Its that time of year again

[andys wood shed]

Jason,

I use a quartz halogen infra-red heater (industrial spec)
They only heat up solid objects, rather than air and are extremely efficient as 95% of input energy is converted into heat output (manufacturers claim)

They make great toast too :lol:

Andy

 

[pidgeonpost]

Roger - I've used both convector and oil-filled rad in my workshop. In my case there are no exposed parts on the o/f rad that could ignite dust/fluff/shavings.
The convector heater is different - it has slots in the top/front face that can allow stuff to fall into the body of the heater and accumulate on the heating element inside. This can easily burn or char - you get the same from a bathroom fan heater after it hasn't been used for a while - and you can smell it burn off when the heater is first switched on.
The risk can be reduced, though not completely eliminated, by regularly blowing the heater out.

Tim

 

[tim]

I use a Hotspot burner. I have it standnig on a concrete flag and nothing is kept within 3 feet of it. I do leave it running overnight in cold weather with all the vents shut down. As far as safety goes I think thats acceptable - no different to going to bed at night and leaving the woodburner in the sitting room alight .

One thing that is worth bearing in mind though is that unless you are very prolific or very careless, you will struggle to run this through the winter on offcuts alone. I expect that I put in four or five logs during the day.

Cheers


Tim

 

[dedee]

I use a 1kw convector heater in my 14'x8' wooden shed, insulated with 1" polysterene.
Having used oil filed rads in the past I find the convector heats and circulates warm air very quickly although as mentioned above debris falling thoough the vents is a worry. I tend to move the heater to where I am not workingand switch it of well in advance of packing up.

Andy

 

[mpooley]

id never heard of the hotspot heater till i read this thread so - i went to the website and looked - found out id need the R4 but couldn't find any other useful info about it- no prices even!

Can someone let me know more details ?
It seems to burn sawdust? i get plenty of that!!!

i expect it would take a while to heat up?
do you chuck the sawdust and offcuts through the top?
is this dangerous?

LOL thats enough for now any advice appreciated

Oh BTW my workshop is being built next month will be well insulated and about 165 cu meters!!

Thanks
Mike

 

[engineer one]

at the risk of starting another hijack, have you looked at any of the heat exchanger type units?

not sure they are a cheap alternative yet, but maybe they have a long term future?? :twisted:

the other things is whether you might be able to get the fish to work harder and heat up the air :lol: :lol: :lol:

paul :wink:

 

[tim]

Mike

Its an appalling website! but the prices are there:

http://www.thehotspot.co.uk/products.asp?cat=1&subcat=2&range=5

Cheers

Tim

 

[mpooley]

Thanks Tim!

 

[les chicken]

My workshop is 32x9 ft it takes about 20 minutes for the hotspot to warm it up. I have the R2 size.

Load it up with sawdust and shaving mix (better than just sawdust) bung a firelighter on top and thats it.

One of the main things that you must be careful is to ensure that the gasses above the fuel are ignited otherwise it tends to lift the lid when they do ignite. Putting sawdust into a fire already lit is ok as long as you put it in one side and not completely cover the existing fire. This prevents it blowing back.

I tend to light it with a sawdust, shavings and small offcuts and top up with either a mixture or just offcuts. Pallets or any bits of wood, logs etc.

The warmth it gives off is a nice cosy dry heat, but it does tend to smoke quite a bit if the controls are not set right. When it is burning correctly all you get out of the chimney is like a heat haze.

Do not clean out the unit everyday it works better when the bottom is full of ash. It will burn hotter and longer as the ash in the bottom gradually turns to dust. When you do clean out just remove enough ash to leave the grid in the bottom still covered by at least an inch.

Les

 

[tim]

The other thing I forgot to mention is that its best to have as much flue exposed as possible inside the workshop since a huge amount of heat can be emitted by it. I also leave my air filter running on low to circulate the air and bring the hot air down.

Even though I have the right sized one for the shop (R2) I wish I'd bought a bigger one so that normal size logs fit in it better. Because its tall and narrow there are times when the logs end up caught up on the bottom air pipe or just stood up against each other or the side and it can go out.

