What about a heated motorcyle suit. It might be cheaper than a heater. Nice and toasty. Hunting outfitters have all kinds of stuff like that.-stick
i love my wood stove, when it gets below 20 degrees putting on a sweater doesn't cut it. when I was looking to buy mine i looked at a lot of outdoor unts.. it was a little more complicated than I wanted, but if you had to it'd be a good solution.
Are you handy with a welder? You said you have no power? Build yourself a kettle above your wood burner (many ways to do this) outside away from the buildings, just a big kettle, open on the top, not pressurized. Now plumb 2 lines (supply and return) to the barn to the the biggest car radiator you can find. Hook a twelve volt motor pump in the water line. Heat the water outside and carry it into the barn. Cheap, simple, safe, effective. When you move out you can take it all with you. Steve
I was thinking about this. Think it'll get hot enough? One problem I see is that when I don't have it going.... the water will freeze.
Here ya go. One match, a few gallons of gas. INSTANT HEAT! Just kiddin bud. Check craigslist. There's a lot of people who sell "ventless natural gas heaters". That's what you want. They are safe indoors, require no venting, and if you have a 2 car garage a 20-30K BTU setup will do wonders. I see them all the time for $40-$100.00. Here's what I'm talking about: Something like that. They are about 2'x2'x6-8" deep, wall or floor setup. Some have a blower, some are radiant.
A few years back, a friend of mine had a log cabin built. It was closed in by december but the heating system had not been puchased yet. The carpenter that he hired to help him with some interior details did not like the cold. As he had worked in the winters here for a while, he devised a portable heating system. He took a ten foot utility trailer, mounted a 55 gallon drum for #2 heating oil, and a miller furnace from a house trailer (mobile home). built a plenum out of sheet metal, and hooked insulated flexable heat ducts to it. Drive up to the window, stuff the heating ducts thru the window, and about an hour the place was toasty warm. End of the job, hooked up the trailer and was on to the next job. I think he said he had about a grand in it and worth every penny to him. tc
Gotta love Yankee Ingenuity. So do the "Hot Dogs" not work so well? I've been saving up for one because I can hook a thermostat up to it, but if it's not going to do the trick, screw it. I can pick up a wall mounted propane heater for $100 ...
Here's a vented wall furnace that requires no electricity. If it is vented to the outside, then it is not considered a "space heater". http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200325980_200325980
I like your outside furnace idea but I would probably go a little further with it, heat water and plumb it to some baseboard or a Modine style heater with a fan. hell, even an old radiator would work. that way there is no carbon monoxide or combustion in the shop, insulate the piping put the furnace in a tin garden shed and put a pop off valve in so if it ever got hot enough to make steam it would vent. Get friendly with some plumbers for lines on old boilers, storage tanks etc. if its outside it doesnt much matter if it leaks a little haha.
If you can use an outdoor wood burner in your area take a look at how the m*** produced ones are built otherwise you will go through a ****load of wood. They are quite common up here, old throwaway pallets are a free wood supply for them... In my garage i have a Pacific Energy high efficiency wood stove (78%) Burns less than half the wood a homemade stove I tried for a couple weeks.
back in the hippie days mother earth news always had stuff about "swedish" heaters, which were self-stoking wood stoves outside the house with underground ducting into the house. safe and effective. popular science or a similar publication probably has plans for such a system.
The Jalopy Journal
