So my original idea was to just put a wood stove in my garage for heat. But, upon further inspection, my lease does not allow any kind of wood heat, coal heat, or space heaters inside any of the buildings on the property. So, I had a new idea. Yesterday at the junkyard I picked up a diesel truck tank, probably about 50-60 gallons. I want to make it into a wood/coal oven for outside. Real simple, just cut some holes in it, put two chimneys on top, and some vent holes on bottom, with a door on one side. Here is the trick, I want to make some kind of heat exchanger to warm air which I can then blow into the garage. Here are some ideas I had: 1. Put larger pipes around the chimneys and use the air in between as heat. 2. Same thing, but with Charcoal briquets on the bottom of the larger pipe to help exchange heat. 3. Pipes put into the actual tank which loop around, and fill those pipes with something like... oil maybe? that would be heated up, and then warm the air which would be blown into the shop. Any of these ideas seem logical? Have any better ideas?
...seriously, would they really know if you had a space heater running during the time you worked in the garage? i understand you want to respect the lease, but you could put all that time you'd be using to build a heater into working on your car. PLUS, if you decide you want to move someday down the road you wont have to tear down anything you've built or added onto the shop. -marty
I agree just don't flaunt the fact that you have a heater and don't worry about it. You will be working with the doors closed anyways. If some one comes knocking just turn it off and play dumb.
#3 is probally the most effective way, but just p*** air through the tubes that are in the firebox. That the exact way that wood pellet stoves work. Depending on the size and number of tubes it will affect the amount of heat you will get. Now this is not something that i would recomend doing way to many variables to go wrong. The biggest would be if a tube burns through you'll be pumping smoke into your shop. Another would the amount of wood you could go through with something like that unless you can get it airtight so you can control the burn. I could see that full of wood only lasting maybe 5 hours Then there is the whole issue of insurance if something ever does happen, mainly you won't have any. The easiest thing maybe a electric space heater and plead ignorance if caught
I bet they're NOT gonna like to see any sort of fire breathing contraption in the yard - hooked up to their buildings either. Work within the rules and DON'T make it obvious. I heard of a fella once heating his garage by idling an engine - not the most efficient means - but would be out of sight and so long as you exhaust the fumes outdoors - might be OK.
Buy a microwave, rip off the door, jam a screw in the interlock so you can run it without the door, aim it where you are working, put it on low... You just have to worry about getting all hard around the edges.
Your post reminded me of a PM I got from a shy HAMBER a while back when I was asking siilar questions. Here's how she and her man handled it: "... didnt post a reply on your thread because I ***umed most guys wouldnt take me seriously since I am a lady. BUT we live in MO and our winters can be brutal. We have a garage ( Not a s***ch of insulation in it, just steel walls , roof,and concrete floor. My husband built a small aluminum or steel shed out behind the garage, put a wood stove inside of it and then ran the duct work rite to a window in the garage. The duct work does have insulation wrapped around it. But it is crazy simple and there are NO open flames in your garage just warm air, and the cost is soooooo cheap. We just heat it when he is going to be out in the garage , he cuts the wood his self . Good luck with your endevors."
If you have any kind of combustion involved, get a carbon MON-oxide sensor/alarm. The stuff will supplant the oxygen in your blood stream, and at 50 ppm will leave you in a bad way! I did wonder about mentioning an electric radiant heater, it will warm occupants directly.
It's been 23 years, studying sensors, but think 50 ppm was considered lethal, as in over-the-top. 35 is a very good idea!
My Cousin took a couple of rides in a Hyperbaric oxygen chamber to drive the Carbon Monoxide out of his system...and he was just visiting a guy who was tuning a car in the garage with a vent fan running and the door open. Might have been 1/2 hour exposure max. If he hadn't dropped in for a look that night, the owner of the garage would have died as he p***ed out and collapsed shortly after C arrived. My Cousin dragged him outside before he became overcome himself. Screws you up REALLY quick. Cousin has a sensor in his own garage now just to be safe!!!
Look into a propane wall heater that's basically a gas grill with an electric fan behind it. Hangs with a couple screws and 30K BTU (or more). Mine runs off a 8 gal propane bottle, probably get 50 WOT flame hours out of a fill, lasts me a couple weeks. Since the bottle's only a little bigger than a gas grill bottle it's easy to haul for refill. And if you have a gas grill, then you have a backup bottle 24/7. Good luck
the microwave idea would work fine. if id still had my army of 1000w halides and 1000w hps they would not be warming my garage. I would just take a 50g drum and build a bum furnance.
Please be careful. My friend's garage with my 64 Lincoln in it almost burned to the ground because of a faulty heater. He went on vacation, plugged the heater boards in and left. Something shorted out and flames erupted went up the wall and for some reason, went out. My wife thinks that because my Lincoln was in there (she wants me to sell it, so I hide it in my friend's garage.) It got so hot in there that several light grates melted. before after
Good god I hope you are joking about the microwave idea being fine. You did not put up a smiley or anything.
Yeah, I wouldn't mess around with some tricky home made heat. Sounds like you're mostly going to be heating the outside anyway with that idea. All heater are space heaters for the most part. That is what they are trying to do, heat the space. The overhead radiant heaters don't actually heat the space, they just make you feel warm when you are in front of them, and then the rest of the space stays cold. I find it hard to believe they won't allow some kind of heater for a work space unless they don't actualy want you working in there either. Doesn't seem reasonable. Get a real heater, install if properly and use it properly and don't worry about your lease to much except be extra care not to burn down the place or you will find out more about that clause the hard way - be extra safe, but remove it if they can't handle it. I suggest a propane setup of some sort too. Probably the simplest, cheapest to operate, most efficient and safest too - just vent it properly but propane isn't super toxic anyway as burnt fuel goes. That is why they use if for forklifts in warehouses. But, I would get CO2 sensors anyway.
Here is the trick. 1. I have no power. None. Zilch. Its a wood barn. 2. Like I said, the "furnace" will be 15' away from the barn, probably in the garden behind trees. I don't see how sparks/fire could get into the barn.
Oh, and I already have 3 "Mr. Heaters". They warm the place fine, but propane is getting freaken expensive here. Last winter it got to the point where they were only lasting me 2 weeks between fills. I have access to a near unlimited supply of wood and coal.
This wood burning beast heats my buddy's shop during the northern Alberta winter. Get one like it and if the landlords ask about it just play dumb as in "what heater"
Just pick up a forced hot air furnace from an old mobile home. I have about $150 invested in mine and it works great.
I just use a Salamander heater and Run Diesle full in it. Gets the garage nice and toasty. I keep the door cracked though.
Wear a sweater. When it gets real cold, wear a jacket. Then you wont have to worry about setting the place on fire. And as an added bonus you save money. What a deal. -stick
Have you lived anywhere besides LA? It gets cold on these garage floors. It is real esay to stay in the house and never get your project going when it is ten degrees in the garage,
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