What do you heat your garage with?

Anyone tried to build one of them solar exchangers?

Sniper said:

Hey Sarge, that looks about the same design as the Mother Earth News unit I was looking over the other night. I found it by chance searching for "homebuilt furnace/woodstove".

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I had those same plans a few years back. Never built one, though. I'm still curious how well it works. Sarge, how much oil does it consume? Up here, we need it to burn 24/7 for three months or so.

I built a new shop/garage four years ago. It's got radiant floor heat, tied into the house system. A little pricey to install, but it's cheap to heat, and always warm.

Sorry I got called out last night on one of those..

domestic violence situations....anyway...
the heater works really well...even I was surprised.... it's more work than flipping a switch or turning it on...have to preheat the burner...they say to use a pool of kerosene in the burner but I built a stand off the center pedestal that holds a small metal dish with about a cup of kerosene that I light....it's directly under the burner and heats the burner up really fast....and that usually does it...then when it's just about burned off, i start the drip...it pools for a bit and then starts to boil then ignites and the drips keep the pool filled while the oil fumes / splash (for lack of a better term) burn.... if you drip is too slow it will burn out.... if it's too high you can risk running it over the side of the burner but if you get it going at about 3 to 5 drips a second (at least for me) it will keep a pool about 3 to 4 inchs on the burner and the fire going strong...the burner when it's going looks almost like a gas stove burner....it burns that hot.... I usually have to check it about every hour to make sure the drip is going ok...to shut it off, you simply turn off the oil drip and it will go out in about 15 minutes as the oil burns off.... HERE IS THE KICKER.... WHEN i USE IT FOR 8 OR 10 HOURS IT USES ABOUT 1 AND 1/2 GALLONS OF OIL.....I have been amazed at how well it works... after it cools, you take out the burner, scrape off the ash...NO HARD BAKED STUFF...JUST ASH AND A SMALL AMOUNT OF OIL....I wipe it off with some parts cleaner and put it back on the pedestal for another round...
My gas furnace will never come on after it's lit....stays about 68 to 70 degrees even in the 0 to 10 degree range.... honestly, I would never have believed it would work but it does... just can't seem to get it to work with full synthetic oil.... I had one of my friends bring me about 10 gallons of the stuff and I tried it but didn't have much success...... i keep two plastic 55 gallon drums in the storage shed that my friends bring me...that way I know they know not to have antifreeze or water in it....I did get some water a while back...it will burn off some without any problem....so I don't use a filter...if I got oil from just anyone, I'd have a water filter seperator hooked up...there you have it.....

Thanks Sarge, that's exactly what I needed to know.Thanks for posting those drawings. I lost my free plans when my old computer burned to the ground. (Note to self: Backup and copy important files to disc).

I've got another building that could make good use of this heater. One more question. How much space are you heating?

Farmer freinds had wood stoves made out oftruck or car rims welded bead to bead with plow discs for and and door. had a flat plate up top to create secondary chamber and One guy had an oilcan mounted on the wall with metal tubing going into the woodstove. he'd get some hot coals going and open the valve on the oil can and let a little drip onto the big logs to bring the temp up a little and make the wood last longer.
it was Kinda stinky outside though. it smelled like following a 48 chevy with a bad head gasket and running penzoil and worn rings

I don't kno much about it but radiant floors sounds like the way to go , I kno that geo thermal heat is the most efficient , but it cost up front . My cheep ass millionaire boss put one in the new building he just bought , and only cause it will pay for it self .

I heat with a wood stove, and have one of those gallon cans attached to the wall. It drips in waste oil to a steel dish, and adds to the heat, and gets rid of my waste oil. No extra smoke, or smell, but the heat does come up.

in my uninsulated 20x24 attached garage I used a 11K BTU kerosene heater last winter. Took the chill off, but not warm, and stinky. Looking for a propane unit of about 25K BTU for this year. Wish I had room for a wood stove.

my pole barn is 60x40...

Dr Crankenstein said:

Thanks Sarge, that's exactly what I needed to know.Thanks for posting those drawings. I lost my free plans when my old computer burned to the ground. (Note to self: Backup and copy important files to disc).

I've got another building that could make good use of this heater. One more question. How much space are you heating?

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I have a 40x40 section insulated and heated...the other 20x40 is storage only.....

Heating the garage

I have a 24 x 46 steel building, I am using propane now. I can run through a 5 gallon tank in about 2 days with a 80,000 btu construction heater. The building is not insluated but i have the ceiling sheetrocked to help with the summer heat and winter cold. (There is a small amount of insluation there with vents on the gable ends.) I am planning on seperating the building in half with a vinyl curtain as i use the front half just to park the car and truck.
For the fun of it and its cheaper from what i have read and saw i am working on an drip oil heater. Have all the parts to put it together. minus some stove pipe. the old air compressor is the tank and the rest i had around. Up date tomorrow how its going.

