(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

How to heat my barn?

D

Dave BN

Member
Now that I'm retired I want to be able to work in my barn this winter. It gets cold here in West Michigan so I'll need heat. My barn is 28' X 48' and I want to heat at least half of it. State Farm Insurance says I can't have a wood stove and I can't afford that much LP. I HAVE 12' side walls which have styrofoam insulation and a wood floor loft and cement floor.
Any ideas. Could I use an outside wood stove? I don't see how that would work since my floor is already there.
I know it sounds dumb to be thinking about this in July but time flys and it will be cold before you know it. Also contractors and parts can be hard to come by now.
Thanks.
Dave
 
I use a big torpedo heater with a thermostat, surprisingly effective, only $350 and portable to wherever I need heat.
 
I just sold a property with a 28x44x16 . I insulated walls and ceiling with fiberglass, the dry walled. Only heated half, 14x44. Put a 7kw electric heater near ceiling in a corner and blew the heat down. To take the chill off in morning, tenant would use a portable LP IR heater. Used a squirrel cage fan and blew the cold air off floor up to heater.



Insulation is the key. Check into spray foam insulation. Not cheap, it will seal air leaks, Then cover with drywall. Foam will burn.
 
Yes you could use an outdoor wood stove. Two holes in the floor for the water lines isn't a big deal. They will be next to the wall anyway. My sister and her husband have been heating their house with one for a few decades.

Most around here are under small metal carports.
 
if your building is insulated very well i would look at finding those heaters/air units like they have in motels. keep in mind you just need enough heat to feel comfortable. those will heat and cool. i would look at maybe getting two now to start with. if electricity is a concern then and out door wood stove would work but you still have the cost of running the fan. insulation of your building is the key. just my thought.
 
What does a boiler cost? Someone told me he had over $15k in his.
I think some places have ban them too, not sure,
Neighbor has one and he says it eats tons of wood.
What do you put in boil so it won't freeze? Antifreeze
 
That is the way I would go. When I still had the farm I had 2 of the 90,000 BTU models. And you do not indicate the celing has any insulation, just sounds like sidewalls so get more insulation in.
 
Put some hay or straw bales up stairs for insulation. I also use a torpedo heater on my shop. Not the best, and they smoke some, but it takes the chill off so I can work most days.
 
I'm in the same position.

I've finished and insulated a 20x24 building. Rock wool in the 2x4 stud bays, 1 foamboard in the rafter bays under a tin roof, and R19 between the ceiling joists. Ceiling and walls finished with 1/2 sheetrock.

Preliminary indications are that it's going to work quite well. 90+ outside, 70 inside.

As for heat, I'm looking for an oil-fired hot air cottage base furnace. Just need to keep the inside around 50 in the Winter.
 
Alternatively, a propane-fired torpedo heater works well, without the stench of diesel. Does add a fair bit of moisture and you still need to be careful about ventilation, but it's a step up from a diesel/kerosene heater.

I have a small one that runs off a 20 pound barbeque tank and works well at taking the chill off in my uninsulated garage.
 

I got an old forced hot air oil furnace from a trailer. I warm the space up with a salamander type heater and then the furnace keeps the temp up to where it's comfortable, about 50-55F. I only use them when I'm in there. If you mean to keep it heated all the time, that's a whole 'nuther thing.
 
make sure it is well insulated to start with. Outside wood furnace is very doable but they eat a lot of wood. I would look for another insurance company or just forget insurance all together, and use the wood stove inside.

pellet stoves work well and cost less than installing a outdoor boiler.
 
I would and have shopped for a different insurance companies multiple times in my life. I was told by insurance companies to do or not do certain things which may have been to their benefit but not mine. So I switched insurance companies. Most of the time not only was my situation covered but the overall premium was less. Even if the premium is more, It may be cheaper for you to pay a little more insurance premium than the cost of LP vs wood.
 
Dave radiant is nice no dust like forced hot air. Installed radiant in a commercial garage over existing concrete. He used a waste oil boiler and after a few shut downs due to contaminated waste oil he is very vigilant about filtering the oil. He does school bus inspections and repairs and oves the nice warm floors. My old boss has a 400,000 BTU oil fired forced hot air furnace that was removed from a green house. That warms things up in a short time. Radiant is expensive and you need to add Antifreeze and keep track of it. We used the foil wrapped insulation and use the 5 by 10 wire mesh that we also attach the radiant pex tubing to .
cvphoto94224.png
 
I installed two heaters in my workshop last winter which have been quite successful. I have a radiant infra-red portable heater which I can wheel over to about four feet of where I am working. It heats me, not the air around me. The second is a small box industrial fan heater (the biggest that will work on our domestic supply). It is mounted overhead on the roof truss an has a 6inch dia foil duct pipe attached to it. The other end has a swivel bracket so that it is angled downwards to blow warm air onto me where I work at my bench. Due to a mild winter they did not get a lot of use ando seem quite economical during the periods of use.
DavidP, South Wales
 
Have you thought about using an add-on forced air wood furnace? You would need to put it in an enclosure against the outside of your building. I'll guess that would be cheaper than a wood fired boiler setup and it gets the wood heater outside, away from any combustibles that scare your insurance agent.
 