Cheers

Tim

 

[woodbloke]

Roger Sinden wrote:

why can you leave an oilfilled rad unattended and not a convector heater?

Roger - the convector heater I've got is an old one with an open top and the live, glowing element at the bottom. Any dust or debris falls to the bottom and lands on the element so you smell a slight burning when its switched on- OK when I'm in the 'shop but not something I want to leave unattended. I dare say that more modern and up to date heaters don't suffer from this problem - Rob

 

[RogerS]

Thanks Rob...I understand your caution now

 

[Losos]

I forgot to mention in my previous post that one other point to bear in mind with wood burning stoves is the amount of fuel they consume. As Tim has said, it is hard to feed them on offcuts alone. Here in Czechland (And most of eastern Europe as well) there is a plentiful supply of logs which is what I mostly use.

Mine is a locally made stove (Not a 'Hot Spot') and I have to feed it about every hour.

 

[Con Owen]

Hi Shultzy

Have you considered Kingspan? You can purchase this from Seconds and Company. I used 50mm 2400x1200 (they were recommended to me by Woody Alan) foil one side paper the other, for the roof I used 25mm Kingspan foil both sides. The cost was £12 and £7 + VAT respectively, delivery £20 + VAT. If you go this way make sure that delivery is made in covered transport. My first delivery was on a low loader, totally unprotected to the elements and as it was pouring rain at the time the sheets were very very wet. In fact I had them uplifted and a new supply delivered.

Regards Con

 

[Shultzy]

Shultzy, try googling for Kingspan, same spec as Celotex but a bit more reasonable price, at least when I bought some a couple of years ago !

Cheers, Paul.

Its the same price as the Celotex

 

[PokerG]

Tim, I noticed from a post of yours in January that you had some aluminium foil wrapped over what I think was particleboard behind it to reflect the heat back in and to keep it off the wall.

How close do you keep this? (Assuming you still use it)
How warm does the back of the particleboard get? (I know you said the wall behind is kept at room temp but I was wondering if I pinned the particleboard to the wall would it all be ok)

I have a wooden wall behind mine and want to make sure the whole thing is safe (as I am sure you can appreciate) but I don't want the stove to be -too far- out into the middle of the room as space is a premium.

My nearest bit of kit is my floor mounted (although not bolted to the floor yet) radial arm drill press.

At the moment I plan on having it fairly close (maybe 2ft away from the main pillar) do you think this is too close?

Gary

 

[tim]

Its a bit of plasterboard faced with bacofoil actually :roll: In fact I'm pretty sure its not necessary to protect the wall but there is a plastic wiring conduit about 4 inches off the floor and its to protect that. I felt it yesterday and it was cold even though the burner was roaring. The flue is about 10 inches from the timberframed, plasterboard covered wall.

Cheers

Tim

 

[PokerG]

That sounds perfect for what I want to do then, bacofoil and plasterboard it is I think.

Gary

 

[Shultzy]

Hi Shultzy

Have you considered Kingspan? You can purchase this from Seconds and Company. I used 50mm 2400x1200 (they were recommended to me by Woody Alan) foil one side paper the other, for the roof I used 25mm Kingspan foil both sides. The cost was £12 and £7 + VAT respectively, delivery £20 + VAT.
Regards Con

Seconds & co don't sell "seconds" any more. All I could find was

SoundStop.co.uk
Kingspan 45mm TP10 TW55 TF70 2400mm x 1200mm @ £ 19.82
Which is cheaper than Screwfix
Cavity Boards 45mm 12 Boards 1200 x 450mm @ £58.24
I've just spotted Building Materials Direct on ebay but I'll have to do the maths later to see if they are any cheaper.

BTW does this stuff compress as a 4x2 won't be after planing.

 

[tim]

Seconds & co don't sell "seconds" any more

Are you sure you are using the right Seconds and Co? The one in Powys still does (unless they stopped very,very recently). The correct link is:

http://www.secondsandco.co.uk/Pages/company.php

not

http://www.seconds.co.uk/build_insulation.htm

Cheers

Tim