52 fordman

rust never sleeps

I just put this in this week end, and just in time low 40's.
Vented straight out the wall and hangs outa the way. 80K btu propane.

I found a way cool cover for the old chimeny hole also.

Oil drip heater

Well got the heater done, took it out side and did a test. Was a little different to get it started as i was using old old keroseen. once it was hot i dripped the oil in the oil was mixed with some old trans fluid and it burnt HOT. I only let it burn for a few minutes and the paint from the A/C tank was burning off in no time at all. I need to add a air damper and a better drip valve. I am also thinking of one of those heat exchanger that goes in place of some stove pipe. I did notice that when it really gets going it sounds like a jet engine was going. And as you need to pay close attention to the flow so it does not run over I almost run it over!

I will post a few pick as soon as i can.

52 fordman

i have a large industrial wood burner, had it running yesterday went through about 10 medium logs all day and about ran me out of the shop it got so warm. should work out this winter

My barn has a old furnace, I just run it on a 75% furnace oil and 25% of used motor oil

My buddy's shop is 30x24. He uses a infloor heating only. turns in it on in the fall and shuts it off in the spring. He says his Electric bill goes up by 34 dallars a month. Its nice when you have to get underneath a car and you dont have to lie on cold concrete. Another thing is if you open the door in the winter and then close it your heat is comes back right away.

Oil heater

Just did another test for the night. Had it cranked up pretty good. Didnt have to use anything to light it just oil and a match WOW did it go fast! Had the sides red hot with a flame a foot or so out of the stack, just to see what it will do! I do know I will be putting up some heat sheilds and a fan around it. Very pleased with the performance of it. Still have to do a little tweaking to do, for a short while running at a "normal" flame I didnt get a smoke free burn. Maybe it was the trans fluid mixed with the oil.

Any one have any thought or ideas I can try?

Please let me know. My tank is 18 inches across and 24 inches bottom to top. The air inlet pipe is 4 1/2 inches from the burn plate and 4 inches across. The plate is 1/4 inch thick and 6 x 6 bent in a shallow V with sides all the way around. stove pipe is 6 inches.


thanks
52 fordman

Sounds to me like you just have too large of an Oil drip...

52 fordman said:

Just did another test for the night. Had it cranked up pretty good. Didnt have to use anything to light it just oil and a match WOW did it go fast! Had the sides red hot with a flame a foot or so out of the stack, just to see what it will do! I do know I will be putting up some heat sheilds and a fan around it. Very pleased with the performance of it. Still have to do a little tweaking to do, for a short while running at a "normal" flame I didnt get a smoke free burn. Maybe it was the trans fluid mixed with the oil.

Any one have any thought or ideas I can try?

Please let me know. My tank is 18 inches across and 24 inches bottom to top. The air inlet pipe is 4 1/2 inches from the burn plate and 4 inches across. The plate is 1/4 inch thick and 6 x 6 bent in a shallow V with sides all the way around. stove pipe is 6 inches.


thanks
52 fordman

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stove pipe and air inlet size are good...but once the fire gets going, I found that leaving the full 4" intake is too much air....try reducing it down to about 2 inchs.....my intake stack is about 36" long...your's is a lot shorter so I would suspect you are really pouring the air to it....As far as the oil...I only need to let it drip about 4 or 5 drops per second to keep the puddle around 3 to 4 inchs wide on the burner and get good heat..(tank at about 450 to 500 degrees.....the sides of the tank will glow if I get the puddle too large and the thing roars like a jet engine....amazing how well it works...nice job on the burner...probably holds a lot more than mine as the machining is only about 12 degrees or so from the middle to the ends of the burner....I think if you just slow down the supply you'll have it made....nice job...it will burn more cleanly when you get the air and oil supply issues worked out...the smoke I get is light to medium gray.....

i just moved to a place that has a 30x25 garage.
i have never had one before.
i dont know if the owner will reimburse us for materials to insulate it.
(i sure hope so)
i want to get a used swamp cooler and connect it to one of the windows for the many many hot days we have here.
and for cold days i have one of those oil filled heaters that looks like an old school radiator type heater,
my plan is to use a salamander to get the space up to temp then keep it cosy with the space heater.

I use the souther Louisiana sun. It is cheap and readily available year round.

oil heater

well its time to put the heater into the garage. I think i have the few problems figured out.

















Okay a few pics. As i said its short. I have 4 4 inch blocks that i am going to sit it on with a sheild under and half way around. I want to put it where i have my stool at not under the storage shelf. And thats brings up the next questions. Where to run run the pipe? Do i put an elbow and run it out under the shelf? where the bike tire is ( move all that stuff down) or do i runn it out above the shelf and move that stuff. I am not going to go thru the roof. I have enough pipe and elbows to go thru the back wall. So tell where you think the pipe should go out and why.

52 fordman

I have a 23,000 BTU Kerosene heater. I put it close to where I'm working and it keeps things comfortable.