Heating In The Winter....

Carbon Monoxide is why I run my torpedo with the door open and shut it off when I am closing the door. But it heats up enough of the air and any metal in the garage to keep me warm for 4 - 5 hours.
 
Carbon Monoxide is why I run my torpedo with the door open and shut it off when I am closing the door.

That's appropriate.
Please consider running a CO alarm as a back up safety device.
They are cheap.
Additionally, if your garage/shop is attached to your house don't assume that there the wall is a protective barrier.
Gases follow a path of least resistance.

Daryl
MN
 
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.
More important to me is the external venting of exhaust. I have two 75,000 BTU overhead heaters in the shop but they vent outside.
 
Please consider running a CO alarm as a back up safety device.


I do have a new, 10 year (a year old now) CO detector in my shop and with the unvented propane torpedo it has never alarmed. The propane forklift won't set it off either. But run a car in there for about a minute and it will alarm. At least I know it works. ;)
 
I want to see that 100% efficient heater. I suspect that Mr Newton's second law might disagree.
From http://energy.gov/energysaver/electric-resistance-heating
"Electric resistance heating is 100% energy efficient in the sense that all the incoming electric energy is converted to heat. However, most electricity is produced from coal, gas, or oil generators that convert only about 30% of the fuel's energy into electricity. Because of electricity generation and transmission losses, electric heat is often more expensive than heat produced in homes or businesses that use combustion appliances, such as natural gas, propane, and oil furnaces."

Newton's second law says essentially force = mass x acceleration. Do you mean the second law of thermodynamics? It is possible to convert 100% of other forms of energy, mechanical, electrical. etc. into heat energy but not the reverse. The second law of thermodynamics essentially states that for any closed system involving a transfer of energy the entropy or amount of disorder is increasing.
 
From http://energy.gov/energysaver/electric-resistance-heating
"Electric resistance heating is 100% energy efficient in the sense that all the incoming electric energy is converted to heat. However, most electricity is produced from coal, gas, or oil generators that convert only about 30% of the fuel's energy into electricity. Because of electricity generation and transmission losses, electric heat is often more expensive than heat produced in homes or businesses that use combustion appliances, such as natural gas, propane, and oil furnaces."

Newton's second law says essentially force = mass x acceleration. Do you mean the second law of thermodynamics? It is possible to convert 100% of other forms of energy, mechanical, electrical. etc. into heat energy but not the reverse. The second law of thermodynamics essentially states that for any closed system involving a transfer of energy the entropy or amount of disorder is increasing.

I look at it as being Newtonian Physics. And, it can't be 100% efficient as there is some energy lost to light that is not necessarily seen as heat.

No conversion of any form of energy can be 100% efficient as there are always losses to the "system". In this discussion, the likely most efficient heating source is going to be an unvented combustion source like a salamander where even the exhaust heat that would be lost in most situations is recovered as heat.

I get so tired of hearing so many folks talk about renewable energy and 100% efficient transfers. Neither of which is possible to exist.

Even nuclear power is not 100% efficient.

Yes, I did work for Indiana Michigan Power Company at one point in time.
 
Back
Top