Best way (most efficient) way to heat my studio?

Gunner

Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry

Yep, that's my backup plan. My current woodstove is made from a

Gotta disagree with that option. Had one in my shop for 1 1/2 years and it was a high maintenence bastid. Had to clean/vaccuum it out at least once a month, usually twice or more during cold weather (also near Poulsbo, WA). That, combined with crappy pellets, and getting a ton at a time, caused me to give it away to a guy who made a Traeger style smoker out of it ; ) Even a small percentage of crumbled pellets or pellet dust would clog up the auger.

It had replaced a double barreled wood stove. I just got sick of cutting, splitting, stacking firewood and stoking that thing.

Ended up going with an outside vented propane fireplace:

I'm in Mason County and they wouldn't allow me to install a 250 gal propane tank under the outside stairs... but, they do allow you to install two 125 gal tanks, one saddled on top of the other... go figure.

Anyway, I like the convenience of an outside vented propane heater best so far.

Good luck!

Snarl

I've been thinking about adding supplemental WO burning to my shop wood burner for a while now. One problem I've heard of with the needle valve drip setup is that as the oil gets hotter and thinner it drips faster and faster. That causes you to be the feedback device to keep the drip from overheating the stove, or getting too rich and then smoking. In my case, I don't want to burn only WO, but just to supplement the wood fire with a occasional shot of it. I'm planning on building a small, say 1/2 to 1 oz piston pump actuated by a solenoid or an eccentric cam to deliver a fixed volume of WO at an adjustable interval. THis would just be a piston with the appropriate check valves to make it pump one way. I've been thinking about using the 555 timer circuit published in the 12/2000 1/2001 HSM magazine titled "A new electronic circuit for Glenn Wilson's Coolant pump" It does seem however that a better circuit might keep the solenoid energized for say 1/2 a second to finish the pump stroke if the oil is thick and cold and a cap discharge doesn't fully stroke the pump. This way there would be not need to preheat the oil, the volume would the same if it was axle oil or trans oil, hot or cold. It would also be easier to turn off if you left the shop, and turn back on to the same setting later when you added a big fresh log to the fire.

I'm also planning on insulating the ceiling in my shop, a 30' x 40' pole barn with 12' ceilings. Now all the heat does is speed the frequency of the drips of melting snow that come off the roof. I want to hang bats of fiberglass from the trusses (2' on center) but I would like to find some foil backed insulation to keep the shop as bright as possible. 6" thick fiberglass is my plan, with firing strips to hold it up. I thought of tyvek, its white, but adds another few hundred $ and the insulation will already have a vapor barrier. Sheet goods are the same, more money, and I really don't need them, or the hassle of hanging them over a too full shop. Insulation itself will be a bad enough job. Any ideas where to get shiny foil backed insulation? I know it used to be made. Brad - in Michigan Brad Heuver

The first thing you got to do is to put up a ceiling fan to blow down the heat collecting at the ceiling. This will save you a ton of money.

John