Heating shop

Hi all, Insurance says i cant use the pellet stove in the shop :-( My lathe and milling machine sweat in cold weather and I really need to heat it at least enough to keep it from rusting. I cant afford to put propane heat in. So, how do you all heat your shops?? Any ideas of how to do it cheaply without propane or electric? I have considered a heatpump. Has anyone tried that and had good luck?

Thanks for all you great advice.
Charlie
 
From where you are at, can you put up a shack to house the pellet stove, and pipe the heat into the shop? Would use what you have mostly, build a small well insulated uninsured stand alone building. A furnace room.

Otherwise, look for a different insurance company. A mutual insurer might be able to find you a policy that works.

Paul
 
I have a waste oil burner. I can burn engine oil, hydraulic fluid, auto trans fluid and diesel/fuel oil. I am a repair facility and I generate about half of what I need in a season myself. The rest is brought in by area farmers who are tickled they have a place to dump their used oil.

Casey in SD
 
How cold is your climate? Heat pump works great down to about 32 degrees- below that, the auxiliary electric elements come on, and its pretty much just an electric furnace at that point. And initial cost is pretty expensive, as well.

The waste oil idea has some promise, if you have a source.
 
Put some in 20 years ago , ran it through pvc pipe for conduit , and its still going strong . Poor people have poor ways ,lol . Deluxe
 
Insulate the crap out of it and heat with electric or propane. I really can't believe it costs any less to heat with pellets than either one of those.
 
Both insurance companies I've used had no problem with my installation-inspected woodstoves. I live in a mature forest so it's an easy choice.

BTW, I'm unaware of a dehumidifier that works well at very low temperatures. That you're having a humidity problem when it is cold indicates that you either have little ventilation or a very mild, if wet, winter. Exactly why it is always best to mention your location/climate.

Homemade active solar is a great heat source for many locations. I would but I am unsuccessful in giving away all the firewood I have to deal with here anyway.
 
if your in a cold climate i wouldn't use a heat pump
consider a wood stove, fuel oil space heater, etc
have you consider the relative cost between electric and propane vs wood pellet??
 
Keep the pellet burner, ditch the insurance company. I use a corn / pellet burner in my shop, insurance considers it a "heating appliance" not a wood stove.
 
Key word is dew point. You don't need to heat it for comfort, only enough to keep condensation under control. Use paste wax on bare metal for added protection. LP can put moisture in if too much is used without vent. Insulation is the cheapest as it is a one time expense and will lessen fuel need thereafter.

Keep in mine that cycling heat up and down cast will be cold and will condense, so infrared over that equipment or circulating fans will help as would dedicated insulated covers with small electric rod type heaters.
 
I am with Paul and others, shop for insurance, I was using a corn stove when my shop burned and it was the only wall not toasted to a crisp. The adjuster could not say enough good about the stove...
 
Got to agree with those that say to keep the stove and ditch the insurance company. There's absolutely no reason any insurance company should have a problem with a properly certified heating device, regardless of the source of the heat. Heck your more likely to have a problem with a gas heater that would blow up the building, or with an oil heater that would burn it down than you are a pellet stove.
 
Thank you for all your comments. I have American Family right now. They have been great with my wood heat inside. But they said absolutely no solid fuel in shop because its too easy to accidentally leave something out with flammable fumes and/or park a vehicle that has a gas leak. Don"t know what they think will happen if fumes reach a propane furnace LOL. I will check with USAA and will add the heat lamps for sure over the mill and lathe. May try the active solar also.
thanks again.
Charlie
 
My insurance company wants all heat sources to be near the ceiling because of possible fuel fumes. I heat as much as possible with waste oil but also have a couple of LP furnaces too.
 
Time to educate your insurance agent. Every pellet/corn burning stove I have seem has a sealed burn pot, with "piped in" outside combustion air.
If installed according to instructions, it is as safe as any other heating device. Even approved for mobil homes.
As for cost, with a thermostat capable of a lower setting, propane might be cheaper. I heat the house mainly with pellets. It is in central Mn, started as a log cabin, with 4 additions, not really energy efficient. At the lowest setting it gives approx 40° rise above outside temp, burns a bag of pellets a day. Pellet prices vary from $3.99 to $4.95 a bag, depending on where I shop & if I buy 1 or 50 at a time.
Willie
 
My son in law put in a pellet stove last year,didnt use a drop of oil.Friend put one in several years ago.He used 1 bag a day.100 gallons of fuel oil can cost 360.00.Dealers require 100 gallon minimum.Dealer we buy from will supply less.Pellets can be bought a bag at a time.Easy to store and you can buy them when you have the money.I ran out of oil in April a few years ago_Oil dealers have fixed delivery days here.Theres a general store close to me but the clown who was running it had no kerosene, no off road diesel, no road diesel.I called a dealer who had a wed delivery day.He wouldnt take a check,only cash.We had 135.00 in cash,wasnt enough, he wouldnt stop.My regular dealer had his truck broke down with a bad differential.I drove to a general store and bought 5 gallons of off road diesel.I see a lot of people buying off road diesel 5 gallons at a time because they dont have 400 bucks to buy a minimum order of fuel.Local oil dealers are making a lot of people switch to pellet stoves.I used to keep a 50 gallon drum of kerosene until the price went to 4 bucks a gallon.
 
