[TheForge] Wood Stove for Shop heat

[Woolley]

Likewise and thanks to everyone on the list that participated to this 
thread, it helped me alot.

Bill Woolley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk at thegrid.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Wood Stove for Shop heat


> Great exposition Frosty, thanks for straightening me out on the 
> catalytics...pf
>
> Jerry Frost wrote:
>> Hey all! The winter station "emergency" (Pi$$ Poor planning on your part 
>> doe's NOT constitute an emergency on MY part. Holds true in this 
>> circumstance but a boatload of OT was welcome. <grin>)
>>
>> Anyway, heating with wood is the subject I believe. <grin>
>>
>> No reputable manufacturer builds wood burners with catalytic converters 
>> anymore, haven't for in the neighborhood of 5-7 years. The problems with 
>> catalytics are: Proper use and maintenance resulting in way more chimney 
>> and hence house fires than necessary. Catalytics have to be preheated 
>> before they're engaged, then they're vrey finicky about the quality of 
>> wood you feed them, then you HAVE to keep the fire rolling or they plug 
>> up. Catalytic converters were an idea that sounded good on paper but in 
>> practice have proved to not only be inefficient but outright dangerous in 
>> use.
>>
>> So, over the past decade or so all the good manufacturers with the 
>> notable exception of Vermont Castings, have gone to multiple burn zones. 
>> Some of the high end manufacturers have taken it to indirect combustion 
>> so the stove is making charcoal in the wood chamber and only burning the 
>> gassious byproducts and charcoal. These last are typically external wood 
>> fired boilers but they're extremely efficient and clean burning.
>>
>> A good barrel stove is hard to beat if it's properly built. A single 
>> barrel will easily heat 1,000-1,200' sq/ft with 14' eaves if it's 
>> decently insulated. A double barrel will heat twice the volume with 
>> little trouble. You can heat more if you convert the second barrel from a 
>> simple stack robber (heat scavenger) to a forced air stack robber. Simply 
>> cut holes in the ends of the scavenger barrel the same dia. as a 15 gl. 
>> grease barrel. Weld a couple grease barrels together so the ends hang out 
>> a few inches in front and a foot or so in the back. Then you mount a fan 
>> or blower in the back and you have a very efficient stack robber.
>>
>> The reason you don't see commercially made stack robbers anymore is their 
>> tendency to over cool the smoke causing excessive creosote and once again 
>> as with catalytic converters, more chimney and structure fires than 
>> normal.
>>
>> There are a number of good ways to prevent chimney fires: First being a 
>> proper burning stove and well seasoned wood, regular maintenance is 
>> almost as important, sweeping, inspecting and repair.
>>
>> Then there are the little details of proper use that go a LONG way 
>> towards never having to say you're sorry. Always start your fire HOT, 
>> either lots of clean dry kindling and a roaring blaze or pack your stove 
>> (within reason of course) with cardboard and light it off. The best way 
>> to keep from having a dangerous chimney fire is to have lots of SAFE 
>> chimney fires, daily is best. This is where starting it up with a roaring 
>> blaze comes in; the rapid intense temperature change causes the creosote 
>> to fall off before it can soften and stay stuck to the stack. Cardboard 
>> works really well as it's a processed produce and contains no creosoting 
>> compounds AND it burns quite hot.
>>
>> Paper is a BAD choice as the vegetable inks do indeed contain creosoting 
>> compounds and printable paper has a coating of caolin clay which combines 
>> with creosote to form a tough asphault-like pavement. Paper also doesn't 
>> burn hot enough to do the job.
>>
>> Next to cardboard, nearly filling your stove with small wood for a HOT 
>> fast blaze is best.
>>
>> As to the idea you want your stove to HOLD heat. This is a good idea if 
>> you're living in the structure. The only advantage of a heat holding 
>> stove is evening out the temperature in the structure. Think about it; 
>> the whole idea behind burning wood in your shop is to get the latent heat 
>> from the wood into the air. The less heat a stove holds the faster it 
>> gets to your shop. The much touted soapstone stoves take forever before 
>> they start making the room warm, the thing that sells them is having the 
>> room a little warmer when you get up in the morning. This doesn't apply 
>> to the shop, unless you're in the doghouse with the spousal unit of 
>> course. <grin>
>>
>> If you want a heat sink to help keep the shop warmer while you're not 
>> there they're simple enough to set up. I'll be heating my shop with wood, 
>> waste oil, etc. for the foreseeable future in a sub-arctic climate. Temps 
>> of -35f and lower are unremarkable around here. The heat sink I built for 
>> when the shop is warm enough but there's still fire in the stove is 
>> In-Floor heat tubes. I'll build a heat exchanger in the stove and 
>> circulate glycol through it and the floor once the air is warmed up a 
>> bit. I'll also be building a short version of the 55gl drum 15gl. grease 
>> barrel stack robber for it. It'll pivot on the stack so I can aim the hot 
>> stream of air anywhere in the shop.
>>
>> Another heat sink that's easy to set up though it costs room is an 
>> ungrouted cinder block wall behind the stove. You knock out portions of 
>> the bottom row of cinderblocks so air can circulate through it and paint 
>> it black to absorb radiant heat from the stove. If it's an outside wall 
>> you need to insulate the outside of course and the more the better.
>>
>> The benefit of having heat sinks outside the stove is they don't start 
>> robbing heat till the living space warms up. An in stove heatsink robs 
>> heat FIRST and gives it back LAST. In stove heat sinks are also quite 
>> small. For instance the heat sink in my shop weighs about 60 tons. A mere 
>> 12' X 8' cinderblock wall weighs around 3,500 lbs. not counting the 
>> mortar.
>>
>> You can enhance the properties of external heat sinks easily. In my case 
>> I'll circulate hot water through it, in the case of a hollow cinderblock 
>> wall, the addition of a heat tube in the stove feeding to the wall will 
>> make a dramatic improvement. A heat tube in a barrel stove is simply a 
>> 2-3" dia piece of black pipe running inside lengthwise near the top. Hook 
>> it to the output of a small blower and you can force hot air through your 
>> cinderblock wall.
>>
>> In my experience (35 years of heating with wood off and on, mostly on) 
>> external heat sinks are far superior. The only time I put fire brick 
>> better still rammed fireclay in a wood stove is to protect the stove from 
>> premature burnout.
>>
>> Andy, if you build a nice large pond within about 100' or so of the house 
>> so a FD pumper can supply the hoses your insurance will go down 
>> dramatically. There's not a lot you can do about the length of your 
>> driveway except make sure it's well maintained and always passable. The 
>> best bet will be to cut a second access road so there's little if any 
>> chance the FD equipment can get trapped by a fire. Most FDs will not 
>> respond to a fire if the men and equipment might be trapped by a fire.
>>
>> Frosty
>> -------------------------------
>> If it ain't forged
>> it ain't real.
>> Wrought iron is.
>> The FrostWorks
>>
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