can drip the oil onto the wood but the flame wont run up the line and cause larger problems...
http://www.insulation4less.com/ Check this stuff out for your ceiling. And a ceiling fan will help out too.
all of the above (though im with ya on the oil thing, and the locals here wouldn't let ya get away with it long ) but the thing id have to add is a "heat robber" its a box that mounts in the stack and has a bunch of cross pipes that the smoke goes around with a fan built into the back , works great had one for about 30 yrs .
Dripping the oil from a hole in the side doesn't work. I have modified my woodstove to have oil drip assist and it works like a charm. I will try and post pics in the next few days. Basic principle is to run the used oil through a needle valve, and drip it from as high as you can so the flame can't reach up and burn the oil tube outlet. It will coke it up and clog it. Next thing is oil dripping on wood isn't the best. You need it to drip into a metal pan. The pan gets cookin hot, and you can actually flood the pan abit, but only the top layer of oil burns off. You really need piped combustion air to the pan to really make the oil burn well. I keep my best firewood for my 2 woodstoves in my house, and just burn junk in the shop stove. Often it is wet, chunks of lumber ends or whatever. With the oil assist, I can get a pan of oil going in the stove, then build wet wood around it and after awhile she's burning good and hot. You get rid of waste oil and junk wood. Totally free heat. Impress your friends. You just have to use your common sense, get to know what's going on, and when things are getting too hot. I don't leave my stuff unattended unless the fire is on its way out. A cheap laser thermometer from HF is a handy gadget to monitor stovetop temps to make sure you arent overfiring.
Heres some ideas from the far north , looks like you dont have any ceiling insulation and a open ceiling. tough to heat a place with that setup. you lose so much heat straight up. my parents cottage has insulated walles and no insulation in the ceiling (Open beam) and it is very tough to heat we have a wood stove in it and it will not keep up when it gets cold. was the stove putting out heat(as in was it hot) remember its radiant heat if it was going hard it should be really hot a ceiling fan would help keeping the heat down insulation in the ceiling would definitly help a lot thats a new wood stove and it shouldnt need a pipe damper as its a intake air controlled unit. how cold was it when you were running the stove ? metal protector shields on the walls area good idear make shure you have a air space between them and the wall as it makes the shield more efficent re blocking heat transfer chek your install instuctions as heat barriers affect the clearance limits good luck with it , you should be able to heat the garage with that. Al
that propane convection heater had me in a tshirt in there in about 15 minutes heating time on the low setting which i think would be 30kbtu in 25* weather here last week and it stayed warm in the garage for roughly an hour or so after it was off and i went back in the house. this new heater wouldnt heat 2 feet in front of itself...only stayed in the corned area, i tried a larger fan on a low setting blowing at the stove to get some warm air flowing but it was mildly cold air coming back away from it. there is a couple layers of wood on the roof, its an older garage so there are 1x6 planks ran horizontal and then 3/4" pressboard and tar paper & shingles, 2 vents on the roof peaks...(i was thinking about blocking these off?) the stove is like brand new out of the box, i lit a small couple low heat fires in it like the instructions said and today i really let it go but it wouldnt heat up in there...not so cold out today either.
im gonna try the different burning methods with some scrap wood and pallet pieces...i dont have a grate in there i just start the fire with the starting sticks and make a pyramid with the fire bricks and some of the better wood...i used some fir strip for cross bracing because they burned quick no damper is seeming to be ok, i tried toying with the down draft slide above the door but havent figured this all out yet...weird because i know the pot belly stoves i have seen used is just toss in some wood and poof you have heat soon after no mater the garage!
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