Growing up my Dad taught me a lot of things to remember while going thru life, "How much is the feed?" Simply what is the cost of operation and all viable options. I will need to heat the building + the addition for the casting area. I will be heating about 384 square feet with either propane or wood, electricity is out of the question. I have decided to go with wood over propane due to the heating cost. The propane heater is cheap to buy and the initial cost of a 250 gallon tank is $.99 with the refill cost of propane @$2.19 per gallon. This comes out to $226.00 per month as I want to keep the building heated. With my neuropathy of the feet I have to be careful, even with insulated boots. I do not plan to wear the boots in the building as I have foamed slippers to combat my neuropathy as I will be standing some while reloading/casting. The wood stove/pipe will cost about $500 but operate much cheaper. I have several cords of hard wood coming in at $160 per full cord. Any junk mail can also go into the firebox as it does in our other wood stove. Open to any suggestions and yes, we have been burning wood going on our 8th season in this location. Have already cleaned the stove pipe and tomorrow will do any needed maintance on the stove itself.
Sam