Pretty much the title. I'm buying an old barn to turn into my workshop, and I want to add heat. There are a lot of second hand wood stoves in my area for $100-200, and I have access to wood. What do I need to know, what do I look for in a used unit, etc. I know nothing. Thanks
I have heard of home owners insurance having an opinion on wood burners. So tell them or not depending on your view point.
Another thing, the air going out of the chimney will need to be brought in through a duct or it will get in via cracks. In a barn there will be more than enough cracks, but the point is you need to bring cold air into the space to make up the air leaving through the stack. Finding a stove with an outdoor air intake helps a bunch for efficiency in heating the space.
Depending on your insurance company, your premiums will go up some. Mine will go up by about $50/yr when I put my wood fireplace in the living room.
There are big things to consider in a shop. You will likely have to elevate it and add venting since fuel fumes are heavy and fall to the floor. Shops are pretty venty by themselves, but you may need to add specific vents so the draft from the stove doesn't pull fumes up from the floor.
Agreed on a stove that sources outside air. That not only removes a lot of risk from fumes igniting, but it will be more efficient since it isn't sucking cold air in the gaps.
Stoves are pretty simple things. box with flaming wood. Most will have a thermostat that controls a thermostatic spring which opens and closes an air door. Duct that air inlet to outside the barn.
Always burn bone-dry hardwood. Never burn soft woods (except maybe some kindling to start). Soft woods have lots of pitch (even when dry) that burns dirty and leaves creosote deposits in the chimney which can burn. This is what causes chimney fires.
Clean the chimney once a year and cap it during the off-season to prevent bats, birds, and other critters from using it as shelter. It only takes one wasp nest, one chimney swift, or one raccoon to really ruin your day. Make sure your chimney has a cap vent (umbrella thing). It's not a huge deal, but water going in your chimney mixing with the creosote not only makes it corrosive, but also turns it into sticky paste instead of easily-removed dust.
My dad heats the house with a wood stove. Every spring when he "retires" it, he drops a weighted brush down the hole several times and shovels out the junk, then he lays a piece of plate steel on top. He is considering an umbrella cap and screen so he doesn't have to use the plate, but then he will have to remove and replace the cap and screen every year to clean it. Pretty easy if you have a stove pipe. Not so easy for him with a masonry chimney.
In his case, having a permanent cover isn't as much a need. He lights the stove in October and it usually burns until March with very few interruptions. If you're just going to be using it every once in a while, a permanent cap might be best. Slide it off the pipe once a year to clean the chimney
The only other thing I can suggest is, when you light it, keep it going for a while. You want to get the chimney good and hot. Kinda like a car exhaust system. If you just do short commutes, the water condenses in the cold exhaust. If you run it long enough to get the tubing hot, it evaporates the water. Same with a chimney. Wood combustion gives off water vapor which condenses in the chimney. Burn it for a few hours to make sure the chimney gets hot enough to evaporate the water
You also need to protect the wall behind the woodstove from heat. And have some sort of insulated flange where the flue goes through the wall or roof for the same reason. But wood does heat you up four times.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Never burn soft woods (except maybe some kindling to start). Soft woods have lots of pitch (even when dry) that burns dirty and leaves creosote deposits in the chimney which can burn. This is what causes chimney fires.
Not everyone has access to hardwood. The west coast forests are almost entirely softwood and what hardwoods do grow here are mostly crap for firewood (aspen, cottonwood, birch). About the only good option we have is birch, but by the time it dies and is therefore legal to cut, it's rotten inside. If you want to burn it, you have to cut live trees and give them a long time to dry. Also, not all softwoods are resinous, Hemlock for instance has no pitch.
Plenty of us burn soft woods all winter with no trouble. Just make sure it's dry, clean your chimney and you'll be fine. Turning the air down too much (some won't let you) also leads to bad combustion and chimney buildup.
The biggest advantage of hardwoods is mostly that they tend to be more energy dense, so you get more heat per cord of wood, but again, it's not a hard and fast rule, some softwoods are better than some hardwoods.
