Keep heat in my Barn

[Siriustock]

I have a 30x40 pole barn that I want to do something to help with heating in the winter. I have a wood furnace in the barn and in the winter I can work out there in jeans and a over shirt but I go though a lot of wood. The barn has work benches built into the whole back wall except behind the stove and part of the side walls also have built in work benches and storage so framing out the walls is a no go. I have about $600 I can spend so I was going to put 1/2 drywall on the ceiling and use 1/2" ridgid foam insulation on the walls. What do u think would this be enough to hold some heat in? any other ideas???

 

[bottom feeder]

At a minimum I'd put the ceiling in. If you can afford it put some big thick fiberglass batts up there first, or blow insulation in once the ceiling is up. By putting a "lid" on the space you'll hold a lot more heat in.

 

[Siriustock]

So would it just be better to do the cealing and not worry about the walls? I could dry wall and put insulation in the cealing or just dry wall on cealing and foam on the walls but not both right now.

 

[dutchgray]

Insulation, a lot of it, do anything to prevent warn air circulation reaching cold outer skins, add thermal mass around the stove (a lot of masonry) it will help to average out the temperature which helps a lot with condensation

 

[theoldwizard1]

Ceiling first. Drywall and as much loose/blown in insulation as you can afford. 6-12" minimum. Cellulose is usually cheaper than fiberglass.

For the walls, just do what you can to seal up large cracks. Leave the rest for when you have more money.

 

[buddyboy]

air that is warm will rise.

insulating the ceiling first is your biggest bang for the buck, when you fire up your stove will warm the air around it and that warm air heads straight up past your trusses up to the cold cold roof and will keep doing so until it warms the roof and the air surrounding it then it will 'fill up' that space until your barn is warm.

by insulating the ceiling first you are doing 2 things, one you are stopping the warm air from going up and away from you, and two, you are decreasing the amount of cubic feet you are heating.

then seal up the cracks in the walls, keep that cold wind out

then insulate walls, hold that heat in

then cover the walls, this really seals things up

then figure out how to insulate your floor when you've done everything else