Higher initial investment but more efficient is to run tubing into a concrete floor then hook up to a boiler that could be placed outside or in a utility building.
 
I ran into the same problem

To one insurance company a wood stove was a big red flag.

Another quoted a ridiculous premium increase.

The next one said no problem and no additional premium as long as the air intake of the stove was a certain number of inches off the ground.

Built a simple stand out of angle iron to raise it up, they came out and did an inspection of the install and I was good to go.
 
If the loft covers the amount of space you need, the key is insulation. the underside of the loft needs ~R-20 to prevent heat loss upward. the partition wall needs to be near that, maybe ~R-15. Concrete follr on grade will try to be very cold around the edges, and OK to 50 in the center. Insulating the outside of the foundation with Pink/blue 2 styrene will reduce heat loss in the concrete edges. If the concrete is poured inside the perimeter ignore the last thing. Passive solar can add heat and there are plans for DIY or contractor constructed systems. Pellet/corn stove might then be economical enough. Insulate the garage door as well. Foil backed foam can work there. Up front costs are going to be more dramatic than desired, but continuous costs will pay out. Heat pump geothermal can also be a solid consideration. Jim
 


I have a 40x50x17 barn that I have been heating with $450.00 worth of propane a year for the last 16 years. Surely you could afford that! Propane here runs $3.30 a gal. It is a non-vented catalytic unit. I keep it at 50 degrees and bump it up to 60 when I go in, and start working right away instead of feeding a wood boiler. Those are for people who need a hobby. They are also notorious for producing annoying acrid smoke.
 
Like you my company, State Farm, out and inspected my installation. The stove is 2 feet above the floor on concrete blocks. I didn't have any vehicles or gasoline in the shop when they came out.
 
Local plumber tells me you can use a standard hot water heater with a '007' recirculateing pump. Inexpencive,plus you get the beneft of haveing hot water in your shop.
 
My insurance agent added a rider to my shop policy that covered heating with a wood fired heater. It costs around $25 per year. I found that my insurance was worthless without the rider, and it's impossible to hide the evidence after the fire. Insurance companies make big money by denying claims.

I have wood that goes to waste here, fields have to be trimmed back regardless of whether I use it for fuel or let it rot.
 
I too have trees that need to be cut so a wood stove seems the logical answer. Will check again with my insurance agent about a rider.
Keep the ideas coming.
Dave
 
I can't remember all of the details, but a local fellow once heated a shop with a hot water heater circulating hot water through a large automotive radiator set in ductwork with a large fan blowing air through the radiator.

That being said, insurance companies have a right to be concerned about wood stoves. When I was doing insurance inspections it was unbelievable what I ran into that people had cobbled together for wood stoves, even in their residence let alone a shop.

Whenever I ran into a wood stove, I was required to fill out a separate two page report on just the stove, along with copious photos. The first question on the report usually was, Is the unit approved by Underwriter Laboratories? If it was, I needed to photograph the sticker that said so. If the unit was UL approved and properly installed, there usually wasn't a problem. It's when people got creative on their own that problems come up. I never ran into an insurance company that would insure a building with one of the wood stoves made out of two 55 gallon drums.

And I dealt directly with underwriters at the insurance companies. Local agents are too prone to look the other way on an issue that might get a policy cancelled 'cause if a policy is cancelled their income decreases.
 
(quoted from post at 10:48:59 07/10/21)

And I dealt directly with underwriters at the insurance companies. Local agents are too prone to look the other way on an issue that might get a policy cancelled 'cause if a policy is cancelled their income decreases.
Click to expand...

In my opinion there should be a law that holds an agent responsible for damages if they don't sell you the proper coverage.


Years ago we received our annual renewal and in the envelope was a brochure outlining all the new changes to the policy.

About a month later the weather was miserable outside so I sat down and read through the brochure.

The first thing that caught my eye was a change that said the policy would not cover any building used whole or in part for any kind of business or farming activity.

My wife ran a small accounting business from home.

I used our Quonset to store tools and parts in and in addition to parking my service truck in it I did the occasional repair there as well.

All our other outbuildings were used in one way or another for purposes related to chicken, pigs, cattle, horses etc (farming)

Got ahold of our agent Monday morning and told him if I am reading this right our place could burn to the ground and at best you are going to cover damage to the dog house.

Took him 2 days to look into it and get back to me and his reply was you are 100% correct and I can't offer you any other coverage with this company.

We went elsewhere and got coverage that would actually be of use to us if a loss occurred.
 
