Art & Inspiration Winter is coming. . . Got heat?

I'm with nrgwizard, I would try to insulate the building 1st.


http://www.prosalesmagazine.com/news/industry-trends/new-ways-to-better-insulate-concrete-walls_o

There are also the large batts that insulate steel
Buildings. I rent a steel building as a commercial woodshop, and this type of insulation keeps it toasty in there, the floor is just a concrete slab.
http://www.ecofoil.com/Applications/Metal-Building-Insulation


I swear by these radiant panels: cheap and really efficient, the way they work is that they heat the floor and objects which then heats the room. Scratched and dented "woodshop series" are heavily discounted. They can supplement your current heating system or be your heating system.
http://www.sshcinc.com/enerjoy2.htm


Never give up working on cars. You'll find a way. These projects keep our bodies and minds alive. You will live years longer if you have things to do you are passionate about.

 

Nope just do what I did. I bought a 243000 btu hanging heater for my block 24/40 garage and enjoy the heat even when it's 0 degrees out side


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My son and I get to a point where we say the garage door isnt going up till spring. I duct tape the seams and make sure there are no drafts on the bottom corners. The ladder steps to upstairs are also taped up.Air exchange is when we go in and out of the man door.and that gets opened up if need be for fumes. I insulated the crap out of it too. In the summer its nice and cool in there. I like to have the door open but thats kind of a trade off sometimes.We also have a fan in the opposite corner from the heater blowing on low so the heat stays circulating and not stagnate in that corner. That has helped alot.
And dont mount the thermostat on the wall that gets the wind.In my area when winter sets in,things stay cold. I think in my case keeping my floor from getting cold in key.
I frooze my ass off working in shops all my younger life and Iam NOT going to do it at home

 

I have a hanging natural gas unit in the corner of my 32 X 48 Shop. 6" fiberglass plus 1" foam board in the walls. 24" blown in insulation in the 10' ceiling. I keep it @ 50 degrees in the winter and turn it up to 65 when I'm working.
When my son was using half of it for his cabinet shop, he needed a place to finish his work. We made a 10' X 16' 'paint booth' on the second floor. This is heated with 3 baseboard radiators running around the perimeter of the room.
The water is heated with the domestic hot water heater. A loop with one end entering the bottom of the tank and a takeoff from the 'out' at the top. There is no pump. Convection!

Unfortunately, PEX was not generally available when the shop was built. (1987). If I could change one thing in my shop I would have radiant heat in the floor.

Just as an added bit of information: In my first home, I had a wood stove in the furnace room. I added a heat exchanger jacket around it, and piped it into the cold air return of the oil furnace. It had a thermal switch in the plenum, so that when the wood stove was heating, it would turn on the furnace blower. Worked like a charm.

But, the real kicker was when I out a hot water loop in the wood stove. Same deal as I have in my shop. I made the loop out of 3/4" black pipe. Way too big!!!! We had 210 degree water. Turned the electric water heater off. The power company sent out a guy to see why the meter wasn't going round and round. When he left, he had a real education in thermodynamics.

 

Not a good idea. Hanging it in the middle of a space I mean. Especially if you have a short (8') ceiling.
You can't park a vehicle directly under it , too close.
And it's also a bad idea to not angle the reflector when its mounted in the top corner along the wall (which is the best place to put it )

 

cats really know how to live... I am putting a wood pellet stove in the new shop. Around here you really only need heat in the shop for December and January, who the hell paints in December?

 

Just built a new shop Well insulated and running a 6000W Mt Heater in it, heats 24X26 easily. Next garage will be heated by living in Scottsdale area.


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Then you will be able to start your own thread titled "Summers coming got cool?"

 

This "Hot One" heater has a fan but is probably a little small for my shop considering the height of the ceiling but the big ceiling fan helps bring the heat back down and circulates it pretty well. It pivots up and down and I made the mount so it can be rotated based on where I'm working.


If that's not warm enough; I stand over here for a few minutes.

 

If you can get to the tops of the blocks, vermiculite can be poured in to the cavities.



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one thing to remember when using a radiant heated shop floor. the floor will take a while to warm up and a while to cool down. it is best to keep it at a steady temperature. when the weather changes quickly you can't just warm it up quick.
in my shop i wait till the temps drop then start heating the floor, boiler can take a day or two to start heating the shop up. in the spring the floor could be heating the shop 3 days after the last time the boiler ran. for part time use you are better off not having a heated floor. for everyday use ,when it is consistently cold heated floors can't be beat, warm feet, cars dry off fast and so does the floor. you can open the garage door for a long time and once the door is closed it warms right back up.
another thing about heated floors to keep in mind, laying on the floor under the car you will actually get too warm, if you have a mezzanine or loft it will be cold. the heat only goes up 8'.

