Double sided fireplace ideas?

[Fergy]

Hi all 
Newb here so please bear with me.
Hello I'm Daniel I'm from Western Australia and I'm 37 
I have an engineering workshop and I'm about to buy a small farm. 
Really interested in firewood processors as I would like to build one oneday but just lurking on that topic at the moment to get ideas. 
The question I have for you at the moment is regarding wood heaters. 
I will be building a shed house (shouse) on the farm, one part of the shed about 15x14m will be house and the end 12x14 will be shed, it will have a 6.5m eave height and will be insulated walls and roof R4.5, on the wall that splits the house and shed I would like to install a slow combustion heater in the wall so I can feed it from the shed side to keep wood out of the house, on the inside I would like an exposed flue as to help heat the house, the wall thickness has not been decided yet but will be from 100-300mm thick, so I suppose the question is has any one seen anything that might do the trick? At the moment we have a lopi? Wood heater and that goes all right so I figured I would ask here as this forum seems to have a lot of Americans and Canadians and it seems that's where I should be looking for something that fits the bill.
Thanks in advance  

[doc henderson]

Hello Daniel.  welcome.  we do a lot of radiant heat here.  put say half inch PEX tubing in the concrete slab. every foot and fasten to the wire mesh,  then you  can have an outside wood boiler 200 feet away from your house that takes 3 foot long logs.  if it is cold and you open a big door in the shop, when you close it you feel warm again since it radiant heat.  if the shop will be dusty, there is no filter on a forced air system to get dirty and have to change.  you can put the lopi in the house so you can get cozy and see the fire if you want.  a fireplace is not efficient.  an insert is a wood stove built to look like a fireplace in my opinion.  when I grew up, there was a guy who built his own, and he loaded it with a tractor and it would burn for days.  he could open up an end and clean it out with a tractor as well.  with an out side boiler you can also get your hot water as well.  do you plan to design and build it yourself?  we have radiant heat with an indoor natural gas fired boiler, and wood stoves for daily use and backup to the boiler.  would love a wood boiler outside, but would tear up a lot of concrete to get that done.  they make tube set already insulated and in a polyethylene sleeve to bury so there is very little heat loss.  what is you r average temp in the winter, and lows?

[Fergy]

Hi doc 

It's pretty cool here tonight it's down at 57f but gets down to 44f some nights 😂. So comparatively probably still warm. 
Not too keen on a boiler as I don't really think that it is warranted. 
Just want to warm the house and the shed a bit. 
Wouldn't having a boiler 200ft from the house be a bit like having an outhouse, how often do you load them things? Don't you get cold doing it? 

[Fergy]

To give you an idea of the climate here that profile pic was taken 3 weeks ago in winter 😉

[thecfarm]

Just about the same temp in a wood shed as outside. ;) Some try to use that against going outside to fill a OWB. Welcome to the forum. I have been going outside to fill my OWB since '07. Only been a few times I did not want to do it. I burn just about all dead stuff in my OWB. Seems to be a never ending supply on my 170 acres. That is why I got the OWB.

[hedgerow]

Fergy 
Welcome to the forum. I run a Garn which is a inside wood boiler. You could look at a wood furnace put it in the shed side and pipe the heat into the living area. 

[doc henderson]

making sure we are using same terms.  fireplaces here are not air tight, and suck heat out of the room.  lopi makes inserts and wood stoves.  air tight so the heat can be controlled and some of these are 85% efficient, and if not cold outside could run you out of the house.  every fall we get anxious to run the wood stove, and if we get carried away, we open doors and turn on the whole house fan.  another option, especially if you want the aesthetic of a fireplace, is a one sided fireplace, but with a wood crib area with doors in the back so it can be loaded from out in the shop.  please continue to respond so we can get a better idea of your goals.  what will the shop be used for.  do you have lots of wood nearby for free or do you have to buy it?

[Fergy]

Hey doc 
We call them slow combustion wood heater so yeah wood stove, access to free fire wood and three boys that at the moment consider it fun to get. We get wood stoves here with glass both sides I assumed you would there also, the aim is to heat the house 80% and keep the chill out of the shed/workshop wood would be stored in the shed. Hope that clears a few things up.

