What type of heater/s do you have in your shop?
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
Enerco 40,000 btu radiant style runs off natural gas or propane. Heats the subject and can still heat with your doors open without losing any heat
Also goes by the name of Mr.Heater.
Its what most fire departments, body shops and mechanical shops use. They have different units, some which go the length of your shop below the ceiling in a tube.
[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Joey Madden ]
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
We burn wood for heat. Have you ever looked into the Monitor Heators? They burn #2 diesel and seem to be the most efficient simple heater I've used.
Posted by jmathel (Member # 526) on :
Electric heat-pump. Also gives you A/C in the summer time. I also use a portable propane radiant heater to heat a small area for a brief period or also outside when truck lettering.
Posted by jimmy chatham (Member # 525) on :
i use 2 100,000 btu swinging heaters in the shop areas and a forced air unit in the office.
the reason for the swing units is that screen printing fumes are heavier than air and i don't need the fumes accumalating and exploding
Posted by Bill Cosharek (Member # 1274) on :
A Vornado works well in a small shop. The heating element doesn't get red hot. It really fills the room with warm air.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Wow, thanks for all the responses.
My shop is 50x30x14 with a 2 on 12 roof pitch. This gives it a 22,875 cubic feet of space to heat. It has 10R insulation, and a 12x10 roll door.
If the temp gets down in the 30's, what kind of heater will heat it efficiently/
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Another vote for the monitor heater (aka vented kerosene heaters). We use it to heat our house. Actually, ours is a toyotomi, but their the same thing.
My garage is 24 feet square, very slight pitch on a flat roof, max ceiling height is about 10 feet. Fairly well insulated, but could be better. I only heat when I have a vehicle in to work on, and I use a 150,000 BTU kerosene salamander type heater on a thermostat. That sucker will drive you out in a few minutes, and the only drawback is that it is noisy. It runs every few minutes because of heat leakage, but even so I bet I'm as comfortable as anyone here.
Posted by pierre (Member # 1462) on :
Kimber.....ProCarry.
Posted by John Smith (Member # 1308) on :
My 1500 sf shop is very well insulated. I was given a 1950's Quaker oil furnace a few years ago and that is quite sufficient. I have a small quartz heater for the office. But, also in the office, I have a very nice fireplace for those cozy cold winter days !!!! Hopefully by this summer I will have central H/A but, the fireplace will STAY !!
Posted by mike meyer (Member # 542) on :
Here in Minnesota, it gets Cold, and I mean Cold! I have recently purchased and set-up a CORN stove in my shop. It costs me $2000.00 and it requires electricity to run the fan, and a Vent comes with it similar to a Dryer. And that's it! No smoke, no chimney. It's great! I bought enough corn from my local farm elevator to fill a 55 gallon drum and it cost me a whopping $17.33! This will last a week er so depending on the cold temps. The stoves are made in North Carolina and I beleive they have a web site but I don't have a brouchure in front of me. If you are in Florida, I would think this would work great...ya got any CORN down there?
Posted by Carl Wood (Member # 1223) on :
I run a portable propane 3 burner by Mr. Heater. . . .Even out 'fryin turkeys in 20 degrees. (Not yet this fall). . . .just git you a big enuff tank. . .I filled my 30 lb. tank for 'bout 12 bucks last time. . . .maybe e'nuff for 3 turkeys????
Posted by Mark Fair Signs (Member # 289) on :
electric heating and air.
1000 square feet, the most my power bill has been during peak months, $125.00
the least... $45.00
cost effective for my neck of the woods.
Posted by mike meyer (Member # 542) on :
Monkeytown Alabama weather is so mild in the winter that Coat factory's are unheard of (for Northerners that Migrate that is). Mark you don't need a heater..just a coupla "HOT LICKS" on that Gee-Tar of yours and the place is ON FIRE!!! Bring on the SNOW!!!!!!!!
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Thanks very much, everyone, for the replies. Didn't know there were so many kinds of heaters.... Corn Heater??? Mike, is that "CORN" the liquid or solid kind? Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :
When it gets reallllly cold I just fire up the ole wood stove. We have tons of wood from getting a couple trees taken down. Aint nuthin' like a crackling fire...............
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
My new shop is 30x50 w/10' ceiling height. I use 2 7.5 KW ceiling mount heaters in opposing corners to create a circular flow.
Also, being a paint shop, my insurance company gives a 30% discount for using electric heat instead of flames.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Thanks Mark, I have a 2 ton central heat/air in this little shop (20x24) and it does a super job heating and cooling. I wonder how large a unit it would take for the woodworking shop and how much the bill would be. I'm guessing maybe a 4 ton. I'll chech into that. I suppose I could suspend the air handler up high and out of the way and instead of running ducts, just distribute the air with fans.
Thanks Cheryl, the fire does sound inviting but I do use flamables in the shop like One Shot, Ronan, First Step, Toluene and xylene, and occasionally laquers. I don't use these very often as I am trying to convert to having a totally waterbased shop but it only takes one time. I watched a spray shop burn one time. Laquer overspray, several 55 gallon drums of laquer based coatings, jobs in progress. Awesome fire. I have an Ashley wood heater but better save that for the hunting cabin. Love sitting in front of a fire.
