[pete from TN]

Hey guys,
I just thought I would ask all of you guys that have your machines out in the shop or garage about how you heat your shop. Up until now I have been basically cracking the garage door and using a kerosene forced air heater to get it really warm in there, turning it off and using a small electric heater to kinda maintain it. This is of course less than ideal in that it can be unhealthy and while it can sure make it comfortable in there during the colder tennessee months I am constantly running to get kerosene. In the last woodshop I worked in they had radiant heaters with natural gas piping which was nice but from the way they complained when we tried to warm it up I think it was less than cheap. I have recently been looking at some full electric heaters that mount to the ceiling that are both radiant and forced air without fuel.

My shop is not huge at around 25x25 which is around 600 sq ft. It does have a nine foot ceiling too. Some of these electronic heaters are supposed to be able to heat that much alone but I am thinking if I can find two efficient reasonably priced ones I will use one on each side of the shop. Anyone here use something like this or have a better solution that does not include a fuel source. I had been planning on using a homemade beercan type solar heating unit this year but never got around to building it. Now I am gonna have to try to spend my recovery time attempting to make some extra money in my shop yet not freeze my keister off during the cooler months ahead.

So in a nutshell for those of you who live in the cooler areas of the country what are your heating solutions? Thanks and peace...

Pete

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Pete,

Kerosene heater = bad idea. Opening the door = worse idea. If you use ANY kind of combustion heater (wood stove, gas furnace, kerosene heater, etc.) use it ONLY if the exhaust can be completely vented outside. Oherwise, you WILL be pumping moisture into the shop air, and the moisture WILL condense out on the machines. Similarly, NEVER open the door, except very quickly for you to go in or out. This is expecially important on cool, damp mornings. The machines will be colder than the outside air. The moment you open the door, that cool, damp air will rush in, hit the even colder metal of your machine, and the moiture will condense out on the machine. Best solution for shop heat is electric space heaters. In my shop, I have three 1500W electric heaters, with fans. These cost $25 each at Sears. I can come in first thing in the AM, and turn on all three to high for 30-60 minutes, to get the shop warmed up (my shop is 24'x36'). After that, I can turn two of them off, and the third to low to maintain the temp at a comfortable level for the rest of the day. Operating cost is pretty minimal - I think around $30/month in the winter (30-40F ambient most days).

Glad to see you up and around again! Hope you're feeling better!

Regards,
Ray L.

[pete from TN]

Believe me I am fully aware of the negatives of using the kerosene heater but to be honest where I live it can get pretty damn cold in the mornings. My shop is around 25x25 and has a nine foot ceiling. It is basically not the best sealed nor the best insulated building but it is not terrible either. The way I use the kerosene forced air heater is to basically knock the chill off. I run it while I am inside the house for like a half hour or so and then go outside to the shop which is now nice and toasty and turn off the kerosene heater and turn on the electric small heater I have. Unfortunately it is not enough to maintain the heat so I ultimately have to turn on the kerosene occasionally to get it back to workable temps. I saw an ad in a local craigslist where someone was selling an electric wall mounted heater and it seemed like a good idea and ran off 220v. The last woodshop I worked in had three of these but I think they were natural gas operated. I started to think that if perhaps I bought two of these electric heaters I could get rid of the forced air unit and just live with the electronic costs. The damn kerosene is very expensive here anyways. I would think that at what they quote as 17000 btu two of them should be able to at least make it liveable out there during the winter. SInce I am recovering from my surgery I am really worried that if I at least can get out there and make something to make some extra cash be it wood or metal I can maybe keep the debt collectors at bay until the summer and I am fully recuperated. I am specifically hoping to be able to machine some cool parts for some cash because I am not supposed to be lifting anything heavy at all so small aluminum parts is gonna be all I can do for at least a little while. That is why I thought I would ask what you guys are doing to keep warm.

I also try to crank the air in the house and put a small fan in the doorway to the shop to vent some of the warmer air out to the shop which helps a bit too..... peace

Pete

[GaryCorlew]

Good to see you posting Pete!! I live in North Carolina, My shop is about the same size as yours (actually a 2 car garage)and I use two electric 220 volt base board type of heaters, I don't remember the wattage but they work great! I have not had a problem with condensation as of yet and I have had them in there for about three or four years, I do keep my machines well oiled which may explain the lack of condensation problems.

[kawazuki]

May sound daft but is it you or the whole shop you want warm? With a relatively poorly insulated building, space heating is a waste - time and money. Heating, cooling, heating, cooling does nothing for your pocketbook! If your moderately stationary ie. not walking around the place, a couple of infra heat bulbs/heaters could be your best bet. They give little heat to surfaces or air but get bodies well toasty!

[pete from TN]

I have been looking at selling my salamander forced air kerosene unit to try to fund a pair of wall or ceiling mounted 220v electric heaters for the whole shop My shop IS insulated but the garage doors are less than ideal and there are some gaps here and there in the structure that I have tried to address. We are currently redoing the siding with 7/16 osb and then some tyvek housewrap followed by the vinyl siding to match the house. I do not expect to completely heat the shop to 75 degrees but to get in a comfortable range without breaking the electric bill would be wonderful. I also have been using the kerosene unit which makes it nice and toasty but I just was concerned about the long term exposure and it is not exactly cheap to run it. There are some 220v 5000watt wall mounted units for sale now that put out like 17kbtu that are reasonably priced that seem like they would work in a pair on each side of the shop. I am usually wearing warm clothing when i go out there anyways but I am getting tired of having to fetch the kerosene and fill and all the mess of it all.... Just thought I would ask all of you guys what you are using? peace


Pete

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Pete,

Roll-up garage doors can be easily insulated using rigid insulation, which is quite cheap. Slice it up into panels that fit into the door sections, and just use construction adhesive, or just wire, to hold it in place. Getting some large rubber weatherstrip (the kind made for sealing the bottom of garage doors work swell), and using it to seal completely around the edges of the door will make a HUGE difference. An advantage of portable electric heaters is they can be put where they do the most good (which may change depending on what you're working on at any given time), as opposed to wall or ceiling mounted units, which seem to never be ideally located.

Regards,
Ray L.

[spyderguy550]

I'm in south central Wisconsin (Madison, actually). It gets plenty cold here in Winter. My shop is a well insulated 2-car garage I built about 6 years ago. It's 20 feet wide by 24 deep with a 9 foot ceiling. The four panel steel garage door is 10 feet wide. There is a couple of inches of rigid styrofoam under the floor slab. I never get any moisture or sweating on the floor. I heat it with a small natural gas fired hanging furnace. I think it's about 40,000 BTUs. It's probably more than double what I need but it came my way for the right price at the right time. When I'm not out there I leave the thermostat as low as it will go and it stays a pretty constant 43 or 44 degrees. When I'm in the shop for any length of time it warms up quickly to 60 which is about as warm as I want it when I'm moving around actually doing work. The biggest heat leak is around the overhead door. It's about in the middle of the pack as far as insulated doors were when I built. If I ever do this again it will be the best insulated and sealing door I can find. Anyway, the door stays closed all winter so I do the best I can to make sure it's tight to its gaskets and plug the little gaps by the corners.