Topic: I'm Cccccooold - need ideas

[Paul]

I need a heater for my workshop.
Its an old building (about 300 years) new floor, tiled roof (That's slate, not that american tree bark stuff )
25 x 15 feet, stone walls, pointed...looks nice. took out the upper floor as it was too low. Now roof is about 20+ feet up. and it can get fffreeeezing in the winter.
I was considering an IR heater mounted on the wall, but I'm getting so many opinions from "Thinkers"
these cost approx 190 Euro or $ 200 or close enough, and only heat me.

Can I have some informed ideas please. (Apart from moving to the Sachelles (or however it's spelled))

[SteveD CB500F]

Seychelles...

...and it's 30 degrees there today   

[Uncle Ernie]

If you don't insulate, any form of heat you use will be useless. That's what tapestries were about in your castles. 

[Bob Wessner]

Given the dimensions, the height of the ceiling (now) and stone walls, it would be damn hard to heat that. Any way you can construct a smaller area within it to work in. I would be a lot easier to heat.

[Gordon]

Insulated coveralls, man.  Keep yourself warm and let the garage stay cold. 

[jaannaktin]

liquid propane outdoor heaters, like the ones they use at restaurants. 40,000 btu. I have no idea how long they burn or how much propane they use. I figure if a restaurant runs them all day, you could use them in your large cavernous space safely and heat the immediate work area nicely. they run 200-300 american dollars.

I would get one, but I work in a small, low ceilinged 12X16 shed full of combustibles!

[Raul CB750K1]

A shot of vodka every know and then. It actually doesn't heat you up, but makes you feel like it does!!!!

Cold weather is a big problem for wrenching. Handling a cold wrench can be even painful!!!

I support the idea of creating a smaller space for the general wrenching. That's what my brother in law did with his business of animal feed. A big barn for storing, and a small office for the computing accounting and the telephone.


Raul

[needswork]

Paul,
Sounds like some good ideas already, create a smaller area, insulate the smaller area and heat it with a portable propane or electric heater. I'm in the same boat now. My shop isn't nearly as big as yours but it was only 2*C yesterday and in notime we'll be into that -20* crap. 

[Paul]

The function of the IR heater (Quartz Infra red) is that it only heats the individual standing in the vicinity and not the area itself. (probably like a large microwave  commonly seen around outside public buildings or....Pubs where I come from.
I know it's a waste of time trying to heat the room.
I'm not making it any smaller as I've spent time getting the stone work right, The whitewash upper walls, The steel frame timber doors and beams etc and all the automobilia that dons the walls & shelves.and herself is only quarter way through the first tapestry.
Have a propane "Patio heater" costs an arm and a leg to use.
Have the therminals..but why shouldn't I look after myself a bit better..

[Bob Wessner]

I guess I wasn't thinking of you building anything permanent, or modifying the structure. Seems like you could even set-up some sort of temp. tent affair with some large drop cloths.. just a thought.

Handling a cold wrench can be even painful!!!

That's why I keep the more common tools in the house and take them out to work, then bring them back in, always found gloves a pain.

[74cb750]

After 20 years of marriage I finally  have a garage....but like you it has no heat and no ceiling, just rafters.

So, I now have a small propane heater, and made a smaller area with heat.
Temperary walls of plastic, probably dangerous, but ya can't live forever, right?

The rest of the garage is where the slaves work.

michel

[Bob Wessner]

Temperary walls of plastic, probably dangerous,

Was thinking more like heavy cloth drop cloths..hm, that sounds redundant. 

[mrblasty]

It better be damn cold for all the belly aching I'm reading about on this forum ; )
I grew up in Alaska lived in both Fairbanks and Anchorage, funny thing about living there is the car never broke down in the garage or anywhere near home usually 100 miles or farther from home seemed to be when the gremlins found You. I love changing out heater cores and radiator out at -35 f(-67 c) gloves don't help coveralls help a little until they saturate with anti freeze and shooting the damn thing full of bullet holes doesn't help either.

I'm getting a propane sunburst heater for my crapy little shed it puts heat out in a small but concentrated area like a small space heater.

[LeoLegendATL]

I'm getting a propane sunburst heater for my crapy little shed it puts heat out in a small but concentrated area like a small space heater.

i just use an attachment for a propane tank.  Similar to the sunburst heater, it works great.

[SteveD CB500F]

Blasty - if you lived in Alaska you'll know that degrees C and F cross at about -35.  -35F is actually -37C

I live in England - it just rains here (and snows once every other year)

[mrblasty]

I thought  32 deg f was 0 deg c and You went from there, my mistake on the conversion

[SteveD CB500F]

[maths lesson mode on]

To convert F to C, subtract 32, multiply by 5, divide by 9
To convert C to F, multiply by 9, divide by 5, add 32

Why can't I get a "degrees" font to work on here?

[maths lesson mode off]

[turtle]

Move to Queensland. (What's cold??  )

[Jlarue]

Yes Winter really sucks here in Tucson, Arizona. I better keep the tools inside to Keep'm COOL! LOL I posted this  weeks weather I hope it warms you all up 

Weather for Tucson, AZ
Wind: SE at 6 mph
Humidity: 14% Mon

86° | 57°  Tue

85° | 57°  Wed

85° | 53°  Thu

81° | 51° 
 

[Bob Wessner]

4stroke,

We'll check back with you next July. 

