Preparing for Winter III

(Picture from here.)

We've had a warm fall this year. So far this has been a good thing. It's slowed down the ripening of the persimmons but it has enabled me to catch up on getting ready for winter.

One of the things on my list is to put heat to the shop.

My shop is a 12x12 alcove off the garage. Last year, I put up walls and a ceiling. Now it's enclosed-- sort of. There are still spaces where the warm air leaks out. The doors leak. The floor is raw concrete.

That said, it's not like I'm heating the space all winter long. I need to keep warm enough that I can work there and let it freeze solid when I'm not.

My first preference was to put in a little wood stove. Wood stoves are particularly good for this. They can put out a lot of heat in a short period of time and a small stove burns out quickly. They're cheap. We already have the wood. However, code requires too much space surrounding the stove to fit it in the space I had.

The next option I investigated was a gas stove. There are three problems with this. 1) We don't have natural gas; we only have propane. 2) Propane pegs gasoline as it is often derived from oil processing. 3) The small stoves I looked at had a passive venting from the room across a surface that was intimately connected to the combustion surface. This meant dust getting in this space was a fire hazard.

Electric heating was the next thing I looked at. Electric has the cheapest installation cost but the largest continuing cost. We already pay too much for electricity. In addition, while electricity can put out some heat continuously, it doesn't pump out the initial BTUs very well-- something the shop requires. Besides which, electrical circuits are at a premium in the shop. I only have two coming from the house and one of those is dedicated to the greenhouse furnace.

The last method I looked at was a pellet heater. I had looked at this earlier but dismissed it because of the huge start up cost-- in excess of $2000. I'd be better off burning money. When the wood stove fell through I looked again.

I did find a pellet stove from Northern Tool, the US Stove Forester. This seems to have sufficient BTUs to heat the shop. It has a small foot print and, best of all, it's under $1000. Installation is easy-- a hidden cost of the wood stove which requires a full chimney.

I received the stove yesterday and it's holding down the concrete in the shop right now. I have the vent kit for the combustion chamber ($240) but I'm having trouble finding the 2 inch pipe to handle the fresh air venting. I still have to get a permit for it ($50).

I'm consoling myself that if it works out well and later I manage a better solution, it would be no hardship to take out the stove and put it in the house. All of the material would be the same. The only difference would be the cost of the actual installation and the permit.

Sigh. I've been saving for this. That's what I keep telling myself.

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