[TheForge] Re: Heating with woodstove OT

Mon May 23 23:07:17 EDT 2005

Ralph has the right idea, if you have a good supply of free wood.
Check out the HAHSA style heating units
https://www.motherearthnews.com/ecom/router.aspx?PageId=ProDetail&ItemNumber=1835
There are commercial models available.
You use a large outdoor wood furnace, built into a concrete block house with 
several tons of sand to act as a heat sink.
The sand transfers the heat to copper coils that pump water into the shop 
for the heat supply.
The HAHSA can be locater a safe distance away from other structures
You can make it as complex or simple as your needs and pocket book dictates.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Sproul" <brhlbsmt at mcttelecom.com>
To: <mspencer at tallships.ca>; "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 7:52 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Heating with woodstove OT


> Hi Mike,  I was very dissappointed this winter.  I locked all the doors,
> insulated them, went in and out of just one door, covered the windows in
> plastic, and kept the thermostat at 40 at night and 52-55 during the day
> ...........and really tried to keep the heat to it all winter to see if it
> would make a difference........and I just could NOT afford it and turned 
> it
> off and dawned my insulated coveralls in March.   I gave it an honest 
> try -
> but it just ain't gonna happen unless I can get an outside boiler to heat
> this place on free wood - but for the time it takes to load the boiler.
>
> My shop has 6 inch insulation in all the walls, and a frost wall 
> foundation
> tight to the walls, and 9 inches of insulation in the ceiling - it's
> frustrating as hell, as I was really comfortable for $150 to 225 per month
> for the past three winters......but this last one when our dollar fell so
> bad was killer.  I found heating it full time was way worse than turning 
> it
> on each time I came in.........even with all the improvements I made.  It
> was less drafty, nice and workable - but just plain unaffordable with the
> high price of propane now.
>
> The thing that really scares me with the wood heat in the shop - is four 
> of
> my friends have lost their shops to fire in the past three years.   All at
> night - due to chimney fires.  This is making me head in the outside 
> boiler
> direction as I just can't afford enough insurance for full replacement
> value - last time I checked it was $4 per hundred.  Afraid I just don't 
> make
> that kind of profit - like they do.
>
> The house I feel comfortable heating with wood like we always have - as
> there are nice masonry chimneys and we keep things clean and run hot fires
> before closing them down at night.  To run slow burning stoves all night
> with huge fireboxes thru metal pipe like most shops are set up is too 
> risky
> to me - and I'm not going to spend 10 grand on a masonry chimney to heat
> with like the house has.
>
> I figure I've worked outside and in cold shops for all but the past four
> years of my life - so I'm going back to insulated coveralls or the boiler
> project - if I can complete it by next Dec.  I'm sure next November's 
> temps
> will be motivational.   :-(
>
> Ralph
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer at tallships.ca>
> To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 4:32 PM
> Subject: [TheForge] Re: Heating with woodstove OT
>
>
>>
>> Thanks for the numbers on your heating setup, Ralph.  It'll give me a
>> starting point to ask questions here.  I expect to do something for
>> heat in my 1200 sq. ft. shop this year.  Ten ft. ceiling and an upper
>> story where Peggy has her looms.  We need to heat her 600 sq. ft. more
>> than mine -- weaving is fiddly finger-work and/or sitting-down work)
>> but it would be nice to have my space up to 50 (or at least 40)
>> deg. F.  And I can't afford $400/mo propane bills either.
>>
>> Despite heating the house with wood, I don't want to go with an indoor
>> wood stove in the shop.  Don't want oil.  Mumble.....mutter.
>>
>> On the original question, I found that a 50-gal oil drum wood stove
>> would get my previous shop up to comfy (for all but fiddly little
>> finger-work) in about four hours, starting with all that iron
>> heat-sink at ambient -- say, 5 to 20 deg. F.  Interior walls but no
>> insulation. If I'd had New England/N. Dakota outdoor temps of 20 to 40
>> below, It would have been totally useless.  Our coldest spells here
>> are c. -10 F. at night, 0 daytime.  Maybe 15 to 20 deg warmer
>> than northern NH.
>>
>> - Mike
>>
>> --
>> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>>                                                            /V\
>> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
>> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
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