Heating the Shop in Vermont

You'll need at least one 240V outlet in your shop . I suggest you get an electrician to come and look at the electrical panel and it might not be as expensive/time consuming as you think, mine cost $150 and a local electrician put a 30 A breaker in the main panel and wired the 240V outlet in my shop.
 
Ken from ontario said:
You'll need at least one 240V outlet in your shop . I suggest you get an electrician to come and look at the electrical panel and it might not be as expensive/time consuming as you think, mine cost $150 and a local electrician put a 30 A breaker in the main panel and wired the 240V outlet in my shop.
Click to expand...
I don't have a problem wiring it myself. I'm speaking more from the perspective of what is allowed in the code. Yes, I could put the outlet in but for the 7,500W heater, they recommend a 50A breaker. That can't come off my 60A subpanel if I expect to put another 30A 240V 1PH outlet in the same subpanel for my lathe. So, my question is can I run off my main panel back in the house with such a long run.
 
if the conduit is large enough, you could replace the existing 6 ga with #4 or #2 so you can just have a 100amp sub panel in the garage.
 
#6AWG copper would get you 50amp to 49'. Mike
 
This may sound weird, but you probably can get by with what you already got. Just plug the heater in, and turn it off when you use the lathe, unless you plan to run it all the time. Also, a 120v 15amp heater parabola radiant heater is pretty good when aim at a person directly.
Not as good as a separate line, but it can do the job.
 
I live down near Colorado Springs it was -22f last Monday, but that is rare. I need some heat in my shop as well for the 20 to 40F days. I looked at these heaters and a lot of them has problems with the internal fan, by the way the reviews state you can not get a replacement fan for the forced air. So I have held off getting a couple of these to keep my shop working warm some what. I’m really tired of buying China junk, then having to reworking it after a week, or having to buy another one. Looked into putting 2 100lb propane tanks in and buying a real forced air shop heater. I have natural gas to the house, but would have to run a gas line about 200 ft to the shop.$$$$$ My Son has 2 150k btu in his shop on gas and it heats his shop with out a problem. He has a business, auto repair, has about 7500 sqft with 15ft ceilings. My shop is only 16x48 with insulation and double pane windows, the over head door is insulated as well. Been wondering what it would take to make my shop workable?
CH.
 
@COMachinist if you read my post, I was in the same boat. Too much money to do it right, didn't want to buy junk that didn't work or didn't work well enough. I played that game in my head for well over 2 years...closer to 3. This was one of those no brainers. If it didn't work, Amazon has amazing customer service (but maybe you need to know how to work them...I don't know but the care I've gotten....again, amazing.) and it got my wife off my back and I could tell her.."TOLD YA"!
Anyway, she won that bet and best $150 I've spent. I live right near Evergreen here in Colorado at the base of the hills and my shop has NEVER seen 75 degrees in the dead of winter. I'm glad I took the leap, if it only lasts a year, well the unit is well under $90. I could spend that a year for heat and not blink and eye. Time will tell.
 
@vtcnc My shop is also 40A 240V, but I chose to use a 55000 BTU natural gas heater. Electricity is expensive enough and the temps get cold enough that the cost would bankrupt me. As it is, I'm at about 30$ a month to keep it above freezing (3C) and heating to 10C when I'm working there. I do this perhaps 10 days a month for a few hours.
 
@Dabbler and I would agree with that though other than getting a decent supply of natural gas to the shop being a decent expense for me. I won't know the cost of this latest cold snap and the electricity bill for at lease a month. I'm not out there daily but I saw a $12 increase for last month. (+/- 3 days a week 4 to7 hours) This is one part of the puzzle I really would like to have some solid answers on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top