Big wood stove disapointment

[56nash]

Over the past couple of months I have been on a quest to make the garage space a place of refuge and a haven in which to work. In other words a "man cave". All this is with the blessing of my wife I might add. I have 2 24x24 attached garages, one upstairs and the other underneath it downstairs. We have a corner lot and that allows a driveway from the side to access the downstairs garage. In the basement garage I have a ventless natural gas heater which I hate and upstairs nothing. My great vision was to go with a wood burning stove since I have an almost limitless supply of hardwood scrap from a cabinet shop that could give me enough to heat my house all winter, much less a garage on weekends and evenings. I bought and brought home a nice antique enameled parlor heater that was going to fit the bill quite nicely in the upper garage, and then came the install. I called around and got pricing to get the vent installed and I was devastated to learn that residential fire code will not allow a wood burning appliance in an attached garage even if it is not being used to house automobiles at the time said wood is being burned. I considered going ahead with the plan anyway until I was clued in that if there were ever to be an unfortunate fire, my homeowners policy would more than likely not pay due to this being a non-code compliant install. Lond story short, how expensive will it be to heat using a Dayton g73 heater for weekends and evenings? Right now our outside temps are in the mid 20's. R19 wall insulation is all I could fit and maybe 6 inches of blown cellulose in the attic space.

 

[larry_g]

Can you convert the space into a workshop/studio/recroom or whatever by removing the garage door and walling the space in?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[MScott]

What about using an outdoor wood furnace? Are they allowed in your jurisdiction? That would allow you to use your wood supply and just pump the heat into the garage.

 

[Grumpy365]

Man, I feel for ya. I know how disappointing it is to have "the man" keep ya down.

 

[56nash]

My hope was to be able to use this as a wood shop part of the time and when not working park the cars inside. I think I am stuck with going electric.

 

[billcole]

I had the same issue you had, I wanted to put a wood stove in but code does not allow it. I went the way of a 10kw 220V electric heater for my garage. Look at your electric bill and determine what your killowatt hour cost is. I believe that heater is a 5kw heater so if your electric cost is $0.12/kw hour then you are looking at $0.60 per hour for continuous use. I am looking into an outside forced air wood stove as more of a full time heating option. If you are looking at using it for spot use you will be fine, just don't use it as permanent heating.

 

[skinanbones]

I think i would get a couple opions on wether you can install a woodstove in a garage. Here in Ontario Canada there is a seperate set of codes that allow a woodstove to be installed in a garage. Most people outside of the wood heat industry don't know about them as they are fairly new. The main differances are raising the stove 18" to account for fumes and Steel posts in front to stop something motorised from hitting the stove

 

[Fastback]

Can you do a pellet stove? It may be kosher?

 

[56nash]

I am told the only open flame allowed is a ceiling hung forced air natural gas unit or a ceiling hung radiant tube heater. I think I will go with a Dayton g73

 

[woodbutch]

What about a wood burning furnace? That's what I have in my shop,and it works great. I burn shop scrap and pallets,it's easy to clean up after,has a sealed firebox, and a blower that moves air. Northern sells them.

 

[56nash]

that looks interesting, but at $1000 that could pay a lot of electric bill with a G73. I think I will give up and go electric.

 

[Falcon67]

My shop is 20x24x8' R13 wall and ceiling. With the outside in the 20s~30s and the inside in the 60s the G73 runs about 15~20 minutes per hour.

 

[56nash]

That sounds like a reasonable number, our rates are about $.09/KWH so less than $2 an hour. I will gladly pay that to be able to be out in the shop the 5 months or so that it is too cold to work out there. $10 to stay out of the wifes way for 5 hours on a Saturday is a small price to pay