Underground Pipes Carry Shop Heat To House

2001 - Volume #25, Issue #6, Page #08

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When a neighbor replaced his wood furnace with a gas one, Dale Denton bought the old unit to heat his 24 by 36-ft. metal shop.
  Denton used the old Clayton forced-air furnace for a couple of years and then decided it put out too much heat for just the shop. In fact, he figured the furnace could also heat his house, which is less than 10 ft. from the shop. All he needed was ductwork to get hot air from the furnace to the house, where he already had forced-air heat from a propane furnace.
  He decided the best way to do this was through underground pipes. He buried two lengths of 12-in. field drainage tile 4 ft. deep between the shop and house. One is for hot air and the other for cold air return. He connected the pipes to the hot and cold air ducts in the house.
  "The hardest part was digging the trenches for the tile between the house and shop," he says. "There's not enough room to use a backhoe, so I had to dig it all by hand. Our house has a crawlspace under the floor rather than a basement, so to connect the lines to the ducts in the floor of the house, I had to crawl in there and work on my back. It was dirty work, but not that difficult."
  The Dentons didn't do away with their propane furnace, but they seldom use it now. "I turn it on a couple of times a year to make sure it works and get the moisture out of it, just in case we should ever need it," Denton says.
  Denton says the stove will hold "à as much wood as he can load onto a wheelbarrowà" and will burn a good eight hours on that, even in the coldest weather. "When it's warmer, it uses a lot less wood," he adds.
  A thermostat in the house controls the furnace fan and damper. He says when the damper is shut, the furnace cools down enough that it's just warm to the touch. When the damper opens, though, the firebox heats up rapidly.
  "I just let the radiant heat off the furnace warm the shop. It seldom drops below 60 degrees in there, even on the coldest winter days," he says.
  The Dentons still use propane for cooking and hot water, but he figures the wood furnace saves around $2,000 a year in propane costs. Over the 15 years they've used the system to heat their house and shop, their fuel cost savings amount to enough to buy a couple of mid-priced pickups.
  "I've never paid anything for the wood we use," he adds. "There's always someone around with down trees or a woodlot that needs to be thinned. Once in awhile, I'll trade work for wood." Denton says he enjoys cutting wood, and it's good exercise, too.
  Besides the economic advantages, having the furnace in the shop means there's never any smoke or ash in the house. "My wife likes that part," he says.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, W. Dale Denton, RR 1, Box 168, Cowden, Ill. 62422 (ph 217 783-6530).

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Underground Pipes Carry Shop Heat To House FARM HOME Houses 25-6-8 When a neighbor replaced his wood furnace with a gas one, Dale Denton bought the old unit to heat his 24 by 36-ft. metal shop. Denton used the old Clayton forced-air furnace for a couple of years and then decided it put out too much heat for just the shop. In fact, he figured the furnace could also heat his house, which is less than 10 ft. from the shop. All he needed was ductwork to get hot air from the furnace to the house, where he already had forced-air heat from a propane furnace. He decided the best way to do this was through underground pipes. He buried two lengths of 12-in. field drainage tile 4 ft. deep between the shop and house. One is for hot air and the other for cold air return. He connected the pipes to the hot and cold air ducts in the house. "The hardest part was digging the trenches for the tile between the house and shop," he says. "There's not enough room to use a backhoe, so I had to dig it all by hand. Our house has a crawlspace under the floor rather than a basement, so to connect the lines to the ducts in the floor of the house, I had to crawl in there and work on my back. It was dirty work, but not that difficult." The Dentons didn't do away with their propane furnace, but they seldom use it now. "I turn it on a couple of times a year to make sure it works and get the moisture out of it, just in case we should ever need it," Denton says. Denton says the stove will hold "à as much wood as he can load onto a wheelbarrowà" and will burn a good eight hours on that, even in the coldest weather. "When it's warmer, it uses a lot less wood," he adds. A thermostat in the house controls the furnace fan and damper. He says when the damper is shut, the furnace cools down enough that it's just warm to the touch. When the damper opens, though, the firebox heats up rapidly. "I just let the radiant heat off the furnace warm the shop. It seldom drops below 60 degrees in there, even on the coldest winter days," he says. The Dentons still use propane for cooking and hot water, but he figures the wood furnace saves around $2,000 a year in propane costs. Over the 15 years they've used the system to heat their house and shop, their fuel cost savings amount to enough to buy a couple of mid-priced pickups. "I've never paid anything for the wood we use," he adds. "There's always someone around with down trees or a woodlot that needs to be thinned. Once in awhile, I'll trade work for wood." Denton says he enjoys cutting wood, and it's good exercise, too. Besides the economic advantages, having the furnace in the shop means there's never any smoke or ash in the house. "My wife likes that part," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, W. Dale Denton, RR 1, Box 168, Cowden, Ill. 62422 (ph 217 783-6530).

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