How are you heating your shops

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by 83 Silverado

Theastronaut, how big of a water heater are you using for your setup? The more I look into a hydronic heating setup's, the more I think I'll look at building one.

It's a tankless heater. It has a copper coil inside that the water flows through instead of having a tank that the water flows through. The coil sits in an inner tank that is heated by a single central element in the middle of the coil.

[theastronaut]

Pritch, here'a a shot of the boiler we're building for our house. Will have two stainless water heater elements (I forget the wattage, maybe 5500?), a temperature/pressure based pop-off valve, a temperature probe for the thermostat, a temperature/pressure gauge, a drain, and the in/out pipes.

[vidman]

Just an el cheapo 200.00 mobile home furnace. When it gets warm I just pull it out of the window and stick it in the barn..

[pritch]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Pritch, here'a a shot of the boiler we're building for our house. Will have two stainless water heater elements (I forget the wattage, maybe 5500?), a temperature/pressure based pop-off valve, a temperature probe for the thermostat, a temperature/pressure gauge, a drain, and the in/out pipes.

Very cool! I have been thinking of looking into a used-oil boiler of some kind. I know I should be able to get hotter than what I get. I probably could with a natural gas unit, but I don't want the shop to be hooked up to the gas line, or else it would be 80 degrees inside it all winter and I'd be broke

I want to get like a 200 gal propane tank and fill it once per year. Another problem I have is it seems like if the fans on the unit heaters ran slower, much slower, it would be more efficient. Oh well. I like tinkering with it. I have an idea for more solar, too. Free heat is the best kind

[Rubble]

We have a 40x60 Quonset style shop,got in floor heat,plus a forced air furnace.The hot water heat is slow to recover when the 14x20 door is opened for very long on those -35 degC days!! My water tank took a crap early this winter,so just been heating with the furnace.Lots of insulation,so it's toasty warm in there.Low gas prices help too!! Usually keep it around +10 when I am working in there.If I quit buying old trucks,I could put in a boiler & eliminate the tank and furnace both....
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[oldspowered67C10]

I use one of those fan in a tube type ones that uses propane for fuel. Rated at 60k btu and was less than $100 and home depot. I live in southern California and it rarely gets below 30 F here but even on the coldest days it will heat the garage up in less than 10 minutes on high and will maintain that temp on low for around 8 hours on a BBQ sized tank.

[crossfire84]

i use a diesel torpedo

[72chevynoob]

We have a radiant tube heater plumbed in to natural gas. It runs off of a thermostat. We also have ceiling fans to circulate the air. Otherwise the higher air gets really hot and the ground level air stays cool. The heater is 50', and keeps our 38x60x16 shop plenty warm, even when it is -35 out.
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[dajn]

living in minnesota, i cant believe how many of my friends that make decent money do not have a heated garage. It is so nice to have. I built in 2002 with my brother a 32 by 96 poll shed, framed it, insulated and sheetrocked the entire building. its a cheap way to have a very nice building. half of the building is living quarters and the other half is garage. I heat the garage with a pellet stove that you can get for $1200 at menards and with only eight foot ceilings, it will maintain fifty degrees in the garage when its 10 below outside. 1500 square feet with eight foot ceiling. if i run it 24 7 for an entire month it costs around $150. thats at $3.50 for a 40 pound bag of wood pellets.

[dubie]

I use a 10 kilowatt boiler for my in floor radiant heating in mt 28 x 30 shop. Because I do a lot of paint spraying in the shop, I wanted something that was no only efficient, but something that didn't have a fan to kick in and blow anything around. It's nice to lay on a warm floor as you wrench away, rather than feeling the cold in your bones for a couple days afterwards

[68c10airstream]

If i lived in the woods, check out jean pain on youtube. Woodchips water and pex coil under it= 150+ degree water running through the pex for 12-15 months. Requires a 12 foot diameter by 9 foot high wood chip pile. Route the pex tubing into a heat exchanger with a fan. No open flame in garage. I use a sealed combustion downflow hot air furnace. If shop air is being used for combustion, the very least your heat exchanger in the furnace will rot out from what is called in the industry as "halogenated hydrocarbons" Short life span and when rotted out you will be exposed to carbon monoxide. I was a dealer mechanic for 35 years and every winter suffered with poor air quality from crappy furnaces, etc. Spend the money and get a good furnace, use only flourescent trouble lights, {incandescent trouble lights love fuel leaks, cold fuel on hot bulb= explosion}. Fire fighters have told me horror stories. Another choice is radiant tube if your ceiling is high enough as this is usually another sealed combustion choice {reverbaray out of detroit i think}. Good luck. I have other ideas for heat, pm me if you wish

[83 Silverado]