 

My sons have natural gas Calcana radiant garage heaters. They are 15 footers that are just mounted along the long wall just a few inches from the ceiling. The heat is on the wall opposite to the garage doors . It hangs along the wall over the work bench and well out of the way. The clearances between the wall and ceiling is a few inches. It heats the entire garage fairly even and last winter we were in the garage at 35 below w/o jackets. My youngest son turns the heat on an hour before he wants to work and it is cool for a few minutes but it warms up quick. I bought a house recently with a garage and the plan is to install a Calcana style garage heater. The Calcana manual says the clearance above the heater is 4" and 12 inches from the wall.

 

Our garage is a 24 x 40 attached. Insulated (except over the new walk in door) on all walls and ceiling with a vapor barrier on the main garage ceiling because of the 12'+ ceilings.

It gets some heat soaking through from the house and the chimney is in the garage so it never really drops below 25 degrees even in January & February.

Heat is a water heater with a zone from my house furnace, it's a 90000 BTU unit.

With a ceiling fan to push it off the high ceiling the garage is always warm when we work out here, I never run the heat except for when we are out here.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

You can see how I mounted my radiant tube heater in these pictures.
It works awesome and my garage is warm all winter.
Combustion air intake on one end, exhaust on the other. Another nice thing is that intake and exhaust are through the wall, not the roof.

 

I have a pretty standard oversized two stall attached. This guy does a darn good job keeping us comfortable in the Midwest winters.
I would also agree keeping it around 50-60 all the time is way better than trying to heat it up when your ready to work.

 

Those radiant gas fired tubes are amazing. There is one in the commercial space I rent for woodworking (not in my home shop). We never turn it on, it's too hot, it will cook us like pigs on a spit. If someone can install the gas and a proper vent, then that's an amazing system.

 

My garage is, i believe 24' x 18'-ish with a fairly low 8' ceiling. The kerosene heater (the type you can get at Home Depot or Lowes) keeps it pretty warm, so i'll probably stick with it even though i'd like a wood stove or fireplace.

i don't remember how much kerosene is per gallon around here because i haven't had to refill in a while.

Also, i don't believe in insulation/too much insulation because i feel it hurts air circulation which to me is more important than keeping the heat in---i'd rather spend a few more $$$ on heating or cooling.

 

Thanks for the pics. I think I will do as you did. My ceiling is 10' but not insulated ( I have junk handing from the trusses). I will re-arrange and then call my nephew to do final hook-up as he is a certified HVAC guy and you don't want trouble with insurance companies re is ever a problem. The main work area is 19 X 28 and the unit is a sealed 40,000 BTU unit that is 10' long and then reverses itself. I also have another unit rated at 80,000'BTU that is not sealed which if needed could be installed but not used when painting. It's getting chilly around here at 7* c . It's not the temp it's the constant rain that absorbs the heat so easily!

 

I've had radiant floor heat for 5 years. I get cold easy and always feet first. I heat my house with wood from outside boiler. I run my return line from the house through pex tubing in the floor, in other words I siphon a little heat from the house. It is easy to keep floor from 55* to 60*. It is easy to work in my regular shoes and sweatshirt, for hours.
Go over to the Garage Journal and you can find a lot of good information. This is where I got all my information for radiant floor heat and where I learned enough to design my own system. My handle is the same over there, Chevy Gasser, I have pics and information about my setup.

 

I tested my P tact unit this weekend and after the dust burned off it was putting out heat. I also put my small propane torpedo heater together and it fired up. I think I might have to get a bigger one this year. These old bones get a little colder now down in the shop. LOL. Bruce.

 

Put a 10 ton a/c heat unit in my 3400 sq ft shop (which is attached to my home) last March. Set the thermostst@ 72 in summer and 65 during the winter. Work in t shirt all year. Best 7 grand I ever spent. No more 35degree days in winter and 95+ in summer. Power bill only jumped from $125 to
155 a month.

 

I fixed my heat problem 5 years ago when I moved from Mi. to Az. One winter I worked in a tshirt. Too old anymore to put up with a 20/30* shop.
A lot of good heating solutions posted here. If I had stayed in Mi. I would have went with the heated floor routine.

 

You can see in your upper right hand corner I usea 45000 BTU hanging shop furnace. These are wonderful if you have 9 ft and up ceiling.... I keep it @ 55f Unless Im out there flandering about ...then its up to 68-70. I have tried wood stoves they just take up to much room and need to be looked after for fire hazard etc. and keeping wood around invites bugs...... Another benefit about constant heat is it keeps the temp up and humidity low so when spring comes all your precious metals wont sweat and corrode.....