Possible heating idea for the new shop

Well I am now in the process of trying to figure out how I am going to heat my shop and here are my ideas.

Pellet Stove
Wood Burning Stove
In Floor Heating
Oil Burning Stove

The cheapest one would obviously be the wood burning stove as I have a pile of wood to burn from pulling the tack barn down, but that will only last so long. The Pellet Stove would be pretty good for the most part as it would only use about 1 bag per day @ 5.00 a bag. In floor heating would be the best, but of course the best is the most expensive. Now the Oil Burning Stove is the one I am leaning toward.

Now for my question, how many of you change your own oil? If the oil burning stove is going to happen I will need quite the stock pile of oil to get me through the Winter months. The way I look at it you will have somewhere to change your oil if you need to and you dont have to worry about getting rid of it.

Let the poll begin.

Oil heaters can be expensive, but you can make your own with some scrap metal and an old water heater. Who knows how much oil you'd need. Mark Standish might be the man to talk to on that.

In the mean time, might be best to just find a cheap pellet stove to get you by.

DoodieHead wrote:

Well I am now in the process of trying to figure out how I am going to heat my shop and here are my ideas.

Pellet Stove
Wood Burning Stove
In Floor Heating
Oil Burning Stove

The cheapest one would obviously be the wood burning stove as I have a pile of wood to burn from pulling the tack barn down, but that will only last so long. The Pellet Stove would be pretty good for the most part as it would only use about 1 bag per day @ 5.00 a bag. In floor heating would be the best, but of course the best is the most expensive. Now the Oil Burning Stove is the one I am leaning toward.

Now for my question, how many of you change your own oil? If the oil burning stove is going to happen I will need quite the stock pile of oil to get me through the Winter months. The way I look at it you will have somewhere to change your oil if you need to and you dont have to worry about getting rid of it.

Let the poll begin.

I know that it isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but I have been saving my used oil and would gladly donate it and any other that I get . I usually don't know what to do with the stuff anyway. I probably have about 50 quarts or so.

My vote would go to the pellet stove though, that is how I had planned on heating a shop a few times, just never did it.

Another option that I'm not sure if you have looked at would be a coal stove. My friend in Sheridan swears by his, cheap cheap although a bit messy. For him though, the cost outweighs the cleanup.

I change my own oil...you can have it if you want.....(don't currently save it but will start if you go that route...)

I have a ton of used oil lol. I think I have 6 or 7 5 quart jugs.

Thanks guys, appreciate it. I am talking with a guy right now that has a used stove for a good price, so I may take him up on the deal. We will see.

Mike,
I heat my little shop with a pellet stove. works quite well... I would advise having a backup heater however as sometimes they can be problematic or pellets can be sold out if your not buying them in a pallet at a time because you don't have a dry place to store them.

I have a little electric heater as a back up.... and a propane heater too that I don't use since I got the pellet stove.

We have two oil burning stoves at work and the one like in the next door shop would work great for you I think. It doesn't go through oil really fast like the big one in our main shop. And they really put out the heat. Everyone usually has waste oil that they don't want to pay to get rid of and so the fuel is almost like a never ending free supply. I even have about 20gallons that I never got a chance to take to work this winter that you could have if you want.
We have the over head radient natural gas heaters at work to augment the oil burning heaters

A friend built a shop with floor heat.... awesome... but cost like $800 a month to heat.


My vote is get a nice pellet stove AND a oil burning stove.

I am in the process of making a few wood stoves, and one with a oil drip system. Too bad your so far away. I could make one for ya for cheap. I am using old electric water heaters for the body, and then you take and get a door kit for a barrel stove, and fab the rest. Pretty easy, but you have a 5 gallon bucket that you keep filled with oil, and have it about 8 feet away from the stove with a gravity drip system so you start the fire with wood and have it drip oil on the wood when it starts to turn to coals and it keeps the fire going. Cheap and it works. I also got a pellet stove last week for two cords of firewood. Wood cost me 35.00 to cut up and deliver so got the stove for 35.00 I figure. You can make pellets too, if you buy a pellet maker. pays off over a few years, though. If I had a choice, I would do heated floors with a boiler. Best thing for a shop period. If you want pictures or anything on how to make your own, let me know. I'd make one for about 150.00 to 200 if you want one made. Door kit is almost 100.00 so thats why. You can make a barrel stove with a jig saw for like 70.00.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. The way I look at it I have about 7 months before I need to get this done, so we will see how the work season goes and make a decision upon that as there is quite the cost difference between all the options.

If I were to do it right now I would go pellet stove as I could have an entire Winter season worth of heat for about $200. We have a pellet stove in our home and it runs about 1 bag a day on 24/7. Figure I will be out in the shop for about 8 hours a day giving me about 120 days worth of heat.