Garage Heating
- anthony7812
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- Stoker Coal Boiler: VanWert VA 400
- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
Well ladies and gents, what I may be proposing as a question could be viewed as blasphemy to some.
I'm having an insulated pole steel building (garage) installed. Paying a little extra for the insulated doors and walls and a concrete floor. Now my debacle. I have the van wert heating my home with rice coal. It's rice nut or stove from local supplier. I'm tempted on getting a new to me (used) stoker for the garage but some family members say why not find a small mobile home size hot air furnace(likely propane)
I see where the idea of just flipping it on as needed and saving any and all work but a stoker set to it's lowest setting might be a better solution. Then turn it up for the weekend debauchery with the fellas.
How about some thoughts.
I'm having an insulated pole steel building (garage) installed. Paying a little extra for the insulated doors and walls and a concrete floor. Now my debacle. I have the van wert heating my home with rice coal. It's rice nut or stove from local supplier. I'm tempted on getting a new to me (used) stoker for the garage but some family members say why not find a small mobile home size hot air furnace(likely propane)
I see where the idea of just flipping it on as needed and saving any and all work but a stoker set to it's lowest setting might be a better solution. Then turn it up for the weekend debauchery with the fellas.
How about some thoughts.
- anthony7812
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- Stoker Coal Boiler: VanWert VA 400
- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
Yes and no. I don't plan on requiring heat if that makes sense. I don't want to bring a loop from the VW to the garage. I'll be adding a loop to heat the new family/game room which is my current attached garage. I'll be at what I think is a comfortable max load for a 400 with that addition.
- anthony7812
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- Location: Colley,Pennsylvania
- Stoker Coal Boiler: VanWert VA 400
- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
The garage will be maybe 6 feet from side of home. My house is a big rectangle brick ranch.
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- Rob R.
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I know what you mean about not requiring that it be heated.anthony7812 wrote: ↑Wed. Feb. 02, 2022 2:02 pmYes and no. I don't plan on requiring heat if that makes sense. I don't want to bring a loop from the VW to the garage. I'll be adding a loop to heat the new family/game room which is my current attached garage. I'll be at what I think is a comfortable max load for a 400 with that addition.
How much coal are you burning per day during the cold weather we have had the last few weeks?
- anthony7812
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- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
Amount is a guess but I can say I was pulling long burn times, say 25-30 min burns with 10-15 min off cycles. That’s during that cold snap. Today at 41 it’s maybe 15 minutes on 45 off. That help maybe ?
- Rob R.
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Yes it helps. A propane furnace would be easy, but you will hate the cost to run it. A friend of mine did that in his 2-car garage and it costs him as much to keep his garage at 50 as it does to heat the entire house with oil.
Based on your run times you should have plenty of capacity for the family room addition and some leftover. On the coldest days of the year the house + pole barn might be too much for the VA400, but 80-90% of the time it would be no problem. Adding the load to the boiler will just push the Van Wert higher in its efficiency curve, and you just keep doing what you are already doing with the coal and ash.
I would consider a hanging heater in the pole barn on a glycol loop, fed from a heat exchanger in the basement. With that arrangement you can let the barn go cold if you want. Next best would be to just run a "hot loop" to the pole barn through hanging heater, and run fan off a thermostat. With that arrangement you have to keep the loop& heater hot, but only run the fan when you want heat. You could even use a programmable thermostat to kick the heat up for the weekend.
A stoker stove in the pole barn will work also, but there are a few downsides:
1. Concern of gasoline fumes.
2. Additional hopper to keep full and ash tub to empty (and resulting dust in pole barn).
3. Risk of outfire and not noticing right away.
Based on your run times you should have plenty of capacity for the family room addition and some leftover. On the coldest days of the year the house + pole barn might be too much for the VA400, but 80-90% of the time it would be no problem. Adding the load to the boiler will just push the Van Wert higher in its efficiency curve, and you just keep doing what you are already doing with the coal and ash.
I would consider a hanging heater in the pole barn on a glycol loop, fed from a heat exchanger in the basement. With that arrangement you can let the barn go cold if you want. Next best would be to just run a "hot loop" to the pole barn through hanging heater, and run fan off a thermostat. With that arrangement you have to keep the loop& heater hot, but only run the fan when you want heat. You could even use a programmable thermostat to kick the heat up for the weekend.
A stoker stove in the pole barn will work also, but there are a few downsides:
1. Concern of gasoline fumes.
2. Additional hopper to keep full and ash tub to empty (and resulting dust in pole barn).
3. Risk of outfire and not noticing right away.
- dbsuz05
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Just do it! Run the lines to the outbuilding. You’ll never wish you didn’t have a heated garage! Use your stoker and only have one ash pan and one coal bin!
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Run a loop with a unit heater to the garage. I have the flo-check valve opened on my loop and it keeps garage 40F. While I know this is using "some" coal, I couldn't tell any appreciable increase in usage from before I installed. Instead of a thermo in the garage, I wired a toggle switch. When I want it above 40 I just flick the switch and in 10 min or so It is plenty warm for me to work. Only reason I didn't hook up a thermo is that it would mean heating the mounting surface of the thermo is at up to the make temp. I had it that way for a short while and just ran way to long to suit me with a thermo. I didn't bother with heat exchanger, while certainly a reasonable way to do it, you do loose some efficiency that way also
- anthony7812
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- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
Crazy idea but what about installing the VDubya in the garage ? Run underground lines ?
- hotblast1357
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Run a line to the garage and be done with it..
- anthony7812
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- Stoker Coal Boiler: VanWert VA 400
- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
Sounds pretty overwhelming in favor of a modine style heater from the boiler to garage. That’ll put me at a whoppin 8 zones utilized. With the hot water heater now being used I’m at 6 currently. All pumps. Any concern on that front ? I can’t think of any off top of my head.
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- Location: Clearfield County, PA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM520
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Hitzer 50-93 at camp
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 354 double door woodburner
I'll presume you have some sort of a manifold feeding these zones, so what size is the header- and the zone pipes. Only thing I could see as a problem would be if somehow most if not all zones called for heat - the header might not be big enough to feed everybody. Not concerened about quantity of btu's
- anthony7812
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- Location: Colley,Pennsylvania
- Stoker Coal Boiler: VanWert VA 400
- Coal Size/Type: Buck/Anthracite
1.25 copper built supply and return header. Taco 007IFC's for the 5 zones currently heating and the variable taco 0015 running at low speed for the domestic water. All are sized with 3/4 o2 pex feeding baseboard fins. I am out of spare taps on the 1.25 headers once I utilize the tap for the family/game room. So some work will need to be had.