|
|
Posted by D. Sherman on Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 15:52:16 :
In Reply to: This is off the subject, but... posted by Sam on Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 15:07:32 :
It all depends on how much money you have for the heater, the shop, and the fuel. It's easy to put a free-standing wood stove in pretty much anywhere any time. Keep in mind that the "tri-wall" pipe you'll need to go up through the roof is likely to run you $500 or so, unless you're getting it for free along with the stove. If you could possibly swing it, "hydronic" radiant hot-water heat in the floor would be the way to go. I don't have it (or the shop) yet, but everybody I know of who has it likes it. Even if all you do is put the tubing in the slab when you pour it, it'll be a step in the right direction. Once you have the system set up, you can heat the water with just about anything -- wood, propane, waste oil, natural gas, electricity... I know a guy who has a huge shop and a nice house and he heats them both with a waste-oil fired free-standing hot water unit that's in its own shed between the house and shop. Some of these units will burn multiple kinds of fuel so you could use, for example, wood when you have it and oil when you don't or when you're gone for a while. My feeling about wood is that it's never worth it when you have to buy the wood or haul it a long distance, or if you have to buy a truck and all the equipment just to get wood, but if you live in the middle of a forest, already have the gear, and can get all the free wood you'll ever need within a few miles, it's definitely the way to go.
You can't beat a free-standing wood stove, even if it's just an oil-barrel stove, for foolproof reliability and energy independence. It has no moving parts, requires no electricity, and nobody sends you a bill for using it. When the s--t hits the fan, be it storms, energy shortages, poverty, or political trouble, the one thing that's sure to keep on making heat is a regular old wood stove.
All in all, if it was me, I wouldn't turn down the free stove, unless it's something completely useless like a Franklin type, but I'd really try to get the hydronic coils in the slab when I poured it, even if I couldn't afford the heater to go with it yet.