Originally Posted by 68c10airstream

If i lived in the woods, check out jean pain on youtube. Woodchips water and pex coil under it= 150+ degree water running through the pex for 12-15 months. Requires a 12 foot diameter by 9 foot high wood chip pile. Route the pex tubing into a heat exchanger with a fan. No open flame in garage. I use a sealed combustion downflow hot air furnace. If shop air is being used for combustion, the very least your heat exchanger in the furnace will rot out from what is called in the industry as "halogenated hydrocarbons" Short life span and when rotted out you will be exposed to carbon monoxide. I was a dealer mechanic for 35 years and every winter suffered with poor air quality from crappy furnaces, etc. Spend the money and get a good furnace, use only flourescent trouble lights, {incandescent trouble lights love fuel leaks, cold fuel on hot bulb= explosion}. Fire fighters have told me horror stories. Another choice is radiant tube if your ceiling is high enough as this is usually another sealed combustion choice {reverbaray out of detroit i think}. Good luck. I have other ideas for heat, pm me if you wish

I was looking for some one selling at gas tube setups north of the border (Detroit being north of Windsor,ont) I'll check out reverbaray. Thanks

[Rufton]

Insulated coveralls work in TN. If I had access to free waste oil then I would look into a waste oil heater like the transmission shop has.

[SigFTW]

Wow, here in Texas we need A/C not heat.

[ETsC10]

I don't have a shop but a warehouse building instead.
Available heat is a construction propane heater...not
too effective in a big steel non-insulated building with
a leaky 16' wide barn door and the steel siding.

I work on truck stuff in the summer.
...or in someone else's shop in the cold seasons.



Or (usually) outside (should prob wear a rain slicker)...

[dieseldawg142]

hah! with summer around the corner, it should change to "how do you cool your shop"
worst point of entry for heat- my skylights. foil faced bubble insulation

single skin steel door is'nt much better. 1" roofmate insulation with bubble foil on top

and when all else fails- a good old fan

having proper venting in the roof & R20 in the walls & R40 in the ceiling really helps to keep it artic cool in the summer

[83 Silverado]

Some one needs to start the "How are you cooling your shop". I've see days around 75F so far, and by July around the great lake's it's going to be 100+, so some can have at it.

[lostsheep]

I like this approach.: http://www.spicrosoft.com/Heater/Heater1.htm

He burns old oil in a couple of semi brake drums. Very neat concept. He heats his entire house with a setup like this. Well worth going through the whole site to understand how it works, and watch his videos as well.
I haven't built one yet, but I gave my retired 86 year old machinist neighbor the plans and he built one.
Pretty simple for parts, two mating brake drums, a cylinder sleeve from a diesel truck engine, a cast iron skillet or dutch oven and some hardware and steel for a stand, a wood stove pipe, a bit of tubing , etc.

[hdman6465]

I have a 30x50 pole barn with not much insulation. I use a tube heater from solarray in Canada. It uses fuel oil. I have no fumes, can work in a t-shirt in the dead of winter, and use less than 100 gal. in a full winter. This heater costs about 40 per cent more than a gas heater, but uses a 6 in. tube and puts out 40 per cent more heat than a comparable gas heater. Have used it about 6 yrs. and no problems so far.

[pritch]

I've been looking at what I have with a different eye lately. I'm thinking about finding an old 4 cylinder engine to heat my water. I'm starting to think that it would run longer and produce more heat per dollar than my propane water heater. (see post #22 in this thread)

Right now, I have to go out to the shop about 5 in the morning and light my water heater if I want to be up to 50 degrees or so by 9. With a small engine, the heat would come much faster. Excluding the WH tank, my system only holds about 3 or 4 gallons. My heaters would be the radiator for the engine. A 195 thermostat would be the ticket!

[slowcpe]

I'm looking for ideas for next winter. This year its insulated walls and a 125k kerosene salamander. It takes about 45 min to 65-70 and can keep there. Down side is it costs about 20-30 a weekend to run.

I borrowed a buddy's 50k kerosene and tried using it last weekend. While more efficient it can't get the 32x40 into the 60s even after running for a couple of hours and outside temp was in the 30s.

I like a warm, well lit garage to motivate me to leave the nice warm couch inside the house.

[piecesparts]

For now, I am going to continue using my propane deck heater. With the amount of insulation that I have, about thirty minutes and the 40 X 40 shop is around 60 degrees.

[dwcsr]

I'm using a propane infrared

http://www.heater-store.com/radiant_..._2728_prd1.htm

Does a nice job of braking the chill and bringing the shop to a workable temp
I get about 3 days out of a small grill size tank.

[83 Silverado]

Originally Posted by pritch

I've been looking at what I have with a different eye lately. I'm thinking about finding an old 4 cylinder engine to heat my water. I'm starting to think that it would run longer and produce more heat per dollar than my propane water heater. (see post #22 in this thread)

Right now, I have to go out to the shop about 5 in the morning and light my water heater if I want to be up to 50 degrees or so by 9. With a small engine, the heat would come much faster. Excluding the WH tank, my system only holds about 3 or 4 gallons. My heaters would be the radiator for the engine. A 195 thermostat would be the ticket!

I read this before work to day and it got me thinking, if you used a diesel fired coolant heater off a big rig or bus, it may get you the same results as a engine to heat your setup, but with lower gal/hr.

[cg285]

Originally Posted by cdowns

to warmup my garage and take the chill of i open the door so i get lots of sunlight// tho this year i've had to run the AC more than normal

ssshhh!