Heating In The Winter....

Armourer

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I want to heat my shop, which is a single car garage attached to my house. How ever, I do not have natural gas, or propane to heat it as we have electric heat. Now I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on how to heat my shop. I know electricity will be more expensive, but are there any alternatives? Are there any low draw electric heaters out there?
 
Resistance electric heat is 100% efficient. What goes in comes out. If you can run a heat pump, it will be more than 100% efficient. How much depends on the temperature that the evaporator is run in. In winter in Saskatchewan, I would expect that the temperature would be quite low so the efficiency would not be much over 100%. If the heat pump could utilize ground temperature, the efficiency can be boosted considerably. To that end, modern heat pumps either use a large buried tank or a recirculating well to supply heat to the pump.

I would consider a waste oil burner. Perhaps you can tap into some of that tar sand. :D. Maybe a small oil burner with electric heat for a backup? Insulation is probably the most economical improvement.
 
Heating with electricity using heat strips will be costly compared to other methods. Is kerosene cheap where you live? Are you willing to use or have a wood stove in the shop?
 
Thanks for the replys guys, the shop is small. Its 12x20 so I don't have a hole lot of room to take up floor space with a heater. I am against any wood heat for it, as insurance will go through the roof and I would like to heat it 24/7. Kerosene isn't the cheapest option either here, its quite pricy. I think I may be stuck with some sort of electric heater.
 
Resistance electric heat is 100% efficient. What goes in comes out. If you can run a heat pump, it will be more than 100% efficient. How much depends on the temperature that the evaporator is run in. In winter in Saskatchewan, I would expect that the temperature would be quite low so the efficiency would not be much over 100%. If the heat pump could utilize ground temperature, the efficiency can be boosted considerably. To that end, modern heat pumps either use a large buried tank or a recirculating well to supply heat to the pump.

I would consider a waste oil burner. Perhaps you can tap into some of that tar sand. :D. Maybe a small oil burner with electric heat for a backup? Insulation is probably the most economical improvement.


I would love to install a heat pump, but I live in a town and its not allowed!!! The used oil would be nice, but we don't have any oil sands near me! And I would also have to change the oil in my truck everyday so I would have enough on hand! :grin:
 
I would love to install a heat pump, but I live in a town and its not allowed!!! The used oil would be nice, but we don't have any oil sands near me! And I would also have to change the oil in my truck everyday so I would have enough on hand! :grin:

Living in a town can complicate things! I take my waste oil into a garage in a nearby town. He has a waste oil burner and heats his shop entirely with waste oil. I guess it helps if you're doing regular oil changes for customers.

You could probably find enough people around who would be glad to give you their waste oil. Even used oil from deep fat fryers works although your neighborhood may smell a bit like frying chicken or fish. The propane burner mentioned by Jim is also a good idea although you will have to price out the cost per BTU vs. the cost of electricity per BTU.

One KWH of electricity will generate 3,600 BTU's. A gallon of LP will generate about 92,000 BTU's. Our cost for electricity is about $.14/KWH so generating the equivalent of 1 gallon of LP would cost me $3.57. A 20 lb. tank of LP costs me about $18 or about $4.50/gal. and we fill our large tank for about $2.00/gal.

Another consideration for burning LP is that some source of fresh air is required for burning as well as your breathing. On a cold winter day, the instinct would be to button up the shop as tightly as possible. Burning one gallon of LP requires about 800 cu. ft. of air.

Depending upon your zoning restrictions, a small used LP furnace properly vented for supply air and exhaust may be a better option.
 
Burning propane (or anything that is not externally vented) inside a shop will release a lot of moisture in your shop. Your tools may rust because of it.

Bob, you would think so. But I have not noticed a problem in my shop, and I am not sure why. My shop is not very tight and the roof is vented at the peak and the roll up door has a pretty loose fit also. So I guess the venting is pretty good and that may be why I'm not getting rust. I'm burning about 60 gal of propane a month mid winter.
 
I use one of those small torpedo heaters in my garage when I need to be out there in the winter. My garage is 12 x 20 with 10 ceiling. If I run the torpedo heater with the door open about a foot for about 45 minutes. I can shut the door and work in my shirt for about 4 hrs before I start to get a chill. But then I can always turn it on again and take a break while it heats back up for 1/2 hr. I usually only use the garage for motorcycle work. My machining area is in the basement where it seems to stay the same temp all year and is dry enough so nothing rusts.
 
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