Pellet stove, Who's got one? Opinions?

[scapegoat]

Hey guys, havent posted in awhile. Good to be back. Wondering who has any experience with those pellet stoves they sell? Looking to heat a 20'x22' insulated garage. I don't like the idea of propane or fuel oil as it will get expensive fast. Just wanting to heat it while im out there kind of thing. Would not be heated all the time. Lets hear it fellas!

[Sberry]

Spend a bit more on ceiling insulation if you have to, for that size garage it would be propane all the way, put a programmable thermostat on it. Pellets, wood a pain in the azz and its going to eat garage space and needs tending when you are not there. Turn the gas down low when you leave to conserve.
We burn a lot of wood, we burn some gas, If I had to buy pellets I would buy gas. We have a big wood supply so it makes sense where we are heating greedy buildings.

[Sberry]

Lots of good choices in gas equipment at less up front cost than a pellet stove.

[scapegoat]

Something like a Modine HotDawg? I have heard good things about those.

[Rocky D]

I have one...my house is all electric, so there's no gas...pellets are cheap, and it's one heck-of-a-lot easier to dump a few pellets than to chop, store, load firewood. Mine fits right in the fireplace. Slickest thing since sliced bread!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/RockyD/Stuff%20I%20built/Mantel/MVC-897F.jpg

[Wyoming]

As Cary said, spend the money getting the garage well insulated first. Any source of heat will be expensive unless you insulate well. After that, check the price for pellet fuel in your area. It has gone up substantially along with the price of other heating fuels. Corn stoves used to be cheap heat until bio-fuels/gasahol took off towards the heavens. For such a small shop area I would be looking into a direct vent high effiency propane forced air wall mount heater to keep the fuel bill down. Cheaper initial price for the heater. With good insulation and a high efficiency unit you should come out cheaper both initially and in the long run. I'm running two radiant gas ceiling mounted heaters up in my 40 X 59 shop and have yet to see a higher than $80 a month heat bill with the thermostat set at 40-45 degrees until I use the shop...$35 a month if I don't crank the heat while I'm up there and most of that is the minimum service charge. I spin the thermostat to 70-80 for 10-15 minutes to warm the shop and than crank it back to 40-45. Heaters don't come on unless we have sub-zero temperatures. Forget the radiant ceiling heaters unless you want to spend a small fortune initially...I bought them for efficiency and resale down the road.

[villemur]

I have the 60,000 BTU Modine Hot Dawg in a shop that's close to the size of your garage. I love it. I only turn it on when I'm going to be working in the shop, so I don't use much propane at all. It brings up the temperature fast and it was pretty easy to install.

If you calculate all of the install costs, plus consider that a pellet stove probably won't be able to bring the temperature up as quickly, you'll come to the conclusion that the Hot Dawg is a good deal.

If you were looking for full-time heat for your house then a pellet stove might make more sense. But for part-time use in a shop, propane is it.

[scapegoat]

Great info fellas! I havent insulated the garage yet. But I plan on using batting in the walls and a blow in type in the ceiling. Probably do 12" or more in the ceiling. Maybe an R13 in the walls. They are only 2x4's. So a hotdawg seems to be the way to go? I will only be firing it up when im out in the garage rebuilding a transmission (or drinking beer) or working on the snowmobile or WELDING!:D

[Sberry]

Yes, a 60 would be plenty, a 45K would do. Personally I would heat at low level, like a couple guys said, 45 or so and that size wouldn't take much to keep it from ever freezing. My shop never drops much below 50, I have full utilities but don't want paint or anything in here frosty. My Bud has one, 30X40 and leaves it on low, often uses some wood but if he dont want to attend it the gas takes over and its not an iceberg if he does want to be in there.

[migwelder05]

I do and we love it

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii309/Allischalmer18/abnickel.jpg

[mike6845]

I heat my garage shop (24x32) with a 45K propane Hot Dawg heater. I've had it now for about 4 years and love it. In the middle of winter I go out into the shop, turn it on and when I come back from a cup of coffee, the shop is real comfortable. These heaters arte cheap, efficient and quite reliable along with it being very safe to use and easy to install.

