Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: caper on November 20, 2015, 02:32:27 PM
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hello everyone, just wondering what everyone else sets their garage temps at, my garage is attached, im out there alittle bit, my question is not with regards to actual heat but what is the best temp for a typical garage so that it is easy on the boiler and your home ,construction wise.....
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Got mine set at 70 but my business equipment has to be warm too use, I would think 55 would be good.
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Forced air is more forgiving if you want to keep it a little cooler out there and just turn up the heat when your doing things out there. If you have in floor heat, its probably better to maintain more of a constant temp, as it takes a while to heat up and cool down a concrete slab.
As far as construction wise, keep it warm enough to avoid freeze-thaw cycles and things stay dry. Watch for moisture condensing on doors and windows if you park vehicles in there. Snowmelt from vehicles can dump a lot of moisture into a building and You might have to bump up the temps a bit to dry things out
I keep mine mostly at 45-50 and will turn it up to 65 or 70 when I'm out there doing things on weekends. I'd probably keep it warmer out there but its 30x48 and can consume a fair amount of wood maintaining 70 degrees. It seems the older I get, the less enthusiastic I get about cutting wood.
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In the pre boiler days, my detached garage (aka the shop) would range between 24 to 34 F depending on the outside temp. Now, with a F.A. exchanger sitting in one corner, it ranges between 34 to 40 just from heat radiating from the HX. When I am doing stuff in there, I crank it up to 60 ish and the fan comes on to provide extra heating. I think because it is fairly dry in there, it seems warmer than it really is.
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I keep my 30x40 detached garage nice and warm at a constant temp. I have a hanging blower in one corner with a Lo-Hi thermostat, so I don't know what it's temp is right by the heater. I hung a thermometer in the opposite corner, and it usually says 62-66. Leaving it at a constant temp seemed to work fine for me last winter with all the subzero days and nights, and I spent a lot of evenings and weekends opening and closing the overhead door (letting a lot of heat escape).
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I keep mine around 60 degrees, but my thermostat is behind my exchanger so it is around 55 at the front of the garage. It warms up quickly if I want to work out there as my exchanger is a repurposed hydraulic cooler that is large with two fans.