As for the fireplace discussion. Check local building codes, get the installation WETT inspected and update your insurance. You'll need some non-combustible surfaces for a set distance around the fireplace (floor, walls) and a proper roof or wall penetration with double walled pipe to avoid lighting the building on fire. There's also rules around chimney height versus roof height so that the smoke dissipates properly. Long outside chimneys can make it hard to start the fire, tending to suck air into the fireplace, leading to smoke getting in the house for a minute until the heat causes the flow to reverse. A co-worker and myself had the same experience in different houses with this.
I reached out to the township about the fireplace and asked what codes/rules I needed to follow. They said they will use the manufacturer's instructions and inspect to make sure I followed them. Actually makes sense since every fireplace manufacturer is different. If I were doing masonry, I would be following a specific universal code, but with a steel fireplace it's just following instructions.
I would suspect Gearhead would need to follow a more universal rulebook for his stove... if not for code/inspection reasons, then for safety reasons.
If you can find an EPA certified stove, that's a better choice. They burn cleaner, which means less unburnt gasses in the smoke, which means less creosote, less maintenance and a safer stove. I've been heating my house primarily with wood for 25 years, burning spruce and pine (cut as dead standing, so not much pitch), and I never get creosote buildup in the double wall chimney, and sweeping it after a year's burning yields about 4 cups of ash from a 20 foot chimney.
I've used wood heat all my adult life and since the age of 8.
People really complicate wood stoves, they are no where near as finicky as a lot will say. Try not to burn green or wet wood since it'll build up creosote but even that's not the end of the world.
I use a Fisher Grandma Bear that I got for $100. It's a hell of a stove and the reason the guy got rid of it is because he bought into the " buy a new EPA certified stove". He paid over $2000 for it. It doesn't heat as well or is as efficient with fuel as the older Fisher.
My father has used a $200 Vogelstang (sp?) For years with great effect. It is less efficient than mine but it produces heat and does great for his small house.
Look around for deals like the Fisher I have if you can. Maybe post the deals you find here too
noddaz said:
But wood does heat you up four times.
- when you cut it
- when you move it
- when you stack it
- when you burn it
when you split it. Big time.
I was going to suggest looking for a Fisher stove. I did an inspection on a home that Furman University was gifted by an alumnus. There was a Fisher Grandma stove in the basement. I wanted to make an offer and if I had known they were selling the house for as cheap as they did, I sure would have. I bet I could have gotten it for $100. It would not have been fun getting out of the basement.
spitfirebill said:I was going to suggest looking for a Fisher stove. I did an inspection on a home that Furman University was gifted by an alumnus. There was a Fisher Grandma stove in the basement. I wanted to make an offer and if I had known they were selling the house for as cheap as they did, I sure would have. I bet I could have gotten it for $100. It would not have been fun getting out of the basement.
Mine weighs I believe.....800lbs?
Great stove
In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :
Krikey. There's no way I could have moved that.
spitfirebill said:In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :
Krikey. There's no way I could have moved that.
Google says 454lbs without brick apparently.
I had to use a floor jack to move it around, not fun lol
Thanks for all the advice guys. I went and picked up this Buck stove today
It's a beefy fella, at least 350-400 pounds.
gearheadmb said:Thanks for all the advice guys. I went and picked up this Buck stove today
It's a beefy fella, at least 350-400 pounds.
I think thats technically a fireplace insert, isn't it?
You guys made me google "Fisher Grandma Stove"
Turns out our friends had one in their cabin. That thing would throw enough heat to drive you out of the house.
In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :
According to the manual it can go either way.
I may be too late with this but I have had a wood stove in my shop and I disliked it. I typically only spend a few hours in the shop and I would run out and light it, go back in the house to let the shop warm a bit, go back a half hour later, shiver for an hour as the shop warmed, and just as it got to a nice temperature I would be done for the evening. It was only a good solution when I was in there for hours which I rarely am. I put in a massive propane furnace and it is t shirt warm in ten minutes.
ShawnG said:You guys made me google "Fisher Grandma Stove"
Turns out our friends had one in their cabin. That thing would throw enough heat to drive you out of the house.
If you build a big fire in mine it'll actually draft so hard it'll rattle the doors ( I.e it's pulling in so much air it can pull the heavy cast iron doors in). I've got my house over 90 degrees a lot of times without really trying when I first got it
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