Workshop heating - wood burner?

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Graysalchemy

Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by Graysalchemy »

Framerpicture wrote:As we currently pay to have our waste wood removed and sent to landfill .
Not strictly true, wood is not allowed in landfill and should be recycled by your waste company. In actual fact wood recycling is very big business with the majority of it being used of biofuel for power stations. So by burning it yourself probably has little impact on your carbon footprint.

I give all mine away to a local pig farmer in exchange for sausages.
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by misterdiy »

I bet you ae sick of sausages now then. Being a commercial framer you must be able to supply loads of offcuts which equates to loads of sausages. Dos he do cumberland sausages?

if so I might bring min up in a trailer instead of feeding my woodburner.

I can just taste them now
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by simoonez »

An efficient woodburner should be great for a workshop.
You could also get one with a backburner and rig up some radiators - the heat can go where you want it then.
I'm thinking of making a rocket stove and linking it to underfloor heating. Luxury. And incredibly efficient.

prospero wrote: Lot of reports of firewood poaching in the forestry hereabouts. When have you ever heard of that before? :roll:
I do woodland management in the winter months, and it certainly seems that wood is considered 'fair game'. Leave anything nearish a road and it will disappear. Whole trees, small branches, sawdust, anything will be gone. It's quite an effort hiding stacks of wood to keep.

I've been burning my offcuts up to now, but wood for sausages, I like that idea.
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JamesC
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by JamesC »

I kind of agree with trinity to look to sales/growth and not costcutting - the better environment can improve morale/efficiency/quality too (best to be framing things at about a normal room temperature really). We found by measuring in our old cold workshop a metre of acrylic can expand by 3 mm from nearly freezing to warm! Some adhesives won't work too cold.

But as grays said some workshops may be virtually impossible to heat due to height and it's difficult to invest in a short term rental. Sometimes to build up a business from little a fair bit of grit and sacrifice is needed. We found ourselves in that situation being young when we started.

We used to have such a unit on rolling lease with draughty roller shutters and 15ft high ceilings were bad enough (suspended ceilings can be cheaper than you might think we were told but never had). Was about 1300 sq. feet split into two sections and office.

We had a 10kw or so (space heater) which got the main 600 ft space warm in about 10 mins first thing, but wasn't needed all the time, maybe £150 worth of outdoor gas (propane I think, not butane) over the winter. As we are busy printers and framers the hotpress is left on most of the day which is nearly 100 degress over a near 2 sq.m area. We placed that at the back of the room on purpose and left it open. That and the odd radiator (put one under your roller laminator to heat the rollers and make mounting easier!) seemed to be enough to maintain heat, working in normal jumpers but sometimes less if doing hard work.

Now we have a 4,000 sq ft over two floors and the lower floor has laminate floor and low ceilings. Not yet had a winter here but minimal heating will be required I think. Apparently every person you have in a room is like 1 bar on an electric fire I read once. We have 3-5 downstairs.

Some other points

1) We get a very large wheelie bin (biggest one) from a private waste/recycling company and the cost is £156 a year for 13 lifts! Cheaper than council by far, and more flexible. We take cardboard for free disposal too nearby in the van. Plus it's peace of mind,
2) The guides on min temperature seem to suggest 14 degrees, unless the work is physical
3) Keeping the heat down is a bigger problem upstairs so far with the thin roof, but it's mainly storage, offices, or occasional use. That's why I know the temperature guides (max 30 deg)
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JamesC
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by JamesC »

PS I would do almost anything for sausages and love the old fahioned bartering system! (economy and civil disorder not quite got that bad yet to be widespread).

PS My frame has a home woodburner and takes the better offcuts, helps keep a happy ship.
Graysalchemy

Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by Graysalchemy »

Jamesc when I said in exchange for sausages what I should have said is the promise of sausages usually once a year. The pig man not only takes my wood but that of a carpentry business next door. He also takes all there sawdust along with milk from a dairy and a curryks from a curry factory. We do wonder what is burnt and what is feed to the pigs or goes in the sausages, mdf perhaps.
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by Smudges dad »

Apparently every person you have in a room is like 1 bar on an electric fire I read once.
From A level physics (34 years ago) it's 100W per person whereas a 1 bar fire is 1,000W (assuming 2,400 kcalories per day)
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by Trinity »

Not necesssarily true Smudge, 44 years ago I recall Denise Bailey (named changed) was capable of 1000W. That was in the physics classroom.
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Re: Workshop heating - wood burner?

Post by firewood »

never thought of that. that would be a great job
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