Shop heat

[hotrod1]

What do u guys use for shop heat? I was looking at the forced air torpedo propane units. Do they emit too much humidity and will rust my frame or other metal things or is that just nonsense? Any other suggestions besides a jacket? My wife wants to borough it for the house as well. Dont want to heat the whole thing when in one room.

[kaycee]

Don't run that in your house,I run 1 in my garage 24"x32" for short period of time.It does a good job but my cold and your cold are really different we have been in the -45 wind chill the last coupla days.So I really haven't been in the garage,I wont paint anything until it warms up the propane unit will emit a oily residue so I don't even think about paint.The freestanding ceramic heaters work good for the house and allso the oil filled radiator looking heaters do awesome in the house.

[Woodbutcher]

All I can say is ... aaahhhh! When I go into the shop I have to be careful not to bring my pillow and blankie. If I'm working on the floor I'm tempted to have a nap - even at -30 celcius. Some days, when my back is bothering me I go out and lie on the floor for relief instead of running the car with the heated seat on. Truth be told, I had installed radiant in floor heating when I poured the floor. Used pex-pipe and a hot water heater filled with automotive anitfreeze. The thing works like a charm and all my friends are quite envious. Is there any what you can do the same?? It'll pay big dividends. If this isn't helpful, comfort yourself by knowing that you have me a rare opportunity to gloat.

[OrrieG]

This gets mine up to 50 degrees when its above 10 degrees F. Takes about 45 minutes to bring it up to heat. Would work better if the roof was completely insulated and did not have the garage attic space to heat too. I also have a 200K btu propane unit I use when it is really cold or I'm in a hurry, but like other said it puts moisture in the air. With the low humidity here its not a big problem.

[cdowns]

for shop heat i usually open the door to let the heat in

[63 & 64 Bowties]

How much electric service do you have in your garage?
My brother has 100a service in his garage and he uses a used mobile home electric furnace that he bought for $100 in his. It's unbelievable how well it works. Even when it gets down to the 20's outside it will heat his garage to the 70's - 80's in less than a half hour. No exaggeration.
My garage is detached and I'm planning on running new underground service with 2ga wire this summer so I can get more service and do the same thing as him.

[OKGMC4]

I had one of those torpedo units. They work GREAT, but...they are quite loud (think jet engine) and it doesn't matter if you use kerosene or diesel they have a definite smell to them. Now I have a dual element propane heater and it's quiet and has no smell. I'm not using a dinky tank...mine is about 5 foot high. The little ones are about $30 to fill, mine is $65 and holds enough propane to fill 5 or 6 of the little ones. It lasts weeks at a time. The kerosene heater cost way more to run. Also, I used to have a 30 x 30 shop and now only a two car garage but it seems to do great.

[67HEAVEN]

Radiant tube, natural-gas fired heating is truly amazing. I have two sections, each 10 feet long with a 90 degree elbow at the centre. It's the most even, quiet heat you could imagine. I keep the shop at 40 degrees all winter, unless I'm working out there. I can have it up to 65 so fast you'd be amazed. LOTS of insulation in the walls and attic. The attic is R44.

[EdB]

I use a Ready heater multi fuel unit. It is rated at 70,000 BTU.
The cheapest fuel I have found is the red farm diesel. I usually
run it at about half throttle. It will heat the shop good but makes
a lot of noise like a jet engine. If I could get it to sound like
a radial, I would probably run it all the time. My shop is 40X70
and is insulated but there is convection around the roll up doors.
EdB

[oldblue1968chevy]

Woodstove

[bobinbc]

I used this woodstove for many years and wood in the 1200 sqft shop I had before. I took it out recently to get more room but it was great. Since then I tried a propane heater, lots of condensation on everything, I took it back. Now I use a 3600 watt electric heater, works good except in really cold weather, my shop is about 500 sqft.

[PurdueSD]

Mr. Heater Big Maxx 75k btu propane. I use about $200-250 worth of propane to keep my very well insulated shop warm. I keep the thermostat at 50 and bump her up to about 60 when i head out there. Its some of the best money ive spent!

[Notch1988]

Another vote for overhead radiant tube heaters. I've got an 80K btu natural gas unit in my garage. My neighbour has one as well and ran his ventless off propane for two years before switching the unit to natural gas and a vent.

[motornut]

well i bought one of these..........
works great but stinks

[Maestro]

[my67c20]

You mean to tell me you need a heater in the garage in Camarillo? Lived there for 20 years over on Elm St in old town moved to wisconsin in 2006. I will trade you garage working conditions. Right now have one of those upright propane convection and the tools condense up pretty quick but it heats so i just deal with it.

