[TheForge] Wood Stove for Shop heat OT

[Andy Gladish]

Thanks for the treatise on wood heat, Frosty, lots of good info.
Odd that we'd be discussing this today...I woke up thinking how my mom still
complains that all the furniture she brought from her cabin in Michigan
still smells like creosote- we don't have that problem here. When I first
installed my wood heater, I thought that insulated stovepipe was silly, not
the way we did it "where I come from" and now I really appreciate what it
does: Great draft all the time, since the stack stays hot, and most
important no condensation which is the source of creosote.
Outside burners aren't so popular here, but there have been several notable
successes. Best design seems to be a small air space between stove and
masonry, hot hot hot fires once a day, and water circulating in the
masonry/sand jacket. That way you get the best qualities of external heat
sinks in a small enclosed system. The heated water supplies baseboards or
in-floor tubing.
I have a small wood stove in my strawbale house- the interior walls and the
floor are my heat sinks- 1" of plaster on the walls, 6" of soil-cement floor
which heats nicely from the stove and supplements the floor radiant heat
nicely. Also gives us a hot spot to cuddle up to, which is the only drawback
of radiant heat systems (if you don't include a radiator somewhere).

> Jerry,
> I'm in an area where there are a lot of outside wood burners.  Most are
> constantly spewing out a think, acrid smoke that seems a long way
> from clean
> or efficient.  I assume that this is due to 2 factors--first the
> combustion
> chamber is surrounded by the water jacket, keeping the combustion
> temp down
> and second, the stove is dampered down for much of the time.
>
> If you know of cleaner burning outdoor boilers, please provide some
> manufacture's names as I would like to consider heating my shop with an
> outdoor unit, but want to be a good neighbor.  Thanks,
>
> Rick Korinek
> Island City Forge