(quoted from post at 08:11:06 07/10/21)
.....I know it sounds dumb to be thinking about this in July but time flys and it will be cold before you know it
Click to expand...
ot dumb at all, actually smart.

Dumb would be to start thinking about first day your cold!

Couple things to think about

1) Do you need insurance on the building. Now I know why we all have insurance, but depending on the condition of the barn and cost of insurance.....

2) If the main reason you want insurance on the building is in case it burns down, maybe re-consider putting a fire in it all winter long

3) Reddi-heaters do work amazingly well, but I personally cannot stand the fumes of diesel, so I use K1. Depending how much you run it, fuel costs add up quick. They are pretty noisy too. Obviously this is a flame too, though pretty well contained.

4) Great reason to build another shop! Add radiant heat and you'll love it! I've had radiant heat in my shop (36 x 40) for about 15 years now. Wouldn't be without it. Use an oil fired boiler to heat water. Run the boiler at 120 / 140. Mix down to about 110 out the manifold. Have great insulation. Fuel cost is about two, 275 tanks a season. Probably 500 gallons.
Could heat the water other ways too, electric water heater, propane, etc
 
I dropped farm Bureau after they gave him $800 on $4400 hail claim on shingles.

I was told now FB only covers shingles for 15 years. Then zero hail claims.

Not sure, told means hear say.

Indiana farmers ins is the best company I've found after dropping FB 12 years old.
They cover hail damage on older roofs
 
Cost to heat residence in order of low to high:

Natural gas
LP
Coal(location dependent)
Wood(location dependent)
electric

Presuming not supplied with NG, then the next best by cost is LP.

Orange and blue both sell non-vented 30,000BTU heaters for under $260. I bought the 'Mr Heater' 30k BTU and it works fine. If one isn't enough, get a second and place it across the room. Easy to install, LP is easy to get, and easy to refill. I use a 100Lb tank which is about 21 gal. It'll last quite a while.
 
I am in South Dakota. I have 40x64 12 ft walls. Walls are 6 inches of insulation glass bats. Plus tyvek and tin outside, 5/8 OSB inside. Blown in insulation on top of 12 foot tin ceiling.
I use a 135K btu reznor at the ceiling in the center facing the two big doors. I keep the tstat set at 38 degrees, turn it up to 50 for working there. BIG heater does that job before I am done with coffee.
I just had the 500 gallon tank (400 max fill) summer fill. Check was $360.00 for the 2010-2011 Winter. $1.45 per gal. About $65 per month, 250 gals. . No way you can beat that.
 
I use an outdoor woodburner, circulate the water thru a heat exchanger with a squirrel cage fan blowing thru it.shop is 30 x 50 with 6 inch insulation in ceiling, 2 inch hard insulating board halfway down the sides and metal outside covering as in tin roof.firnace is second from smallest and holds overnight with 46 degree inside temp. A torpedo heater heats up initially to about 65, then turn it off and unless it's really cold the wood burner keeps it ok.Bigger furnace and two heat exchangers or bigger fan would help, but what I have is better than what I need to buy. shop is 10 ft to 14 ft ceiling ,one way slope.
 
If you are newly retired, you may try a low investment option to start out until you know how much time you actually spend out there. You can always upgrade later. A used house furnace running propane might not cost too much to install. Insulation and lowering the ceiling will help a lot and not cost a lot. Frozen concrete slabs take days to warm up unless you run heat through the slab.

If possible, avoid ventless heaters unless the building is drafty enough to be well ventilated. Water condensation from combustion gases can rot wood and rust exposed metal, plus CO2 and CO gases can harm you.
 
(quoted from post at 17:33:22 07/10/21) If you are newly retired, you may try a low investment option to start out until you know how much time you actually spend out there. You can always upgrade later. A used house furnace running propane might not cost too much to install. Insulation and lowering the ceiling will help a lot and not cost a lot. Frozen concrete slabs take days to warm up unless you run heat through the slab.

If possible, avoid ventless heaters unless the building is drafty enough to be well ventilated. Water condensation from combustion gases can rot wood and rust exposed metal, plus CO2 and CO gases can harm you.
Click to expand...

ss55, I find that my non-vented catalytic propane heater pushes the humidity up. I control the humidity in my shop to protect my antique car spring, summer and fall with a dehumidifier. I have a humidity meter in order to monitor the humidity. In the winter the humidity gets a little high only when a rare unusually warm air mass comes through.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BarnyardEngineering
The chimney is clean: The trilogy
Replies
16
Views
625
Northvale PA
N
M
Why I chose to insulate and heat my pole barn
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
showcrop
showcrop
stevieb49829
Speaking of Controls
Replies
4
Views
241
Tractorcedric
T
3
Stainless steel for my wood stove
Replies
16
Views
925
jimhorne
J
H
in floor heat?? without floor insulation
Replies
15
Views
897
showcrop
showcrop
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top