Topic: Non Electric Shed Heating

[Fingle....]

Anyone got any genius ideas on a system for heating a normal wooden shed (short of burning it down) ?

Ideally I would like a little home made wood burner, but with an abscence of milk churns in Surbition, I need ideas from you good people as to what else i can use.

Th chimney bit is relativley simple (metal flue etc) but what is readily available and can be used for the actual burner ??

Are the little gas ones safe to use in an enclosed area ?

[derbex]

Gas or wood fingle, you'll need an air flow to stop you suffocating (and keep the fire going). Probably not much of a problem in a wooden shed.

You can get 'black heat' catalytic gas heaters which work well as long as you remember they're on. Small ones sit on top of a small cylinder so that you can take them away with you. Are you allowed gas in your shed? We're only allowed it in the summer in our beach hut -this is because a local winter sport is 'torch the hut', not great if there's a gas bottle in there.

Otherwise could you do something with a cheap or redundant BBQ from a skip/tip? If you got one with a hood maybe you could bodge a chimney onto that, there are some relatively cheap cast iron ones? Something you could put the kettle on would be good.

Or a small chimnea from a car boot?

Jeremy

[Fingle....]

Great couple of ideas ! Cheers. I think you would be right about the gas thing actually.
Have just had a mail from a mate of mine who used to live wild in a "bender" in the woods (made of willow and tarpaulin).
He suggests getting 2 Industrial vegetable oil cans from a chippy etc. You then burn them in a fire to get rid of paint and fat. Then use tin snips to cut a door in one, leaving two or three long "tabs" on one side of the hole.

Using the other can cut out an equivalent sized door with 2 or 3 or even 4 tabs jutting off it measured to fit between the tabs on the inside of the whole. All these tabs will be coiled up to form a hinge with a nail going through them all.

You then need to raise it up on something with ventilation (he suggests a wheel hub) and a chimney needs to be added (using flexible metal ducting or something. This needs to connect to a hole you cut into the top of the tin.

Et Viola !! apparently this will have you in a t-shirt in the snow !
You must be careful however only to use wood etc..NOT COAL as it gets to hott and could destroy the tin.

I would imagine you need to experiment with ventilation for the fire, but the door probably wont be perfect and should suffice.

Oh....and if you hammer the handle on the top down, you can boil a pan of pater for your tea !!

Keep safe tho eh !!

[Peter H]

I use an old propane bottle   :o , i made sure all the gas was out of it, then cut off the nozzle and top with a burning torch. Cut a hole in the side and put a door on it ( for feeding the wood etc into it) and cut a slot in the bottom to clean it out.
Then i welded a metal chimney onto the top with a slight bend to draw the smoke up.
The only trouble with this system is you cant control the heat and it gets really hot if you go daft with the wood  ;D .
Have had it for 7 years and have had no trouble as yet, apart from nearly burning the shed down when i forgot to put metal around the roof where the stack went through  :-[ :-\ , but as they say we live and learn  ;D .

Peter

[Fingle....]

Yes, we were discussing that idea in the pub last night.
Certainly a better option, but needs more specialist tools (which i dont have )
Well said re the chimney stack, was reading my "readers digest" settlers skill book last night and it too warned of not surrounding the chimney flue with a square of metal to protect the wood.

At the end of the day its only something to warm my hands on, doesnt have to be magnificent

[Fingle....]

IT WORKS !!!

Bloody lovely

(apart from the initial burn, smelling of chips !!)