New member new fireplace

[IfThatAintCountry]

First post from a long time lurker

Me and the wife have been very lucky and are planning on building a new house with an attached shop. I'm set on having an indoor wood burner on the shop side and had a couple questions. I'd really like a unit that adds on to existing furnace duct work along with being able to provide heated floors.

It hasn't been frigid cold here in years but I just can't make myself count on propane when the price of wood is only a chainsaw fuel tank or two.

Thanks

 

[NSMaple1]

Fireplace?

Those don't use ducts or heat floors.

 

[Shanen Mannies]

Outdoor wood boiler, take a few minutes to look at them. For the big picture, you can't go wrong.

 

[IfThatAintCountry]

The house side will be about 2400 sq ft and the shop hopefully a 45 ft square. Shop side doesn't need to be a constant 70, it just has to not freeze.

My idea was to use propane for fall and spring and use the burner for cold nights and winter. I like a lot of pros about outside burners, 6 am fire poking with a strong north wind when it's 0 degrees and I'm at work make little lady not like that idea too much though.

Does anyone know of a dual boiler/furnace that is built right?

 

[Sandhill Crane]

when the price of wood is only a chainsaw fuel tank or two.

Welcome to the Arboristsite;

Well, if your asking opinions.
I would check into a ground source heat pump if your doing forced air/duct work. They are quite efficient, but the system needs to be designed right and coordinated with the wells pump size, typically smaller, for longer cycle times. (If you have city water then a heat pump most likely would not be a good option.) You could supplement it with a wood stove or outdoor boiler.

A ground source heat pump can provide air conditioning in the summer as well. The house design will aide, or greatly limit comfortable heating, natural light flow, and cost of owning. Check with the code officials on attached garages and shops, as well as your home insurance agent.

The neighbors bought and remodeled an almost one hundred year old home. They tore it down to studs and clapboard. Plumbing, electric, heating all came out, and redone. Foundation, roof, and new add-on, new interior stud walls and drywall, new kitchen from scratch, everything.

Insurance would not cover them if they put in a wood stove. Go figure. And, it sits on thirty acres of wooded land. They're burning propane... but have considered an outdoor boiler after two years of that.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Detached shop a better idea.

 

[IfThatAintCountry]

I looked into a ground source heat pump and found too many people that don't like them for various reasons. That and I have wooded acreage where I'm building and know others in the area wanting to clear more land for cattle and crops, so wood heat seemed like the way to go.

Why is an attached shop a bad idea?

Does anyone know of a furnace add on that also has a boiler?

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Fumes and noise from grinding, welding, painting, exhaust, etc will get in the house. Plus the fire danger.
May want to check insurance too.

Best would be detached with a "breezeway" if you need it to be "attached".

A fireplace in a shop for sure is a no go. Most insurance companues won't allow a stove either. Even in a house stoves are a red flag.

 

[NSMaple1]

Depends on the definition of 'shop'. Something like a garage where gas cans & vehicles with gas tanks could be - that might get iffy with insurance. Just talking anything that burns wood - fireplace, should stop using that word, sounds like the OP had something else in mind when he said 'fireplace'.

I think the only way you will get forced air + hot water heat is using a boiler, and a Water-Air heat exchanger in the duct work. Which should be completely do-able. What exactly will you be doing in this shop? You could have an indoor boiler out there, hot water storage, and your whole winters wood if you planned things out & sized it right. If it's wood working, then you have to be careful about wood dust too. But before you seriously plan anything, you should run things by your insurance person first.

 

[IfThatAintCountry]

I'm not worried about noise in the house, our kid is 9 and he'd most likely be half the reason. I don't weld (at least not until father-in-law retires and brings his welder over) and my wood working tools run on hand power and batteries. Exhaust fumes are a different story but I plan on overdoing outside vent fans, ceiling fans and a large floor fan.

I suppose it would be considered an oversized man cave. Not specific to any single hobby but not ruling anything out either.

I'm new to this, I only meant fireplace as a place to put a fire, from a single wall cast iron wood burner up to a gasifier. It wasn't meant to be anything specific.

The water-air heat exchanger, would that work in addition to a standard furnace? As in the furnace fan uses that before the furnace starts in with propane, all thermostat controlled and mostly dummy proof?

That's good information about talking to my insurance company first, I hadn't thought of that.

Thank you for the ideas so far, I really do appreciate it.

 

[NSMaple1]

An oversized man-cave should be a great spot for an indoor boiler. Plus storage. Plus the winters wood - warm dry wood all winter, is happy wood. If it helps with your insurance guy, you could partition various aspects off from each other. They usually get pretty apprehensive though if you call it a 'garage' - just keep that in mind. But be honest. Sometimes 'garage' can mean different things to different people.

A WAHX is what people with an OWB use, to tie into their existing furnace & ducting. So yes, that part is definitely doable.
Not sure anything is 'mostly dummy proof' - but once installed & set up correctly, should be fairly robust.

All that would be a fairly sizable investment though.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Ok. Shop to me is a place to work on equipment. I was thinking you were building something to work on skidders, shovel loaders, dozers, log trucks, etc.