[AT] another new shop

[Edward Tabor]

Cecil,
I might be a little late, however my neighbor has a dairy farm and he 
has an out door wood/coal/oil fired furnace.  It is used to heat the 
potable water in the barn and his house, and it is used to heat the milk 
house, milking parlor, his farm office in the barn, the house, and his 4 
car garage.  His shop is heated with a waste oil burner, however he got 
the outdoor furnace large enough to heat that as well, if needed.  His 
usual fuel of preference is coal, then wood then fuel oil as a back up. 
 He has a 250 gallon tank and he says he only had to burn 25 gallons 
last winter, both times he was away and the hired help "forgot" to stoke 
the stove.  He fills the burner with wood/coal 2x per day, 5 am when he 
starts milking and 7pm when he comes in for the night (winter hours). 
 In the summer, he fills it every third or fourth day.  He also has a 
"free heater" in the milk house, this device takes the heat from the 
milk tank freon and heats water with it.  Both milk house and house are 
on the same hot water line and, he found out summer when he had to shut 
the stove down for repairs, he does not need the stove in the summer, 
the free heater keeps up well, with the electric heaters only turning on 
for a few minutes during peak usage.
As for the concrete, better check on prices as there is a nationwide 
cement shortage (China is buying it all) and prices are skyrocketing.


Ed

Cecil E Monson wrote:

>     It looks like I may get a chance to design another new shop
> and put it up in the coming year. I have a list of things I am going
> to change from the way I built the shop I have now. One thing I am
> going to add is an auxiliary hot water heating system that will heat
> the house and the new shop from one location. There will be an oil
> burning furnace that will handle both locations also and it will shut
> down if the wood furnace is going.
>
>     Which brings me to the question.  Does anyone on the List have
> an outdoor furnace that is used this way?  The ones I am considering
> are the outdoor furnaces with a large firebox that stand out away from
> the buildings a ways and look like a little building. If you have one,
> what do you think of it and would you put in another one if the situation
> came up again?
>
>     Another question I have is concerning the concrete floor. On the
> new shop I have now, I specified 6" of concrete with steel laid on the
> whole thing and centered inside the slab. The pour was 36' X 48' and the
> thickness and the steel did nothing to stop cracking. I have a diagonal
> crack that did not spread but goes literally across the building from one
> front corner to an opposite rear corner. Before the floor was poured and
> while the building was under construction, I hauled and spread about 8"
> of 3/4" crushed stone over the entire floor and it was well compacted by
> the time the concrete was poured. I thought I had everything covered with
> the steel and the underlayment of stone but apparently not. I made sure
> when the concrete was poured that I was there and that the steel stayed
> in place so I know that was done. Maybe cracks are the way things go but
> I would just as soon not have any if I do it again.
>
>     Any comments will be appreciated.
>
> Cecil