Topic: How do you Heat your Shop?

[BenelliSEI]

Here’s how I heat my shop. Just outside this wall, I poured a small pad for my upright compressor and a 40 gallon, electric hot water tank. The tank (and expansion tank) has an extra insulation kit, plus is over wrapped with an old sleeping bag. The circulating pump runs liquid/anti freeze mix (designed for this application) through three loops in the concrete floor. A thermostat in the middle of the shop, calls for the circulating pump to come on, whenever temp is below 50 degrees F. But, clock/ timer only allows the pump to actually run between midnight and 6:00 am, when we are off peak, at the lowest of three daily hydro charge rates. I figure it adds about $100/ month to my bill December thru’ March. I usually go down to the shop in the am, because it does cool down during the day......

[rocket johnny]

thats a cool set up john.     i just have a stinky torpedo heater .  go out to the shop 30 min out and let it run .  it's real noisy to be in the shop with it running .  makes me crazy !     i'm lucky were having a mild winter as it's about 40 to start .   some day a natural gas heater 

[seanbarney41]

big old wood stove/furnace  burns wood to heat a box, when hot electric fan pumps over it blowing hot air...my shop is big, with very high ceiling so have to burn wood all day to get it up to 50 degrees, but then the large concrete floor only lets it get below 38 unless is realllllly cold for a couple weeks straight.  Obtaining wood and splitting, stacking, hauling is a pain but the comfort and cheer of a fire is pretty nice.  Something about periodically tending to the fire seems to really help me focus my attention on a project.

[RAFster122s]

For those with concrete floor in your shop. Get a sheet of foam building insulation and glue a piece of cardboard to it with construction adhesive. Do this on both sides. Now you have made a thermal break to stand on, if you work with a stool some times then glue a sheet of 1/8" hardboard to the foam. It will make you feel so much warmer while working in your shop. The cold won't get to you as bad with the heat sucked out of your feet. You can feel the difference in 5 minutes...really a game changer.
 2 foot wide panels of white foam are available in many cold areas. The 2 inch thick blue or green extruded stuff is going to have more insulation value but even the white expanded foam is going to work really well for this hack.

[Gurp]

I was using a torpedo heater in years past.
But with the small size of my shop and always getting new tools there is no longer room for it. So I have a small rotating pad that has a 15lb propane tank on it with a tank top heater.

It's truly not that effective but it's better than nothing. This summer/spring I'm going to insulate the roof that will help alot of my winter condensation issues

[newday777]

This is my 1st winter back in NH that I expanded my shop to 11'x36' in a barn basement with one wall being old stone foundation fully underground, all but the last 8', which has 8"×16" two rib cement blocks and a 3rd of the blocks are exposed to the air along with the end wall with the insulated garage door. The other long wall I bought some used 4" blue foam panels to insulate the cold out from the rest of the basement, no insulation in the ceiling. I bought a 65,000 BTU pellet stove from a friend to heat it and set it @ 10" from the garage door and set the stove's thermostat to 60 degrees and the temperature stays in the shop @ 62-65F so far this mild winter(only 5-6 nights the past month where it's been down to single numbers outside temperature. It's using @ 1 bag of pellets a day this month I've had it running constantly,  so 30 days x $6.30= $189. The hopper holds 3 bags and ran out when I didn't get back to the shop for 2 1/2 days....
The thermometer I set on the inside wall, @ 20' from the stove to see what the temp is in the shop on the cold nights has been showing 62 to 65 degrees which is comfortable without a jacket to work in.
This next week the forecast is cooler for a few days of below freezing again for the week after tomorrow and one night to 7 below 0, so it might burn more pellets.... it's not cheap heat but manageable and comfortable.

[BenelliSEI]

Stu.... you keep your shop warm! Mines starts the day at 55 degrees and sinks to 50 by late afternoon. I wear a nice old set of quilted overalls and find it OK, if I’m busy. I do have a small 240V  forced air heater hanging over head, which I do turn on if I’m just loafing around in there.

[70CB750]

I have a keroseen heater, thats all i need in VA. 

