I-Home improvement

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Posting here as a reply to an OT I started on #board-504

Getting a better idea of how I want to have the building eventually laid out, with separate rooms for storage, machining, paint, etc.

Ideal to me would be a hybrid that has a used-oil burner and wood furnace. Something that would use the oil-burner to light the wood. The oil-burner runs anytime the temperature is below some low point and the wood is used until a higher set point.

The closest I've found so far is one that does both wood and either natural gas, propane, or fuel oil. Might go with that one for wood. To me, getting the fire going is a hassle I'd just as soon live without, especially since most of these will only hold a couple of days' worth of wood if it's idling, and there will be many times I won't even go in the shop for a few days, and certainly won't want to make the trip down there just to load the furnace. Relighting is something I'd have to do more often than most people would. And it'd be nice to know the shop isn't getting below freezing if I don't get down there for a week.

Wood is very plentiful on my land. I still haven't explored all of the land since the ice storm last year, but I've seen several dozen cords of wood knocked down that I only need to cut, split, and haul. I'd guess I get 2-3 cords per year without major tree-killing events.

I've got a bit of shag-bark hickory and red oak which are great fire woods, but especially plentiful out here (but tough enough that even the ice storm didn't hurt many of them) is Osage Orange (aka "hedge" around these parts). My understanding is that it packs far more BTUs per cord than even oak. But I'd have to make sure it's safe in these furnaces I've been looking at. I learned the hard way many years ago that you can't use it in a glass-doored fireplace. The glass doors expanded so much that they got bound up in the opening and an explosion of hot-as-hell shattered glass really messed up the carpet. Glad we weren't in the room when it happened. Anyway, most of the wood I've got here that's on the ground is useless stuff like elm and maple. I also consider walnut pretty useless because it doesn't like to burn unless you mix it with oak, hedge, or hickory. Got quite a bit of walnut, though.

Natural gas isn't currently an option for me, so the combo would need to use either propane or fuel oil. I'm not sure which is more efficient. I would think the fuel oil packs more BTUs the same way diesel packs more than gasoline. But don't remember what propane's costing me for the house.

I also think I'm going to end up with more than one furnace. I really like the idea of burning used motor oil and even though my used-oil production isn't high enough to keep up with a 150k BTU furnace that uses about a gallon per hour (an oil change in my truck would be good for 4 hours on that furnace while a complete fluid change in the backhoe would be good for days), I suspect neighbors, family, and friends could provide enough used oil to make it worthwhile.

I also like the idea of a few small radiant heaters (looks like propane is the easiest choice there but I've also found a used-oil one) to put a little bit of heat into the concrete.

Speaking of which, if I had it to do all over again (and really wish I did -- I'm so bummed I didn't do it this way), I would've gone with in-floor heat and Icynene insulation. Then I could've supplemented that with just wood and even have wood do most of the water-heating for the floor.

But, I'm currently leaning toward having all of the following:

Wood and propane combo for 250k BTU
Used-oil for 150k BTU
4 small propane radiant heaters
Individual propane heaters in each separate room

Sticker shock is a problem for me right now, though. I don't remember the prices I saw for the wood/propane combo, but I'm thinking $5k-$6k.

The 150k BTU used-oil burner from Omni-Heat (my favorite choice so far) is just below $5k with a 257-gallon tank that can be used as a work table. I'd rather not have the tank indoors, but my oil changes will be indoors. Although, now that I think about it, most of my oil changes will also be in warmer weather. The idea behind the big tank is to accumulate oil in non-heating weather. And if I'm good about keeping the wood furnace going, the duty cycle on the used-oil burner would probably be low enough to make 257 gallons last all or most of a winter. It'd mainly come on to help with recovery after the garage door is opened. Although for that kind of use, another $2k would bump me up to 350k BTU.

As infrequently as I'm opening the big door, my guess is that a total of 200k BTU would be sufficient to keep the shop toasty if it's been days since the big door was opened (which it usually would be). Especially if I put in some ducting and squirrel cages to move some of the heat from the peak to the floor.

It was about 25 degrees last night and my 150k space heater was keeping the shop tolerable. I had the truck and backhoe trailer in the garage (chasing down a wiring problem that turned out to be a poor ground on the trailer) and the backhoe and snow-pusher were on the trailer. When I got up on the backhoe to adjust the lights (about 10 feet from the floor), I noticed it was really toasty. If I stood on the roof of the backhoe so I could touch the ceiling peak, it was downright summer weather up there. Definitely need to bring that air down. Plain ol' ceiling fans would probably be the ideal way to go (price and sound levels), but it just seems so *wrong* to put ceiling fans in a big workshop.

Really, everything about this workshop is a fun new challenge. Lighting alone is a big one. I've got 3 400-watt Metal Halides in it right now which throw out an amazing amount of light and is all the light I need for the center of the shop, but the light doesn't reach the perimeter. I think 10 250-watters around the perimeter would finish the job and bring my total power usage for those lights down to 3700 watts from the 5k+ I'd estimated. Currently I'm using 4 300-watt incandescents (I'm just getting started on lighting and electrical outlets) at certain key areas, but know I won't stick with those. Too inefficient. The MH lights make about 5 times more light per watt.

But there's a huge downside to the MH lights. If the power goes out briefly (which is does almost daily here) or some clown accidentally turns them off then back on, you're in the dark for 10-15 minutes until they'll restrike. So I'm thinking about 30 4-foot 40-watt fluorescent tubes (left, center, and right in each of the 4 60x30 "bays" plus extras over workbenches) would give enough light to at least be able to see if the MH's go out and only cost 1200 watts.

Of course, I'm running each kind and bank of lights on a separate switch and separate circuit breaker. I think by the time I'm done, I'll have 6 or 8 light switches by the front door, and be using just as many breakers (out of 30) in the box just for lights.

The fun is really just beginning. Might be a couple of years before this workshop is really what I'd call "done".

I'm just glad all the siding is on it right now and I've got some light and am reasonably comfortable as long as I keep the space-heater filled. I go down there each night to add more lights and outlets and to get stuff arranged/organized. I had a crew of kids come out and just move everything from the old garage down to the new building and I currently don't have a clue where anything is.

And of course, as always happens, my nice wire-strippers are nowhere to be found while I'm doing the biggest wiring job of my life.