Wood burning stove for the workshop?

[Old Grizzly]

In this cold weather my thoughts have turned to workshop heating. It is hard for me to justify turning on electric heaters just for one person when we are being so careful in the house so I am thinking of fitting a woodburner. If you have done this can you any recommendations for a small (and cheap) stove and any advice on fitting the flue? The flue fitting looks as if it should be straightforward but in my experience things are rarely as simple as they look. The flue components also look horrendously expensive. My workshop is built of concrete blocks and has a flat roof so the flue can go straight up through the roof. Thanks.

I bought a cheap and cheerful 'boxy' little stove fabricated in 3mm plate, probably from Eastern Europe [ebay]. With bits of flue scavenged from car boots, it owes me about £120 all in.
I mounted a stripped out cooker extractor hood a couple of feet above the top of the stove to collect rising hot air and have a small exhaust fan and ducting to carry the air to the colder far end of the Portacabin.
Fire and monoxide alarms for peace of mind, and I let the fire die down at the end of the day. If it's been on all day. It surprised me how much the contents and fabric of the shop hold enough heat to keep the chill off over night

 

[BucksDad]

How tall is your workshop? Is your workshop close to your boundary and neighbours? I for one would not want to be the neighbour of someone who had their chimney from a woodburning stove in an outbuilding at 2.5m height or thereabouts.

 

[Lard]

I had a wood burner in my workshop for a few years but eventually realised that I got warmer chopping and sawing the fuel than I did from the stove and wasted time keeping it going.So last year spend under £100.00 and installed a diesel cabin heater. Brilliant no mess ,no smell 1 press to start and simple knob to adjust temp. Simple 25mm hole in wall for exhaust and 'luckily' 1200 heating oil tank (mine) to nick the odd liter from.

Don't suppose you have a web link for it do you? Sounds like something I could do with

 

[Bodger7]

I had a wood burner in my workshop for a few years but eventually realised that I got warmer chopping and sawing the fuel than I did from the stove and wasted time keeping it going.So last year spend under £100.00 and installed a diesel cabin heater. Brilliant no mess ,no smell 1 press to start and simple knob to adjust temp. Simple 25mm hole in wall for exhaust and 'luckily' 1200 heating oil tank (mine) to nick the odd liter from.

Thanks Izzy. That has really given me something to consider. I have googled oil heaters and that might be the answer to my heating dilemma. They seem relatively cheap to run (5 hours heat per litre for 5 kw) if I have understood the blurb. Is that a reasonable estimate? Also less space taken up both with stove and wood to burn. Downside, I won't be able to dispose of my waste wood and won't have the cheery sight of the flames. Decisions, decisions. But thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Bodger7]

How tall is your workshop? Is your workshop close to your boundary and neighbours? I for one would not want to be the neighbour of someone who had their chimney from a woodburning stove in an outbuilding at 2.5m height or thereabouts.

Yes, I am concerned with the possibility of being a nuisance to my neighbours and woodturning fires can be a nuisance.

 

[Bodger7]

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my post. I have been given a lot of food for thought and I am now agonising between an oil heater, woodburner or multi fuel stove. At the moment I am tending towards the oil heater for the reasons given by Izzy. My workshop stints tend to be for a couple of hours at a time and the ability to heat it economically with minimal hassle is very appealing.

 

[Old Grizzly]

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my post. I have been given a lot of food for thought and I am now agonising between an oil heater, woodburner or multi fuel stove. At the moment I am tending towards the oil heater for the reasons given by Izzy. My workshop stints tend to be for a couple of hours at a time and the ability to heat it economically with minimal hassle is very appealing.

If you are going to get an diesel heater I would recommend watching a series of videos by a youtube user 'John McK 47'. This guy has many years of experience with these heaters really knows his stuff and is a good teacher. These heaters are really efficient when installed properly and run on the intended fuel. Ignore any videos of folks running them on waste engine oil, brake fluid chip fat and the like ... unless of course you like tearing your hair out and wish to become proficient at stripping. cleaning and re-building them
Stay warm

 

[IZZY]

Thanks Izzy. That has really given me something to consider. I have googled oil heaters and that might be the answer to my heating dilemma. They seem relatively cheap to run (5 hours heat per litre for 5 kw) if I have understood the blurb. Is that a reasonable estimate? Also less space taken up both with stove and wood to burn. Downside, I won't be able to dispose of my waste wood and won't have the cheery sight of the flames. Decisions, decisions. But thank you for the suggestion.

I haven't done a definitive consumption test but I think that the figure you quote may be a bit optimistic.

I would suggest you have a look at the Mig - Welding Forum and search cabin heaters or Diesel heaters you will find a good discussion by users . You might even find a well known name there too.