[Honda Hansel]

Natural gas all the way
have two 45000 BTU over head heaters in both garage's
My main garage is all ways warm 18 deg C 65 deg F
My second storage garage I keep at 10 deg C just so things stay frost free
December was a ugly month with cold weather here in Alberta and it dipped to -
-32 to -36 deg C for a extended time and that need some Natural gas
Just got the bill for December not bad except the Carbon Tax was $76.00 not good
The total bill for Electricity and Gas combined was $411.00 can not bad

Time to make a waste oil burner
Build it out side and pipe the heat in

Honda Hansel
Sherwood Park AB

[BenelliSEI]

Time to make a waste oil burner
Build it out side and pipe the heat in


Very real consideration. Project for next summer. Seen any good plans to “build your own”?

[newday777]

Stu.... you keep your shop warm! Mines starts the day at 55 degrees and sinks to 50 by late afternoon. I wear a nice old set of quilted overalls and find it OK, if I’m busy. I do have a small 240V  forced air heater hanging over head, which I do turn on if I’m just loafing around in there.

I can't get the stove to go lower while I'm away or I would have kept it at 50 degrees...

[Honda Hansel]

Time to make a waste oil burner
Build it out side and pipe the heat in


Very real consideration. Project for next summer. Seen any good plans to “build your own”?

That's what I was thinking my self
To do it out side just to keep the mess out side and bring the hot air in with a trap door some how

Honda Hansel

[Don R]

 I got a high efficient direct vent natural gas unit heater. The walls are 6" thick with fiberglass and 8" in the ceiling. I used to run it at 40* when I wasn't out there but it made condensation and destroyed the heat exchanger. I got the same unit again and keep it at 55* now. I do wedge the garage doors closed a bit to tighten up the gaps in winter.

[strynboen]

have a hot air/oil heat system..

[Johnie]

I have a natural gas elevated unit heater. Keep it 60 degrees all winter here in WI. Have 6 inch walls with fiberglass and 25 inches of blown insulation in attic. Concrete floor with 1 - 2 inches of insulation board under the concrete. Works good here.

[BenelliSEI]

have a hot air/oil heat system..

Burner maintenance?

[BenelliSEI]

I have a natural gas elevated unit heater. Keep it 60 degrees all winter here in WI. Have 6 inch walls with fiberglass and 25 inches of blown insulation in attic. Concrete floor with 1 - 2 inches of insulation board under the concrete. Works good here.

Lots of people use that option, with a propane tank outside.....

[Honda Hansel]

have a hot air/oil heat system..

HI stryneboen
It's not cheap to heat any thing in Denmark
I use to live there back in the day
Made a good choice left for Canada many years ago

At least you have a bit of heat as long there is used oil to be had
keep it a secret from the government They might tax you on it HAHA
Hold Warmen

Honda Hansel

[HondaMan]

I have a [genuine] Harbor Freight 800w electric heater (which I stand right next to me, and the engine under work), At the ceiling is a (35 year old) 1000w quartz rod heater that can be pointed toward any point in the garage where I might be.

I have 2 (or more) layers of cardboard to stand/kneel on next to [whatever is under construction that day]. After they get greasy they get replaced, and are easy on the knees!

[BenelliSEI]

One of my buddies has a new quartz radiant electric heater that hangs in the ceiling, just behind his main bench. It has a 750W and 1500W settings and is about 24” wide. I’m always impressed how warm it makes that workspace, when you stand in front of it.

[70CB750]

I have a [genuine] Harbor Freight 800w electric heater (which I stand right next to me, and the engine under work), At the ceiling is a (35 year old) 1000w quartz rod heater that can be pointed toward any point in the garage where I might be.

I have 2 (or more) layers of cardboard to stand/kneel on next to [whatever is under construction that day]. After they get greasy they get replaced, and are easy on the knees!

I use cardboard under cars it works great.  I do all car work outside.

[strynboen]

have a hot air/oil heat system..

Burner maintenance?

it vas the test fase..and klean up...nov it runs as a lamboghini..or even better..have a extern temp regulator to stabilice the heat a bit..

[strynboen]

have a hot air/oil heat system..

HI stryneboen

hi ex dane...a lot of danes vent to canada..think most danisk families have relatives over there..
taxes is krazy in denmark..but it cost to drive the safest contry in the vorld..the vorst problem is that ve dont can modyfi aur cars and bikes..all have to be stock..and cars, are send to control evry 2 year for safty and green kontrol..so no funny homemade cars,,or bikes in denmark..even HA have thers bikes kontroled..so they have to build then back to stock vhen they run into kontrols..
It's not cheap to heat any thing in Denmark
I use to live there back in the day
Made a good choice left for Canada many years ago

At least you have a bit of heat as long there is used oil to be had
keep it a secret from the government They might tax you on it HAHA
Hold Warmen

Honda Hansel

[C317414]

I had a Reznor natural gas heater installed in my garage.  This particular model has a sealed combustion chamber and draws combustion air from outside.  It works really well.  I keep it set to 55F, and move it to 65F when I work in the garage.

