Heating The Shop

[fastback]

Randyjaco, looks like a nice heater. One that that is important is to keep warm in the winter.

Hey Sam, you must be happier that a pig in S----. The addition really came out great. Makes it nice to have all your machines in one spot.

Paul

 

[jocat54]

I've been using a small 35,000 BTU kerosene turbo heater for years, but kerosene is stupid expensive here at $4.59 a gallon. It burns very clean, but because it isn't vented to the outside it introduces a lot of moisture into the shop.

Last summer I put in some insulation and drywall (only got the walls done so far), but I can already tell it takes less heat to warm up the shop. I decided to try one of the 5000w 220v electric heaters to see how it would work. Menards has one for just under $100, and I have to say I think it is going to work.

Our electricity is 7.4 cents per kilowatt hour, so it comes out to 37 cents an hour to run it. An eight hour day is just under $3. Two and a half gallons of kerosene lasts 8 hours, and costs about $12. Right now I have 4 mil plastic up on the ceiling, but once I get my ceiling drywalled and insulated, it should take even less heat to make it comfortable in there.

I would love to put in a small natural gas heater because NG is the lowest cost form of heat in our area, but I would have to cut a hole in the roof for a chimney and run the gas line for it. I'm not quite ready for that yet. If and when I do put in NG heat, then I will be able to keep the shop warm 24/7 in the winter. Looking forward to that.

I just bought a similar heater from Northern Tools.
I also just insulated my shop and have been using a propane torpedo type heater. I still use it for the initial faster warm up and then the 5000w electric to maintain the heat and so far seems to be working okay. Keeps it about 60 to 65 with outside temps in the low 40's. I still have to insulate the back wall of the shop. Left it uninsulated with plans to add on to the back--but can't seem to find anyone that wants to work so a change in plans.

 

[middle.road]

Well for Christmas I bought myself a real shop heater, now I wish I had done it sooner. What a pleasure it is to have even heat all over the shop 8)

Randy

Now that's a heater...! How many sq. ft. is it covering? Oh to have Natural Gas (or Propane) *SNIFFLE*

I just packed it in for the night. 32°F looks to be the lower limit of keeping the shop comfortable with my 5000w.
Wind came up a bit I do believe it's sucking the warmth right out of the garage.
Gonna/gotta get new doors.
Why would someone insulate the heck out of the ceiling and not put anything in the walls?

 

[randyjaco]

Now that's a heater...! How many sq. ft. is it covering? Oh to have Natural Gas (or Propane) *SNIFFLE*

I just packed it in for the night. 32°F looks to be the lower limit of keeping the shop comfortable with my 5000w.
Wind came up a bit I do believe it's sucking the warmth right out of the garage.
Gonna/gotta get new doors.
Why would someone insulate the heck out of the ceiling and not put anything in the walls?

It is 75k btu . The shop is @900 sqft. It's a bit of overkill Southeast Texas, but I really hate working in a cold shop
Randy

 

[Keith Foor]

Personally I am a fan of a pellet stove. They are very efficient, there is little cleaning or maintenance to them and the fuel comes in sacks.
You walk out dump in a bag and hit start and it creates heat. When you are done for the day, turn it off. The chimney temps are low because of the efficiency. Because it burns very clean there is about zero chance of a chimney fire. And you are basically burning sawdust pressed into pellets. They are more expensive than an electric heater, but I would bet that running a 5KW electric heater would cost more in power than the bag o pellets and the bit of power to run the blowers.

 

[pebbleworm]

Pellet stoves can also burn corn, which can (and sometimes can't) be very cheap. It depends on whether you have crop ground near you. If corn is high, burn pellets, if it's cheap burn corn. Old 500 bushel corn cribs were pretty much give-away items, but It's 20 years since I have been in that part of the world.

 

[Grandpop]

My garage is cuurently 12 x 26, but just got a zoning variance to add another 12 x 40 out the side. I currently have a 6000w 220 electric heater that I keep set to about 50 when not out there, then turn it up to about mid 60s when working. Considering either natural gas or maybe a small heat pump for the new space, with the electric as backup. Here in SE PA it costs about $80 a month for the electric heater.

 

[Keith Foor]

Pellet stoves can also burn corn, which can (and sometimes can't) be very cheap. It depends on whether you have crop ground near you. If corn is high, burn pellets, if it's cheap burn corn. Old 500 bushel corn cribs were pretty much give-away items, but It's 20 years since I have been in that part of the world.

I heated my house with corn for several years. Even to the point i had them come get the propane tank and it was my only option. Mind you the corn furnace was rated at 165000 BTU (never ran it that high) but it did a good job. Right now propane is cheaper in bulk, or it was similar last time I checked, but I have the furnace hooked up and can switch over at any point if needed.
Corn has more BTU in it per pound than coal. It's a very good, clean and renewable source of heat.
For a garage it's as idea as pellets due to being able to heat up reasonably quick, provide a lot of heat in a small heater and shut down safely without needing to be looked in on or chance of chimney fire. Efficiency is similar to pellets in most units. I could run mine hard and still not get enough heat in the chimney to peel the paper price stickers off the 8 inch stack. It would only get very warm to the touch , but never hot enough to burn you.

Due to the price of propane plummeting from $4.XX a gallon to $0.99 a gallon (last summer fill price) corn went from 2 bucks a bushel to 6 and is now back to $3 a bushel used stoves and furnaces litter craigslist and ebay. For a small area, a small stove would be ideal. For a large shop... 165000 BTU is a ton of heat. And if you dropped PEX in your concrete, there are boilers that are fired by corn as well.

 

[mcoak]

I ended up having a Mitsubishi mini split system installed.

Working well so far, electric bill is low.

 

[eugene13]

I have a Coalman boiler, the mine here in town sells oiled stoker for $55 a ton and i buy 3 tons at a time and heat both my home and shop, 3860 sq ft. With weather like now, 60s days 30s at night 700 Lb lasts about 6 days, when it's below zero about 3 days. It's a lot of work to load fuel and pull ash but it's a good upper body workout and its cheap, the system cost $18000, it's been on line for eight years and has nearly paid for itself.