[Kevin D]

Trick question: What's -40f in centigrade? 


(Trick answer: -40f = -40c)


Damn cold in any scale.

[TwoTired]

The function of the IR heater (Quartz Infra red) is that it only heats the individual standing in the vicinity and not the area itself. (probably like a large microwave  commonly seen around outside public buildings or....Pubs where I come from.
I know it's a waste of time trying to heat the room.

The IR will heat more than just you.  IR rays will be absorbed by many dark colors and black is the best.
You didn't say what your floor is contructed of.  But, I have in mind those black, hard foam floor mats with the interlinking keys.  The surface would absorb the IR, convert it to heat which would rise into the space, creating a mirco climate.  If you're in the rising convection path, you'd get some secondary heating from that, too.  If your floor is concrete, this stuff is nice to stand on, too.  Remember the rising warmed air will be replaced by the colder air in your shop.  Small moveable partitions (perhaps the folding type) used as air baffles will allow you to block the inflow and recirculate some of the locally heated air from the mats and heater.  A few degrees can make a difference in comfort level.  Don't forget to wear a hat.  Lots of heat is lost out the top of the head.  The old say is, if you feet are cold, put on a hat.  And, of course a black hat will be heated by the IR.

I use one of those quartz electric radiant heaters (IR) in the winter.  But, we get very few days in the year below freezing and it's a special event when it happens here in California.

I grew up in the Chicago area of Illinois.  I remember changing out radiators and heater cores in the winter.  I don't think I could live happily in that kind of cold again, though.

[Paul]

OK so I don't have it as bad as some of you others, but if my shop ever got that cold...I'd shut the door and slouch by the fire. let's be practical here.
I only said cold....not absoloutly sub freezing-hypothermo-sumtin
Comfort is my concern,
IR Heater it is..
From the book...
Quartz heaters are ideal for heating areas where it would not be practical or cost effective to raise the overall ambient temperature.

They provide the solution to heating areas which might otherwise be considered unheatable, such as factories, workstations, warehouse loading bays, community halls and churches. In fact the possible applications for Quartz heating are almost limitless.
Quartz heaters work by providing a highly directional beam of radiant heat, rather like the heating effect of the sun. The short wavelength at which energy is emitted means that heat passes through the air far more effectively than from conventional infra red type radiant heaters, even in very humid environments. This means heat up time is almost instantaneous and the 'throw' of heat is considerably greater than conventional heating appliances, allowing high level mounting.

Thanks Lloyd, and everyone else too, although  between blankets, tapestries and plastic, I'd feel like being either in a horror movie or the salvation army.

[Raul CB750K1]

When my daughter was just a baby and we used to go to my mother-in-law freezing home, I bought a small fan with heater resistor. It's like a heater with forced air, something like a big hair dryer. I found it pretty convenient. No way to get burn, almost instant heat, and not too much power consumption. If the space is enclosed it will heat the room air quickly too, but once you switch it off the air will cool down just as fast. While you have it on it's pleasant.


Raul

[74cb750]

My first mc garage =
I used the inside of my van for a paint shop one fall/winter.
It was insulated and the fumes did not affect my tttttyyyping skills
at all.
Better than the back yard covered with 2 feet of snow I guess.

[Terry in Australia]

Now as Jane (turtle) alluded, it doesn't get too cold here in Oz, so this might be redundant in your neck of the woods mate, but one of the local tire places has a home made heater that burns sump oil, without any smoke!

That's right, no smoke, and no stink, the guys there collect a gallon of sump oil from the workshop next door and it lasts them about a week, and that space is about the same size as your castle, or dungeon, or tower, or whatever the hell it is that live in, ha ha!

I think they made it in their shop, so no hints as to where you can buy one, but I found this website interesting: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.html

Cheers, Terry.

[Paul]

A new winter project....build one of those....I'd probably never get around to it but if I do...I'll send a photo.
but first..the turrett needs mending and the drawbridge needs some preserative.

[Terry in Australia]

Fair enough mate, that big house would be good over here in Oz, all that stone would keep it nice and cool? Bloody useless in wet miserable Pommy Land though, I would have thought?

Here's a pic of my "Ancestral Home" built by my great great great etc grandfather, Phillipe De Prendergast, in Enniscorthy, county Wexford, in Ireland. Nice old place, but once again, the heating bill would be a killer, ha ha! Cheers, Terry.  

[Harry]

Here's a pic of my "Ancestral Home" built by my great great great etc grandfather, Phillipe De Prendergast, in Enniscorthy, county Wexford, in Ireland. Nice old place, but once again, the heating bill would be a killer, ha ha! Cheers, Terry.  

Eee, nice Terry, I saw it once on TV, with someone (who I assume was your g-g-g-grandfather) shouting: "I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second hand electric donkey-bottom biters." Nice house, lovely family...send them my regards! Hey, with you not being a REAL ex-Pom Aussie after all, but a French Person©, doesn't this mean you are no longer qualified to comment the Ashes thread??

[SteveD CB500F]

HA!

I knew it.

He's an imposter!

"I fart in your general direction"  (to be read with cheesy French accent)

[Paul]

Ahhhh,
It's heating up here nicely...
Note to self: Move PC to workshop.

[mcpuffett]

get yourself a chimenea   or build a fire mick.