When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Dennis, how long would that last to heat my shop? I have absolutely no experience with coal. My dad always talked about coal furnaces in the houses his family lived in when he was a kid.
Dennis, how long would that last to heat my shop? I have absolutely no experience with coal. My dad always talked about coal furnaces in the houses his family lived in when he was a kid.
That’s about 2 1/2 tons on that load. I burn about 5 tons a year in my boiler. My oldest son burns about 2 tons a year. He has a hand fired coal stove in his basement family room. Heats his whole house that way. I like my boiler even though it’s not as efficient. We burned coal in the house I grew up in. Of course I live in the right part of the country for burning anthracite. Dennis
Just a thought, you are going to want something for primary/Or back up heat and Lp sounds the simplest and most reliable. Personally I would start with that and then take your time deciding what you want to use for an alternative heat source. Definitely some very good ideas depending on what is locally available for you in the previous posts. Supplies and prices vary and options are good to have!
Just a thought, you are going to want something for primary/Or back up heat and Lp sounds the simplest and most reliable. Personally I would start with that and then take your time deciding what you want to use for an alternative heat source. Definitely some very good ideas depending on what is locally available for you in the previous posts. Supplies and prices vary and options are good to have!
I figure I will have enough tied up just in the LP heating system, the only back up I might consider is a torpedo type heater if the LP would fail.
IMO, the only way to get "free" oil is if you have a service station that changes lots of oil. If you have to source your oil from other places, there really isn't a way to get "free" or cheap oil.
I put in about 8 years in a shop that had an oil-burning furnace. We got our own oil from the vehicles that were maintained for this company. I won't mention the manufacturer of the unit here, but it was a POS.
Seems like every year we had to break the system down and clean it up and rebuild the burner system. I think other brands had a lot less maintenance, but we didn't get one of them.
We have two local shops that use an oil burner for their heat, but neither system would be classified as "free heat" by any means.
That is what I do for supplemental fast heat if the shop needs warmed up fast. Have three shops whith LP and has yet to be a problem in 30 +some years whith multiple types of heaters. Definitely not knocking alternative heat sources but they aren’t as Consistent or low Maintenance, It depends on how much work do you want to put into keeping consistent heat into your shop. That is your call, all are good in there own way.
I know very little about geo thermal other than what I've seen on This Old House on a few episodes. Looks like a lot of digging and laying of pipe, something I would not want to do or know how to do and to have someone else do it would be, I suspect, very expensive.
As I've found out no heat source is "free". All of the sources for waste heat is at least two miles away and each would only be able to offer a small quantity at a time. I might be able to gather gallons at each location, maybe two times a year but that would entail me rigging up some kind of collection device like this:
Either lifting in the back of my truck or trailer and spending a full day driving around and hopefully getting enough oil to fill it to make it worth my time. I would also have to store it inside to keep it warm. If I were to leave it sit outside my shop and have people come by and drop off waste oil I can only imagine the mess between people who spill oil outside the tote and the number of empty milk jugs filled with oil. I don't have an area on my property to set aside for such a mess. Also, I'd have a time trying to keep the waste oil free of any contaminants. A wood burner would be almost as much time and cost. I don't have a free source of wood so I'd have to buy it and then make sure the fire is fed and then clean out of ashes. Just is not worth my time, I have other work to do. LPG would be in need tank and delivered whenever I need it.
I just wanted to get opinions and insights to see if a waste oil system would be worth it but with the information I've gathered from discussing this topic with you all and others I pretty much have my mind set on LPG IR heat.
A lot of people in upstate NY are changing out fuel oil for natural or LP gas heat , There seems to be some laws about removing the oil tanks from the property when you switch . My brother has started removing these tanks , as a side job . He pumps out what ever oil is in the tanks then cuts up the tanks with a sawzall and removes them . He has been able to use this fuel oil to heat his house and shop for the last 4-5 years , It averages 1-2 hours to remove a tank , he charges out rages prices and has 2-5 tanks a week to remove .. Not only does he get the heating oil for free , he makes hundreds on each job . Next week he has to remove a 1,000 gal in ground tank , for a house that is being sold and tank removal is holding up the sale . He quoted $10,000 as it is under a deck . He thinks he can dig around the front of the deck and pull the tank out . He figures 2 days at most . Just something to look into .