Insurance agents are scared of wood heat and dogs. They can cancel you if you have either. No rational explanation needed from them. You have to play their little game or switch to another agent, and good luck with that. It's frustrating to try to "educate" someone who's never had a stick of firewood in his hands.
 
Charlie,

I put a sun room on house, passive solar. Use windows that are not low E. Low-e windows block solar gain.

Know a man in Florida that has a machine shop. He covers his machines with heavy blankets. Wondering if the blankets soak up some moisture and helps prevent rust? Blanks then dry out when temps go up. Not sure how effective it really is. May try it.

Better be careful if the word gets out your are a teacher, some may come down on you.
What science do you teach? George
 
Boy you got a lot of answers about insurance, but just a few about your question. You're limited with taking propane and electric out of the picture. How about a wood burner outside that puts hot air inside?
 
[i:654c4848f0]Know a man in Florida that has a machine shop. He covers his machines with heavy blankets. Wondering if the blankets soak up some moisture and helps prevent rust? Blanks then dry out when temps go up.[/i:654c4848f0]

I put terrycloth towels over the cast iron tables on my table saw and bandsaw. No problems with rust in an unheated shop.

I also rub them down with a new dry scotchbrite pad once a year or so and put a coat of Turtle Wax on them.
 
If all your interested in is preventing rust, place the equipment on wood and cover with a sheet. The equipment will then be air temperature, not floor, preventing condensation.
 

I can't imagine why you can't afford propane. My propane is very expensive here in NH, but I use so little with the non-vented catalytic heat unit that I heat my 40x50x17 shop for $400.00 per year. I have a CO detector four feet away and I get ZERO moisture from it, at least none that condenses anywhere.
 
I agree Willie; my neighbor who is a Cabinet Maker has a pellet stove in his 36'x 48' wood-working shop which has wooden floors - NO PROBLEMS . Keeps his shop toasty warm on the coldest of days.
 
(quoted from post at 04:04:05 11/09/13)Every pellet/corn burning stove I have seem has a sealed burn pot, with "piped in" outside combustion air.
If installed according to instructions, it is as safe as any other heating device. Even approved for mobil homes.

The older pellet stoves used room air. The combustion fan was right at the bottom of the stove, pulling air just above floor level. There is a reason insurance companies wouldnt cover garages and outbuildings that had them installed... because they had a high rate of burning the buildings down. Gas fumes can become a powerful beast.

Like rd 2N in mo mentioned, code usually says 18 inches above the floor and sometimes as high as 48 inches above the floor but insurance companies many times just cancel because the risk is too great. Corn stoves and pellet stoves are a nitch market (low percentage of houses) that are many times homeowner installed. Thats too big of a risk due to uneducated installers and homeowners saying "ya, that will work".

A quick google search shows that the old style, room air feed systems are still being sold, at least the website for them is still active. http://www.bucknercornstoves.com/ Many other companies copy that design, its a very simple stove so its impossible to fully patent.
 
An oil furnace can pull in gasoline fumes.Most garages are sharp enough to to do gas tank work outdoors.Pellet stoves will push oil heat aside.I saw a ton of pellets for 200.00 yesterday.You can buy pellets by the bag here.You can stock up in summer.Pellet stove pay off in 2 years.An insurance co that wont insure wood heat homes wont have many customers left.
 
Paste wax is better..A fellow wrote that a friend gave him a revolver that had been oiled with WD40.The gun was tied up, nothing worked.He pulled the side plate and found a gummy mess in the works.After cleaning,gun was fine.WD 40 leaves behind a gummy residue that must be removed before the saw can be used.I use wax on my planer bed to make it run smoother.
 
(quoted from post at 18:35:42 11/08/13) Hi all, Insurance says i cant use the pellet stove in the shop :-( My lathe and milling machine sweat in cold weather and I really need to heat it at least enough to keep it from rusting. I cant afford to put propane heat in. So, how do you all heat your shops?? Any ideas of how to do it cheaply without propane or electric? I have considered a heatpump. Has anyone tried that and had good luck?

Thanks for all you great advice.
Charlie
Is your shop also a garage? If so you'll want to check your local building codes. Any type of heater where a pilot or burner is exposed to room air is not allowed here...no matter how high off the floor.

How big is your shop? How well is it insulated?
Is there a market for a used pellet stove in your area? You could sell it and use the proceeds towards a different type of heater.
 

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