[hotrod1]

Yeah, I know. Compared to a lot of you guys I am living in the tropics. I am soft and dont even know what real cold is. But, there are times that is does get a little (very little) cold and we dont feel like going into the garage. In addition, we want it decent enough to paint.

Found a heater on craigslist. It is a 65,000 btu multifuel dynaglow. Holy moley, it is like a jet engine. Heats up the garage in 4 minutes. The guy before had diesel fuel in it and it does smell when you first start it and shut it down. In between times it does not smell at all. It smells like a jet burning fuel and I do like that smell anyways. Next round of fuel will be kerosene. They say that it burns cleaner and may not smell much at all.

Good luck to all you guys in the real cold.

[kaycee]

Yeah the kerosene is great for the fuel but double the $ of diesel,so I went to diesel

[feller]

Originally Posted by Woodbutcher

All I can say is ... aaahhhh! When I go into the shop I have to be careful not to bring my pillow and blankie. If I'm working on the floor I'm tempted to have a nap - even at -30 celcius. Some days, when my back is bothering me I go out and lie on the floor for relief instead of running the car with the heated seat on. Truth be told, I had installed radiant in floor heating when I poured the floor. Used pex-pipe and a hot water heater filled with automotive anitfreeze. The thing works like a charm and all my friends are quite envious. Is there any what you can do the same?? It'll pay big dividends. If this isn't helpful, comfort yourself by knowing that you have me a rare opportunity to gloat.

just curious, how do you get the antifreeze to push itsself? and how is the electric bill?? i was wanting to put an outdoor boiler to heat the house and detached garage but was going to do radiant in the shop but water heaters are cheaper to but and i do not have enough wood to feed a hungry boiler with out buying. thanks

[Woodbutcher]

Originally Posted by feller

just curious, how do you get the antifreeze to push itsself? and how is the electric bill?? i was wanting to put an outdoor boiler to heat the house and detached garage but was going to do radiant in the shop but water heaters are cheaper to but and i do not have enough wood to feed a hungry boiler with out buying. thanks

I bought a pump designed for radiant in floor heating systems... was about $100 cdn. The system added about about $50 a month to my electric bill. total cost of the heating system was about $800 back when cdn $$ was about 75 cents US, so it was pretty cheap. Hope this helps.

[Torrey72]

I have a 24x36 shop and am looking to put up two of these.

[NONHOG]

I got my G73 from this place and am pretty happy, with insulation I expect to be really happy (and warm)

http://www.air-n-water.com/

[feller]

Originally Posted by Woodbutcher

I bought a pump designed for radiant in floor heating systems... was about $100 cdn. The system added about about $50 a month to my electric bill. total cost of the heating system was about $800 back when cdn $$ was about 75 cents US, so it was pretty cheap. Hope this helps.

yeah it does thanks

[OJ1988]

I have a woodstove, but it takes up too much space in my shop. I am thinking about an overhead propane heater of some sorts, or maybe just an electric one or too. The local tractor supply has them on sale now.

Hey Feller, I'm just down the road from you!

[pritch]

I have two separate systems in my shop, and I built both out of spare parts left over from jobs. The first is a hot water system (I used automotive anti-freeze also) I have a propane-fired water heater, just a residential model:



And a pump and expansion tank:



And these unit heaters:



All these pictures were taken before I had all my insulation and sheet rock installed. This works pretty good, but it does go through a lot of propane.

The other system is solar, I guess. I built my shop with this in mind. I have a single-slope roof, if you can imagine, about 7' tall in the back and 18' tall in the front. This is a poor picture, but you get the idea:



Notice even with all that snow, there is none on my roof.

So I have about 1200 sq. ft. of black shingles on a 3/12 slope facing south. My joists are 2' thick, with a foot of insulation on top of the sheet rock, leaving me with about 1200 cubic feet of air space that gets really warm even on the coldest days, as long as the sun is shining. Now, the HVAC guys will know what I'm talking about, but up high, in the front, I have 2 fire/smoke dampers. When these are in a commercial building, a current holds them open and when the fire alarm goes off, the current is broken and they close to prevent smoke from passing through the duct work. But I have them hooked up to a line-voltage thermostat that is up in the attic, along with an exhaust fan down in the lower part in the rear. So when the attic hits a warm enough temp, the fan kicks on and the dampers open and it dumps all the warm attic air right down behind those 2 unit heaters. It works surprisingly well, and only on the coldest days do I fire up the propane system. And in the summer, I flip a switch and it blows the heat out of the attic outside and draws air in from the shady side of the shop and it cools it down some.