I heat with coal98%
the rest is wood with propane backup, shop and the house.
Anthracite coal, not bituminous.
works good here.
No N/G available.
seasons coming up, for sure.
Best of luck, whatever you do!!
happy Labor Day workin folk, and those that are done with laboring for their crust.
Thank you as well!
Greg
I love reading this thread and hearing all the different ways to heat our sheds/buildings/workshops.when I was a kid I had a part time job after school at a business cleaning out the coal clinkers and stoking the furnace. As a young husband and father we would heat our small house with wood slabs from a local sawmill. For $5.00 they would load all I wanted on my 67 ford camper special. I would cut them up to fit in the wood stove.We had propane backup. When i worked, we had the lp tube heaters. I liked them but there were cold spots. I built a 30x40 metal shed a few years ago ,6"in walls and 12 blown in ceiling. 14" high. Doors similar to yours.I heat it with a 100,000 btu propane furnace I bought used .I just had them put a tee at our 500 gal tank and trench in a new line to the shed.I keep it at 40* and turn up the thermostat when I go out there. Your overhead doors are your weak link. (For all of us) Get you a 1000 gallon tank and have them fill it in the summer when prices are cheaper. Best of luck to you whatever you decide, and keep us posted! Larry
Yeah, the doors are also a concern. I plan to insulate them with 1 1/2” styrofoam sheets and cover that with some kind of panels. The winters can get pretty cold up here, like any other place in the upper northern part of the country. I hate cold, I curse my ancestors for settling here ever time it dips below 40*.
Last year while looking at retirement properties in ChinoValley Arizona my wife and I came across a nice 6 acre plot with a 2014 build house and shop. The house was 1740 sq.ft ranch very nice. The shop is 40x120! 16 ft eaves. It’s built pole barn style fully finished and insulated. Heat and air.Walking up to the place I asked the guy “what do you do here”? Well he restores antique tour buses from the 30s and 40s National Park Service. Several he had were wood bodied.Same era Grehhounds. And he determined that this shop was too small so they were selling to build another house that already had a 40x200 shop.His shop was heated/cooled with NG.Two units hanging in opposite corners. He told me that the gas bill ran about $250 a month,shop only not the home,during June,July, August . He kept the temp at 78 during the hottest months. He had HVAC engineer out who told him natural gas would be the most efficient. Unfortunately for me there was a pending with several backups and it sold quickly. Asking was 289,900 and it was met. Sigh.
We bought this property about three years ago. My son asked his girlfriend to marry him and since he was operating a diary operation on the farm it made more since for us to move. My wife, like her dad and his dad were born and raised on the farm. We found this place, it had everything we wanted, an old farm house, barn for the wife and the pole building for me. The plan was to buy this place and sell the building I was using for my business and move the business into the pole building. Well, it didn't work out as planned. Three long years later we finally found a person to lease the business building. We never thought we'd have so much trouble getting rid of the business building. We got a few offers but were all low ballers. I mean really low ballers. Like with old cars everyone watches "reality" TV and think think its the real world. They should offer 2/3 the asking price and they'll get it. I dont believe1/2 of what they present on those TV shows. I was asking $20K less than what I paid for it ten years ago and they still tried to knock off another $20K.
Well now that the building is leased I have to get the pole building insulated and heated before winter gets here.
This Hennessey Takes the Expedition Tremor's Off-Roading Capability to the Next Level
Slideshow: The VelociRaptor Expedition gains a lift, upgraded suspension, Brembo brakes, and trail-ready equipment while retaining the stock 440-horsepower EcoBoost V6.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
