The Home Machinist!

We have investigated Sterling Engines or similar to generate electric power. It also expels heat and there is a boiler involved. During winter that heat could be piped radiant inside, quite remote from the engine. I guess everybody knows this stuff.

and an additional 2,560 feet of shop.

Whoa that is what a dream house is!

Harold, you can buy wood fired furnaces ready made; all the R+D done by someone who's making many units.

As far as I understand, there are 2 basic types; one that attempts to vary the heat output to meet demand and is very inefficient [sometimes called a 'smoker'], and a high efficiency high temperature type that burns clean but only runs at near full power.
The idea is to have a big hot water tank to buffer the heat output.

I've done some research + experimentation towards building a stratified heat storage tank, if anyone's interested.
I haven't built it though.
I have friends and family who bought lovely retirement houses in the countryside, but I don't understand why you all choose places that get so cold in winter!

My shop is heated by oil only. I used to have propane, but as it turns out, the oil is cheaper. The house has an oil furnace, a pellet stove and a just installed heat pump. I went with the heat pump for the air conditioning in the summer and a heater for the fall. So far, its doing very well and doesn't seem to be that expensive. My only problem with oil is the oil supplier down the street, who is the cheapest by the way, I pay cash before delivery and they still send me a bill and expect me to pay, again!

I looked into the outside boilers, but they are a lot of money for a short life span and use a lot more wood than a wood stove.

Jim B

Does oil remain cheaper when you take efficiency into account?

I found this chart and it allows you to enter your local price for each fuel type.
https://coalpail.com/fuel-comparison-ca ... me-heating

rrnut-2 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 14, 2018 8:51 am I looked into the outside boilers, but they are a lot of money for a short life span and use a lot more wood than a wood stove.

Because I heat with a hydronic system, an outdoor boiler is considerably more complicated. For one, it's a closed system, which I have yet to find being made commercially. In order for this type of system to operate without issues, it must remain closed. That would mean a heat exchanger would be required, or the auxiliary boiler would have to be built accordingly.

As the concrete floor in the shop is quite thick (6¼"), with some clever thinking it could be used to absorb excessive heat. It takes hours to raise the temperature, so I already have a reasonable way to store heat while a wood fired boiler cooled down.

How does one feed wood (not pellets, as they are not cheap), and control heat output? My thoughts have been to keep the fire relatively small, but intense. A fan for combustion, to ensure clean burning.

H

John Hasler wrote: ↑Sun Oct 14, 2018 8:59 am Does oil remain cheaper when you take efficiency into account?

Depends on the type of boiler. The one I installed is high efficiency, but that's a relative term. The stack temperature is still quite hot, unlike the high efficiency furnaces that vent with plastic pipe.

Propane btu's per gallon: 91,000
#2 heating oil btu's per gallon: 138,500

H

My son in law supplemented his oil furnace with a pellet fed stove in the living room. It works better for not so cold days. He lives in N.J. but that is another story.
Somewhere I lost the transition from HD to heating. Did I fall asleep?

--earlgo

We're paying $1.22/gal for propane: $0.0000134/btu. Oil is $2.96/gal: $0.0000214/btu. Easy decision.

Did I fall asleep?

These threads take a life of their own...
From fasteners availability to hardware store density. City versus open country versus the deep boonies
From long travel for hardware to long travel for heating fuel
From heating fuel is a very short step to heating efficiency

Now you have it

Anyway the new topic is more interesting than the original.

I have propane to heat my shop but I also use warm air from my common wall south facing green house.

To regulate the running of the greenhouse air system I have a 10" stick of ABS pipe sealed at one end in both the greenhouse and the shop. On the other end I reduce each tube to a 1/4" hose barb fitting. Each of theses tube runs to a pressure switch that compares pressures. Any time the tube in the greenhouse is warmer than the one in the shop, the damper opens and the fan runs due to the greater expansion of the air in the warmer room.

I also have an air inlet on the shop floor into the greenhouse that allows cold air off the floor into the greenhouse when the fan runs.