[Stev-o]

My shop is currently being heated by the "Greenhouse Effect"!  Very economical but bad for the planet!
Its currently 32F outside and 53 in...

[Kelly E]

My shop is 30' x 48' with 12' 6" ceiling and when we bought this house the shop furnace was free standing next to the electric panel with the wiring disappearing under the electric panel cover. We built a utility room for the furnace and compressor. A buddy built the upper plenum and another buddy got me 3 ten foot sections of 16" round duct pipe.
The furnace is a 1974 electric forced air commercial unit and it keeps the 1400sqft at 65° for 5 or 6 months and off the rest of the year. Here we have plenty of hydro electric power and it's not too expensive.

[BenelliSEI]

I had a Reznor natural gas heater installed in my garage.  This particular model has a sealed combustion chamber and draws combustion air from outside.  It works really well.  I keep it set to 55F, and move it to 65F when I work in the garage.

That is a slick solution.

[Dunk]

I use a Sterling NG 45k BTU unit heater on a wifi thermostat. 60* all the time, usually 72* when in the garage and takes about an hour to raise the temp in a 24'x30'x10'. I started keeping it at 50* when I installed it but 2+ hours to raise the temp and tools being cold was too much for me and gas was cheap enough I think it cost about $0.24/hr to run the heater constantly. Cost more at 60* I'm sure but it doesn't cycle much to hold temp if doors aren't being opened. I also have two ~750w/2560 BTU electric resistive baseboard heaters in the garage. One in a smaller office area and another near my workbench. PO installed these, but I'll turn them on to raise temp a bit faster or hold temp better when opening doors, typically set a couple degrees below what I have the NG unit set at. PO had an old 120k BTU furnace in the garage originally, it would heat up super fast but was way oversized short cycling with accompanying cold drafts and I hated the waste of floor space.

In my 16'x16' shed I installed a 5k watt resistive electric heater along with an insulted ceiling between first and second story. Walls are unfinished and uninsulated, takes a while to heat up but it will cook you out the rare times I turn it on. Compressor and storage on the second floor in the cold.

[Don R]

 A friend made a waste oil heater from an old oil tank and driveshafts for heat exchanger tubes. He had dampered the flue down and the shop got a bit cold, he forgot about closing the damper and opened the burner door to feed it some used oil filters. The resulting draft made the fire woosh out at him.
 After that was the first time I ever saw him with no beard and short hair.

 I have the same Sterling heater as Dunk.

[ofreen]

The shop is 30x50 insulated steel building with a 13 foot ceiling.  I used to have a wood stove in there, but always begrudged the footprint it took up, not to mention the time it took to heat things up.  So many years ago I dug a trench for a natural gas line for a 85,000 BTU gas heater hanging from the ceiling.  I had to dig over 300 feet of trench (rented a Ditch Witch), but the gas company put in the line for free.  If I am moving around, 50 degrees is all I need to keep my finger getting numb holding wrenches, so it doesn't run much until it gets down to 0 outside.  On those days, I wish I had gotten a 120,000 BTU heater to reduce running time.

[BenelliSEI]

Normally.... my “over night only” underfloor heating system pushes in some heat overnight (our lowest, off peak, Hydro rate) and then is off during the day. The floor slab and latent heat in the shop normally holds the heat at 48-52 degrees F., all day.

So windy and cold it was only 42 degrees F in there yesterday morning. Last night, -20F overnight low! Heading down there this morning to turn on some extra heat, for a few hours.

[Gurp]

Normally.... my “over night only” underfloor heating system pushes in some heat overnight (our lowest, off peak, Hydro rate) and then is off during the day. The floor slab and latent heat in the shop normally holds the heat at 48-52 degrees F., all day.

So windy and cold it was only 42 degrees F in there yesterday morning. Last night, -20F overnight low! Heading down there this morning to turn on some extra heat, for a few hours.

Talk about a variance for day to night!