RMH to heat a garage

looking for input on the easiest way to implement an RMH in my garage.


Matt

That depends on your garage.
How big is it, how much insulation, what is the roof configuration, what is your climate? What space in your garage could you devote to an RMH?
A bunch of details about your situation will let us give actual useful advice rather than generics.

Garage is not yet constructed, i am planning on 2x4 walls insulated, 30x30 storey and a half 8:12 pitch roof, I live in new brunswick Canada. 10 foot ceilings.

What other info would you need. I would like to have the smallest foot print possible to get the job done(heat the space)

matt

Okay, large volume for a garage, modest insulation considering the climate. You presumably don't want a long bench for a radiator, as there is usually not a lot of sitting around in a garage. Do you want to keep it heated at least modestly full time, or is your desire mostly for fast heat while you are working in the space?

My first thought would be a 6" batch box with a tall narrow bell for mass/radiator, located as close to the middle of the space as fits with your intended usage patterns. This would give a 2' to 3' wide x 4' to 6' long footprint, depending on exact configuration. If you will often want to make it warmer for short periods, I would use a standard RMH barrel over the heat riser, followed by a bell next to it. This will take a bit more space, but increase the versatility. The batch box gives a long burn time without frequent tending, which would be important in a space where you are not spending hours at a time.

Look for "peterberg batch box" in the forums at donkey32.proboards.com for dimensions and details about the batch box style.

If you want the upper loft to be actively heated and not just use the leftover from the main floor, some people have built double-height bells with one on each floor. The upper floor bell gets the exhaust from the lower, and extracts more heat before sending it on to the chimney. Since the building is not yet built, you could design the structure to allow this easily.

Glenn Herbert wrote:Okay, large volume for a garage, modest insulation considering the climate. You presumably don't want a long bench for a radiator, as there is usually not a lot of sitting around in a garage. Do you want to keep it heated at least modestly full time, or is your desire mostly for fast heat while you are working in the space?

My first thought would be a 6" batch box with a tall narrow bell for mass/radiator, located as close to the middle of the space as fits with your intended usage patterns. This would give a 2' to 3' wide x 4' to 6' long footprint, depending on exact configuration. If you will often want to make it warmer for short periods, I would use a standard RMH barrel over the heat riser, followed by a bell next to it. This will take a bit more space, but increase the versatility. The batch box gives a long burn time without frequent tending, which would be important in a space where you are not spending hours at a time.

Look for "peterberg batch box" in the forums at donkey32.proboards.com for dimensions and details about the batch box style.

This is essentially what I built in my garage...6" standard rocket core with a water heater tank as a bell. Didn't have room for a bench, so it's designed to just extract as much heat as possible. It's a very powerful heater. It can raise the temp in my (very poorly insulated) garage about 10* an hour. When it's below freezing out, it maxes out at about 70*F...at which point I'm melting the snow off the roof lol. Using a fan to circulate the air around the garage helps, but if you had a standard ceiling with any kind of insulation it wouldn't need to be very big. It was kind of a big project...it required a surprising array of my skill set. Very happy with it though...I got a ton of heat in my garage burning scrap wood and stuff people would usually toss in their burn pile, so I got heat for "free". Here's what it looks like right now...