What type of heat to use?

Hey Guys: Closing up the other half of my garage/pole barn. Going to be aprox 35' long by 14' wide. Want to heat it and was thinking wood burner or wood furnace. Garage will be insulated. What do you use? and appreciate any ideas. This will double as my garage/workshop. Thanks Mike

I heat mine with gas radiant but I work for hire in mine so I need to be able to come in and turn the dial and go to work. If it was hobby or work on my own stuff liesurly I might consider wood.

I heat a 35x15 garage with a wood burning furnace it has r17 insulation and is a tight building. The furnace does a really good job. Before that heated the same building with a wood burner it was ok if you were next to it but if you had a tractor or truck in and was working on the other side of wood burner it was real cold.

I would go with the wood furnace. It will heat the garage more evenly.

I use an electric boiler and radiant in floor. A little costly to set up but I heat a 36 X 48 shop for $80 a month in Dakota.

As I had a ready supply of wood that is what I would use. Good luck and be careful.

steveormary

I have used wood in my shop for decades and it is cheap and easy to come by plus you burn it when you need to not 24/7

I heat my 22'X36' shop with a propane furnace. Actually, a 130,000 BTU house furnace with ducts shooting air in several directions.

I tried heating another shop once with a wood stove when I was working a full time day job. I found if I went out for a couple of hours in the evening, by the time the shop got comfortable it was bedtime. I finally went to a propane heater. Heating with wood simply required too much lead time to warm the place up. And among other assets, I own 40 acres of timber with an unlimited supply of firewood.

Another thing to look at is, the amount of time you spend cutting wood is time spent not working in the shop.

If it was me and an area you are talking about, only 500 sq. feet then I would get a 75,000 BTU kerosene heater. Maybe $400 for the unit and you are all set, no chimney either. Just crack the window for ventlation and you are all set. At my old house I had a 24 x 10 workshop in the garage, all framed in and insulated. I ran a 35k btu heater in it and it was 70F in the dead of winter, 0f outside. Real cozy for doing woodwork.

I heated last winter for $330 with a catalytic radiant propane unit 40x50x10 in NH.

I knew a kid that got bruned really bad with a wood stove in the garage. He opened up a paint gun near the wood stove and what was inside the paint gun caught on fire. He was messed up for years. Please stay safe if you use wood.

It would depend on several things.
1) Do you have a wood supply? If not buying wood in not much different than buying propane or fuel oil.
2) Are you going to be heating all of the time or just now and then? If just now and then I would go with something besides wood. A wood stove takes time to get producing good heat. Where a furnance is hot in a few minutes. So if you want it warm quick the furnance will heat it faster.
3) If you want heat 24/7 are you going to be around? Any kind of wood stove takes daily maintainance. Don"t believe the salesman that tells you that you can fire it once a day. You will have to add wood at least twice. Then you have ashes to go back out. I used to heat with outside wood boiler. It worked fine. It just took more time than I wanted to keep it going. I have a corn fired boiler now. It has a ten bushel hopper and an automatic ash auger. I check it everyday but it goes several days without any messing with it. Over night is no bother. Think about if you want to spend some time away. Are you going to need heat to keep things from freezing? Is there someone to check it?
4) Location. If you are in an area that is not very cold then wood makes even less sence. Fuel cost would be low with whatever you use. Also big temperature swings make wood heat hard to even out. Twenty degree mornings and a fifty degree afternoon will have you sweating. You build a big fire to warm up and them have to let it go out to cool down.
5) Cleanliness of your shop. Wood is a dirty type of heat. Wood bark and saw dust coming in. Then ashes going out.
6) Space: A wood stove and wood storage will use up more space than other types of fuel. You only are going to have 490 square feet. A wood stove and small wood pile will take up 75-100 square feet.
Now cold climate, want heat full time and you are around. Then wood heat is a very good choice. If you have not poured your floor yet than floor heat is great. Wood boiler out side low fire hassard and cleaner shop.
So you need to think these things through and then make your mind up. All types of fuel work if in the right place.

Mike I posted a similar question on the tool forum a couple weeks ago,so you could check out that post also to see what advice I got. I've got a corn /wood pellet stove that is about 10 years old that will soon have to be replace. I'm thinking about propane as my next source for heat.It's more convenient. I'm getting to old to be cutting and splitting wood. Although the exercise would do me good.

My plan in my 30x48 shop is to have both gas and wood. I have the gas heater its a 75000 btu Modine Hot Dog. Mounts to the ceiling and can be vented out the wall. It's in my house garage now but will be moved to my shed when I finish it.

Nice part is when you are going to the shop flip the gas on and you have instant heat. Then build a wood fire once youre out there.