As it's getting cooler I'm starting to think ahead to how I'll process in the winter. My garage is unheated (except a propane shop heater that i don't want to run all the time).

Anyone out there deal with this problem? I'm torn between insulating and heating the garage to 50F or so or just stopping production for the winter.

I'm outside of Philadelphia if that helps.. temps jump above and below freezing all winter long almost daily.

Thoughts from others????

It's probably a really bad idea to be messing about with large quantities of methanol in a closed garage heated with a propane burner.

When it got into the teens last winter, I kept processing.

Cons: -Takes twice as long to do everything. (i.e. heating wvo, dissolving KOH, heating wash
tank,collecting wvo from barrels outside)
-Uses more than twice the electicity.
-Fingers got numb.

Pros: -I'm stocking up bio since my winter consumption is cut with dino.
-I'm feeding an addiction.

I live near Lake Erie about 1/4 mile from the Pa. line and would like to make bio year round but don't have a heated garage either. I do my homebrewing in an old horse shed that away from the ohter buildings. Orginally I was going to do my bio in the garage but when I thought about the risks of fire I changed my mind. For cold weather heating I was thinking along the line of using a salamander heater that uses diesel . Possiblility using bio maybe 50/50 . I'd keep the heater isolated somehow from the processing area(for safety reasons) and still be able to use the heat it puts out. You might be able to use bio in this case and reap the rewards from your labor. Last winter I saw a salamander heater that use diesel in a local Walmart . I don't know if the ones that use kero will work with diesel. Someone in this forum must know.

Perhaps follow the lead of Squirrels.
Make extra Bio during the summer and put it away for the winter.
If you do that, as the temps drop and gelling that will occur in the bio will also drop out and you can use the still liquid Bio on the top. When the weather starts warming, there will be more bio turning to liquid so you don't lose out on anything.

I have been doing a similar thing with my WVO.
Put away a good stock before it gets really cold so I don't have to muck around in winter.
Works really well.

quote:

My garage is unheated (except a propane shop heater that i don't want to run all the time).

Anyone out there deal with this problem?

That was exactly my situation last winter. I pointed the torpedo heater directly at the 275gal tote from about half way across the shop (15ft) and after a half hour or so, I had enough liquid on top to make a 35gal batch. Then I would shut down the heater completely (no flames and methanol at the same time!) and fire up the processor.

The downside is, of course, speed. Taking oil from 35F to 130F takes longer than from 65f to 130F. Since my settling tank isn't insulated, as the bio cools and gets thicker, even settling takes longer. Evaporating methanol can be sloooooow, and since I filter out the KOH soap, its also a delicate balance. I can heat the bio to speed evaporation of the methanol, but if I heat too much, the soap gets too fluid and doesn't catch in the filters. If I don't heat enough, the bio gets too thick and overflows the filters. I have to be very aware of keeping the bio at about 60-70F while it filters.

But THIS winter will be different! I just finished the shop heater last weekend, so I'm ready to rock! A nice little double-50gal drum wood burner, plumbed with a heat exchanger in the upper drum, tucked into a small shed in back of my big shed with the warm air ducts run through the big shed window. Thermostat control works, and I fired off a little paper fire in it and it has no smoke leaks! And that tiny little paper fire was enough to warm the heat exchanger and blow a little bit of warm air into the shop, so I don't think I am going to have any issue, except maybe forgetting to feed the fire a sawdust/WVO slop log every day.

quote:

Originally posted by john galt:
It's probably a really bad idea to be messing about with large quantities of methanol in a closed garage heated with a propane burner.

Hi John
I love your one liners-makes me chuckle after a ****ty day