We're planning a small-scale bakery in a shed - total size less around 90 sq m, in two rooms so one will remain cooler for storing supplies and proving. Our biggest dilemma is whether to house the wood-fired oven completely inside the bakery or outside with just the door of the oven into the room. I can see both pros and cons - less fuel required to heat up oven if inside (we're in far South of NSW, so it gets cold here in winter) but would make the working environment hotter. We'd be really interested in hearing people's views on this.
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Depend of how hot is the summer, our oven it's completely inside and we have to prove in another room in summer, but in winter in the bakery when the oven it's not fired it's at 0ºC, if it's a cool winter I recommend inside.
Our oven is under the same roof as the rest of the building, but is walled off from the rest of the bakery and has its own roof space. We find that the air in the roof space above the oven sometimes gets contaminated with fumes during firing, and we vent this air out of the building. This may just be an issue with our large, Alan Scott oven...but needs to be considered.
I'd recommend outside. We live in the country 3 hours north of Toronto and I would suggest we get colder weather than you do :-) Our oven is fully outside and even in the dead of winter there is no appreciable difference in performance from the hot summer months. Our's is insulated with but it's nothing too elaborate.
http://apsleycountrybakery.weebly.com
If you are going to use the oven commercially inside is the way to go,
it has more Pro's than Con's
Cheers
Stef
I agree with the comment above.
Also, a well built oven won't emit heat. Right now, I'm working in a smallish space, scotch oven firing, room doors closed, wearing a windcheater. Not warm enough.
Dunno what happened to the formatting in my post :}
I've fixed this for you :)
Fairly evenly divided views here on putting the oven inside or on the outside, which may reflect what an interestingly diverse community we sourdough bakers are!
I was interested by Stef's point that if an oven is for commercial use, it should be built inside the building - is this specifically to minimise fuel costs? Graham also underlined the importance of venting properly if your oven is wood-burning. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with fumes?