[doc henderson]

will you all move to the farm full time, or just go for weekends?  what type of engineering do you do, or is that a term for something else than how we use it here.  what will the shop area be used for.  I have not seen a wood stove/slow comb. wood heater with a backdoor.  does not mean they do not exist.  Is it something you want to buy, or build.  Best regards Daniel.

[Fergy]

Yes it will be our full time house, I build and repair stuff and do hydraulics? Dunno what you call that? Workshop will be used for storing a small amount of fire wood, a place to work on projects, somewhere to hang with the kids fix there bikes etc, I would prefer to buy as we have some stupid smog laws here https://www.der.wa.gov.au/our-work/programs/burnwise/511-regulations
Cheers 

[Fergy]

Sort of like this but built into the wall
https://www.brightonwoodburners.co.uk/shop/clearburn-double-sided/
Or this 
https://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Hoxter-HAKA-63_51WT-Double-Sided.html?adwordspermission=1

Hope I can put links up and not upset anyone 🤷‍♀️

[samandothers]

I think you may need a double sided insert.  The one that looks like a double wood stove would leave a hole in your wall.  I assume the building code would require clearances that would leave an air gap around it.  I would think you could find double sided fireplace inserts with metal doors, thought their efficiency may not be that great to use with an exterior house wall and open shed.

[Fergy]

 thought their efficiency may not be that great to use with an exterior house wall and open shed.

Hey mate 
The shed will be enclosed and as airtight as a normal house ( over here) no air gap around the fire as I want the two sides at different temperatures, or I should say dont need to heat the workshop as much. I dare say clearances will be gotten around with steel and firecheck board.

[Southside]

 what type of engineering do you do, or is that a term for something else than how we use it here.  

I build and repair stuff and do hydraulics? Dunno what you call that? 

Around here we call that a very good neighbor. Engineers are usually the guys who over complicated a piece of equipment, decided to hide a 10 mm, 12 pt bolt on the blind side of a starter which is covered by the engine block and only accessible via 30" of 1/4" drive extension socket.  They design $50,000 trucks which require the cab to be completely removed from the frame to change an injector
and think that leaving 1/4" extra wire or hose on a connector would be an amazing amount of waste.  I think you get where I am going with this.... ;D

[doc henderson]

yes here you get an engineering degree, design everything on a computer.  sounds like @southside loves engineers.  the common sense approach is lost.  sound like you are a handy mechanic/tech.  sounds like you are going places and building a nice home.  man inserts will have a shield with an airspace that can be duct and fan driven, so you can direct the heat by forced air if you like.  the reason we are asking about the shop is fumes and dust.  with an opening, these will come into your home as well.  It might be more objective to see if someone can estimate based on your design, and area, the btu requirement of your home, so you can size your unit.  most of our flu's are double insulated, so the gases do not cool and condense and deposit creosote. so for fore safety purposes, you really do not want your flu a a sig. heat source.  we also have something called a wood furnace, it can be in a side room or under a shed roof outside.  it is fed wood like a stove but has a heat exchanger that uses forced air, and a thermostat controls a circ. fan, and the damper for intake air for combustion.  

[Fergy]

I design and build these https://sandgropercontracting.com.au/our-fleet/ so I suppose handyman will suffice. 
My workshop will be a totally separate building away from the house. My shed/man cave/garage will be under the house roof which will actually be a shed ( steel frame and clad building) it will be insulated like the house. 
Over here single skin flues are normal but we burn mostly jarrah. 
Nah I wanna see the fire 🔥 and feel the heat. 
So when you come in from the cold you can back up to the fire and warm the hole of your body. 

[Don P]

Historically there were also false stoves that were installed back to back in adjacent rooms. The active stove was in one room, its flue then went through the wall into the false stove where the exhaust gasses warmed that and then up the chimney. I'd bet they were creosote magnets!

[Fergy]

Historically there were also false stoves that were installed back to back in adjacent rooms. The active stove was in one room, its flue then went through the wall into the false stove where the exhaust gasses warmed that and then up the chimney. I'd bet they were creosote magnets!

Yeah nah, don't like the sound of that.
How dry is the wood you burn in America?

[btulloh]

For most people, <20%. 

What about a wood stove in one side and a hot water coil piped to the other side. 

[luap]

2 points: Outdoor wood boilers are not necessarily boilers, the water tank is not pressurized. And when an engineer designs something it suffers after the accounting dept decides costs have to be trimmed.