I'm rebuilding an old horse barn into a workshop (I've posted pics in the past). The workshop will house three 'departments': car storage + garden machines, a small workshop and paintshop and a mancave-ish setting.
I'm currently rewiring the whole barn. That will take me more than a week and I've already used 80 meters of wiring... Hopefully I can keep it under 100 m. I noticed that the temp inside the barn isn't really comfortable. I took a thermometer from the house and it showed that it was 1C this afternoon... Apart from that, the moisture level is rather high, I suppose. Not so good for my tools and cars. So I'm considering a woodburner ('cause I've more than enough wood that I can burn - e.g. last weekend's storm Bella was too much for 4 trees in my garden, they will end up on the wood pile).
Anyway, the barn's capacity in M3 is around 600m3. Heating that is a hell of job. But I don't want it to be 20 - 22C. A little over 10 or 12, or perhaps 15C will be enough. Do I have to buy a behemoth-style woodburner or can I cope with a smaller one since I don't want it too hot inside.
Menno
Have you considered the addition of a dehumidifier as this will take a lot of the moisture out of the air- good for car and tool storage.
Maybe look up online a calculator for estimating space area heating too?
Either way, good luck with the conversion and share some pics when finished.
Andy
I'm in the middle of making a home-made woodburner for my new 600 sq ft workshop, so I will either report back or you will never hear from me again.
Home made!? I'm interested!! I lack the skills and the guts to tackle something like that myself...Originally Posted by unclealec
Menno
Menno, have you considered a waste oil burner....I’d imagine you can get your hands on a few gallons of that stuff?
I have heard that some pople have made them from gas cylinders. I wonder if there is anything about this on Youtube?
Good idea. A mate has one. Absolutely wonderful machine. The oil is drip-fed on the fire in very small amounts at the time. I'll look into it
I was recently in the market for a nice wood burning stove and fancied something handmade and artisanal. Etsy threw up very little and a google search likewise. It seems that some safety/compliance rules have been introduced which have stopped many small makers from selling stoves for indoor use. Some are apparently selling them as outdoor garden heaters or stoves for yurts which apparently are unregulated.
The other thing I found is that unsurprisingly something made in a small scale operation in Europe will cost a multiple of the price of a cheap presumably Chinese made stove, of which there are countless examples on eBay and even from outlets like Machine Mart.
If I was looking for a workshop stove I’m afraid I’d go for something imported.
I went for one of these by the way, made by a nice chap called Owen in SW England: http://www.stovedesign.com/queenwasp.html
We have one of those, for use on the patio,kicks out a mad amount of heat when it’s in full swing, a bit of a faf keeping the bottom holes clear for airflow, mind you, I use it for burning paper and old Amazon boxes ( of which we get plenty) I’ll try to find photos..
There're other ones that are injection fed in to the burner that produce no more emissions than standard heating oil systems. We would have had one but there are licences here in the UK that make them not as viable.
If I had one of those the clean air mob would be trotting around on their high horses - it's difficult enough to have a small garden waste bonfire without the fire brigade being called out, which has happened twice now!
They certainly do - this was in my workshop until a couple of years ago when i decided that i didn`t need heating any more (my stints in the garage burning the midnight oil footerin` and bastardizing motorbicycles were over...) so i have now converted it to a BBQ.
If you get the flue/chimney sorted and get a decent draw the whole cylinder can glow red-hot (when using wood).
When they`re running well the heat output can be phenomenal - some garage dwellers have been known to strip off and work on their machines in just their undercrackers!
If you get a woodburner or similar get one or 2 of those fans that sit on top. We had one and it warmed a 250m2 area very well - large woodburner in the corner and a fan on the top reached the other end well.
Hi Menno
My workshop is heated by a 1930s Jotul stove. Mine happens to be a coal-burning stove, but I feed it with wood very happily, and I have a workshop fan standing in front of it to spread its warmth throughout the building, rather than having one toasty corner.
It cost me very little, and is better made than most modern stoves costing multiples of the same (£200 and better than many £900 stoves now). It has primay, secondary and tertiary air controls, so burns very cleanly, a riddling grate and a hot plate for boiling a kettle if I want.
I would not be without it, I love that little thing (it is only about 300mm x 300mm x 1100mm tall).
When it is fired up, I reckon it kicks out about 10kW.
The Scandis are constantly replacing their old stoves, there is a bloke near me in Bath than brings in several van-fuls a year, relatively cheaply, his son finds them in salvage yards. And their old stoves may not look great inside modern minimalist architecture, but are perfectly fine in a workshop, and work great. What's more, the cast iron has been hosting fire for decades by the time you buy it, so you know the thing is not going to fall apart.
The door catches, air dampers, and refractory lining on my Jotul are literally better than anyhting I have played with from the last 30 years. I give it a once over with fire black once a year, and that's it.
Find a proper vintage stove, that would be my recommendation.
Dave
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