[Rocky D]

When I was a newbie in The Army in Germany, in the winter... was in the field in our welding truck, and I mean to tell ya those winters were COLD. So I got the bright idea to fire up a rose bud and keep warm...it worked great for some time, then I noticed it was getting hard to breathe! :eek: I jumped out the back into the snow, feeling quite stupid! :o :D

Those flame heaters burn up a lot of oxy so be careful! :eek:

[MAC702]

...fire up a rose bud and keep warm...it worked great for some time, then I noticed it was getting hard to breathe! ...
Those flame heaters burn up a lot of oxy so be careful! :eek:

Okay, I'm intrigued. Was this a rosebud off of a oxy/acet set, or just a big air/propane set? If O/A, and you were supplying oxy to a neutral (or oxidizing) flame, would it adversely affect your breathing atmosphere? I would at first think no, but maybe there's something I'm not thinking about.

[Sandy]

Okay, I'm intrigued. Was this a rosebud off of a oxy/acet set, or just a big air/propane set? If O/A, and you were supplying oxy to a neutral (or oxidizing) flame, would it adversely affect your breathing atmosphere? I would at first think no, but maybe there's something I'm not thinking about.

I'm thinking the by product of the flame is going to soon displace whatever natural air there is. If it doesn't displace it, it would at least pollute/dilute it??

[MAC702]

Good point. It's gonna be making a bunch of CO2 and gaseous H2O that has to go somewhere...

[Blacksmith]

Excess CO2 will kill you even with an abundance of oxygen. Primary reason why closed environments like nuclear submarines have CO2 scrubbers in addition to the oxygen generators. I believe that since your lungs are primarily an exchange site, the extra CO2 makes it hard to reject the CO2 in your body and take in oxygen so that in effect you are asphyxiated.

[RcRacer]

First, to answer the original poster, I do have a pellet stove in the house and it's great. It is a fireplace insert similar to Rocky D's. For my 20x20 garage ( unisulated ) I had been using a 35k to 50K BTU propane heater. It does a decent job and I only use it when I'm in there. The biggest problem with an unvented propane heater is CO2 and water vapor. The humidity causes condensation. If you are going to use any type heater, propane or otherwise, I would recommend a vented heater.

[PJinNJ]

I have one for the house and it's beautiful. I have an old coal stove in the barn/workarea and it works well. For me it's the cheapest method to have constant heat in the barn. Tried propane once and while the air heated everything else remained cold. With the coal, even the steel is at room temp. I can also leave the coal smouldering for a weekend before it needs tending. Pellets for a house awesome, not sure for my barn though, but I did think about it.

[TuscolaMatt]

My shop is 24x24, insulated. In the winter I just plug in a couple 1500W space heaters and keep the ceiling fan on (I have a literal one - a box fan on the ceiling - heh heh). It doesn't exaclty get hot in there - but I can get it a good 30 degrees warmer then outside in an hour or so...


...I guess I'd point out that I live TX too - heh heh. :)

[scapegoat]

Im going to be bringing it from 0 degrees fahrenheit or less up to a comfortable temperature. I would like to at least get it up to 50 degrees:cool:

[Rocky D]

Mercy! 50° is freezing, out here! :eek: :D

[scapegoat]

Mercy! 50° is freezing, out here! :eek: :D

Ha!Ha! Thats great. Heck its 30 degrees outside when I leave for work and I have a t-shirt on:cool:

[Roger]

When I lived in San Diego would drive up to Palomar Observatory some winters as snow reminder. Did it once on a motor cycle.

[Rocky D]

When I lived in San Diego would drive up to Palomar Observatory some winters as snow reminder. Did it once on a motor cycle.

I've done that ride, to on my motorcycle....lot of accidents involving bikes on that winding road...bikers forget when making a left-hand corner, you need to be on the right side of the road, they lean out over the yellow line and get decapitated by oncoming traffic.

I wasn't going to mention this, but on the 14th some no-good-nick stole my bike from in front of my house...got it on security camera, but was just out of range...PD wasn't interested in looking for it...prolly already chopped up...insurance company was generous...I found a newer one for less money in LA and will be picking it up Sunday. So all is well. I like the Honda PC800, they quit making in 1998...my other was a '90...the new one a '98. :cool:

[Roger]

A shipmate was going around a corner on his motorcycle and about a mile later looked down at his missing lower leg. How did that happen was his thought. The car had stopped but he didn't know there was an accident.

CHP aggressively tries to control driving on it's twisty canyon roads. Over center line in corner is rewarded with ticket.