Don, are those heaters the infrared type? Can you hang them up high and out of the way? How do you orient them to get that circular motion? Thanks
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Heater? What heater? Don't need no stinkin heater! Not in Sunny Southern California! Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
wayne you out there in chipply....aint wood pretty cheap? for the shop a good wood stove would work(for as cold as it gets here) ive seen the wood burner 55 gal drum conversion, its fairly cheap and will give you a lot of heat, and its dry heat. for the officesame area you will a/c, a heat pump or some small electric heater(insulate the office area better so it wont lose heat/cool)after the ripoff in natural gas last winter....iam lookin for a wood stove.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Si, We's in the South alright but ain't close enough to the Equator for me in January.
Joe, I have one of those barrel heaters in my barn and my shop is right in front of the woods. Plenty of "Farwood" here and quite a temptation I'll admit. But, you have to chunk an awful lot of wood to that thing and I just would rather not have any open flames in there with all them combustible materials. I once worked at a church furniture shop which had one of those things. Burned that place to the ground, it did.
Posted by Rob Larkham (Member # 2105) on :
Sweatshirt and long underwear.
Posted by J.G. Kurtzman (Member # 1736) on :
Back in the 1970's I had a Chevett motor in the rear of my 1500sq ft studio/shop to suppliment the total electric heaters that didn't quite do the job here in the Northeast during the winter. Air for the carb came from outside the building through defroster hose to the air cleaner, and the exhaust was routed through the shop wall to the great outdoors with a Smitty's Steel pack muffler off my 55 chev. D/MP from days gone by.
Posted by Mike McCloud (Member # 766) on :
whatever you decide to do, it will work better with more insulation in the overhead. R10 isn't much stuff. You need a total of at least 12" of the pink fiberglass stuff to keep the heat from going away.
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
mother earth news had a exterior wood stove you could build...and it would heat a large area.....if you insulate the new building well, you wont have that much of a heat/cool problem.
Posted by Robert Root (Member # 758) on :
So where are all the Canadian responses? I am putting in a Rescom 2100 which is a two tube aluminum baseboard and it can be fired by oil gas electricity or propane. My unit comes with a small boiler that hangs on the wall and I will let you know how it works after I fire it up next week.
Rob
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
I'll bet a lot of folks don't think it gets cold in Florida, but take it from an ex-sailor that spent (o.k., wasted) 3 1/2 years in Jacksonville it gets well down into the thirties there! Si, I know what part of "Sunny Cal" you're in and all I can say is you're a much tougher Old Buzzard than I am if you don't need a heater. Well...older, too...Lots!
Rick Glawson has an interesting heater that burns sawdust pellets and you can't get in the same room with that thing wwhen it's on. I believe it's closely related to that corn burner.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Mike, I haven't had any experience with winter up North, but lots of folks here who used to live up North have told me that it's a different kind of cold. Humidity? I don't know but it does get in the 30's and it's not uncommon, during a cold front, to get into the low 20's here. I've even seen it get down in the teens and even one digit temps here in the panhandle. When I was a kid about 13 or 14, the railroad ditches here behind the shop froze over enough to walk on them. Here in the "Sunshine State"
Weird thought...anyone ever met an Inuit? (Eskimo) Wonder how one of those guys could take the infernal heat we have here in Summer?
[ November 08, 2001: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
It is not uncommon to have single digit temps here in the winter. I have lived here all but one year of my life. That one year I was in West Palm Beach, FL. The coldest it got that winter was about 40, and I just about froze all winter. It definately is a different kind of cold. There is a constant damp breeze coming in from the ocean, and it chills you all the way through. I bought the first pair of insulated coveralls I have ever owned while I was there.
Wayne,
The heaters are fan forced, and placed in opposing corners. They are positioned to blow offset from each other to create a circular air flow. We have not had any real cold weather yet(only down to 31 right now) but they seem to be doing a good job. I won't know about cost of operating until Spring, as this is my first year in this shop.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Thanks Don, Sounds like a good idea. Are those the infrared heaters?
Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
Heat Lamp. 1 bulb.
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
Hey all...
We have an Amana 130,000 B.T.U. 97% effiency forced air natural gas furnace. we use it to heat approximately 60% of our building.
We use a portable propane heater to take the edge off in the wood working shop in the back.
We keep our heat set at 62 degrees during the day and the heat gets turned down at night. We have a 7 day programmable thermostat for the furnace and it is handy. No more forgetting to turn the heat down! Woohoo!
Have a great one!
Posted by Donna in BC (Member # 130) on :
Ok, here's a Canadian response.
My shop is a double garage below, with an office upstairs. Upstairs in the 'clean' area I have a gas fireplace. It is soooo cozy!
In the garage, we have a gas heater, can't remember all the correct terminologies, however you can mess around with any chemicals in either area and you won't have a combustible problem. Also no problems if the power goes out.
If we had a high overhead bay, hard to say what we'd use. I like the idea of heating through the floor myself, however radiant is probably the most efficient. I've never liked radiant heat. The air around you is still cold.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Donna, Bruce, I guess gas heat would be OK as long as no flammable solvents come into contact with the flame. Some gas furnaces have "heat exchangers". The flames and all the products of combustion are separated from the heated area by an internal chamber and vented outside the building. A fan blows across this chamber and the air absorbs some of the heat, blowing it into the room.
From what I gather, the radiant heaters produce "radiant energy" which doesn't become "heat energy" until it strikes an object. This is similar to the way we get energy from the Sun. Like you said, the surrounding air is still cold. So, my question, How can they be more efficient?