 

[Jacob]

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my post. I have been given a lot of food for thought and I am now agonising between an oil heater, woodburner or multi fuel stove. At the moment I am tending towards the oil heater for the reasons given by Izzy. My workshop stints tend to be for a couple of hours at a time and the ability to heat it economically with minimal hassle is very appealing.

Wood is carbon zero, which should be a major factor nowadays!
Also if you use it carefully - small fires burning small stuff fast, etc. it gets very hot quite quickly and is good even for just an hour or so.

 

[IZZY]

I haven't done a definitive consumption test but I think that the figure you quote may be a bit optimistic.

I would suggest you have a look at the Mig - Welding Forum and search cabin heaters or Diesel heaters you will find a good discussion by users . You might even find a well known name there too.

If you do go down this route give some thought as to the positioning. I put mine at the end of my workbench and exited the exhaust straight through the wall about 150mm away. Nothing wrong with that at all except that I have a feeling that the hot exhaust gas could be used in a better way than just letting it go straight into the atmosphere.

 

[Jacob]

If you do go down this route give some thought as to the positioning. I put mine at the end of my workbench and exited the exhaust straight through the wall about 150mm away. Nothing wrong with that at all except that I have a feeling that the hot exhaust gas could be used in a better way than just letting it go straight into the atmosphere.

Much better to fit a non insulated cast iron flu by the longest practical route and getting a lot of heat back.

 

[Jameshow]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/27548815...tixoXeJTeO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Might suit??

 

[Keith 66]

I just made a small woodurner for my workshop, it is made from a Divers air tank that i found washed up on the sea wall. Its in a large double garage & burns about a bucket full of sticks & small logs a day. In this past week temperature was down to minus 4 in the morning & zero in the afternoon. In the workshop it was up to 15 degrees in half an hour & 24 degrees by lunchtime. The building is very well insulated. I have to feed the stove about once every 20 minutes . A great success!

 

[Stevekane]

I just made a small woodurner for my workshop, it is made from a Divers air tank that i found washed up on the sea wall. Its in a large double garage & burns about a bucket full of sticks & small logs a day. In this past week temperature was down to minus 4 in the morning & zero in the afternoon. In the workshop it was up to 15 degrees in half an hour & 24 degrees by lunchtime. The building is very well insulated. I have to feed the stove about once every 20 minutes . A great success!
View attachment 151587keep the chill off.

I expect it runs like a rocket once its going, a super bit of kit. My only point would be the air gaps in the door and possibly the base which I guess allow the fire to run away bit? in fact my cast iron woodstove gets a bit too hot if a bit of the door gasket becomes dislodged, but it would be difficult to do much about that and to have it belting away it would certainly keep the chill off.

 

[Jacob]

I just made a small woodurner for my workshop, it is made from a Divers air tank that i found washed up on the sea wall. Its in a large double garage & burns about a bucket full of sticks & small logs a day. In this past week temperature was down to minus 4 in the morning & zero in the afternoon. In the workshop it was up to 15 degrees in half an hour & 24 degrees by lunchtime. The building is very well insulated. I have to feed the stove about once every 20 minutes . A great success!
View attachment 151587

It's "rocket" stove! Good idea.
You can run a big stove the same way by feeding in just small amounts to burn fast, but you also can fill it and have it burning slower for longer. Less efficient but saves on re-fuelling frequency.

 

[IZZY]

It's "rocket" stove! Good idea.
You can run a big stove the same way by feeding in just small amounts to burn fast, but you also can fill it and have it burning slower for longer. Less efficient but saves on re-fuelling frequency.

I'm afraid you have made my point about the frequent attention these wood stoves can demand . Miss the 20 min. top up and they go out and you have to start again. Perhaps I've been unlucky but I go into my workshop to do something constructive not to keep an eye on the heat source.

 

[Jacob]

I'm afraid you have made my point about the frequent attention these wood stoves can demand . Miss the 20 min. top up and they go out and you have to start again. Perhaps I've been unlucky but I go into my workshop to do something constructive not to keep an eye on the heat source.

It's a trade off.

 

[Jameshow]

A decent 5kw stove will keep going for a couple of hours at a time, just the right time to put the kettle on again!!

 

[Thingybob]

When I had the stove on in winter I found workload sloped off as I got a lot of visitors just popping in for a "chat" more like a coffee and a warm but it was nice to have the contact

 

[Lefley]

A stove supplier will tell you (or work out for you) the heat output the of stove you need for a given application then advise you to buy one smaller. A smaller stove burning at maximum output is more efficient than a large stove damped down and is better for the flue as well.

So true . When I built our house - 2400 sq ft to heat I was going to put the largest stove in. Store told me put the smallest in. I went with the medium size as I thought the wee one would look funny in the large space. Wow was I wrong in the winter minus 30 had to open windows it was to hot even damped down.