Same here, gas fired radiant heat. I have two 20 foot long units in my shop, 2500 sq. ft. They were an upgrade when I had my shop built and glad I did it. You don't feel the heat like a forced air unit, it's just there. Also, no positive pressure in the shop when you open the doors, all of the heat doesn't rush out. They heat the objects in the room, and the floor, so the heat stays in.
Here in the frozen tundra that I call home, I use a 90,000 btu oil fired furnace to keep my 24 x 40 shop at 40. Over the holidays I installed a woodstove.....best thing ever, had it up to 80 on the weekend. I don't spend a fortune on oil and wood is relatively cheap. Only problem, it gets so warm I just want to sit and enjoy the fire now. So now i will use the furnace to keep it at 40 and the woodstove for when I am working out there. I'll have to agree, wood is a great source of heat.
24 x 26 well insulated shop, radiant heat by plastic tubing in the cement floor. 3000 watt element in a 10 gallon hot water heater. Keeps it at 65 degrees and a warm floor. Works great and doesnt cost much Ralph
I had a propane heater and ditched it because my shiny bridgeport and lathe decided to sweat and rust.Then I tried IR heat which is only good if you have it facing you sooo last month I picked up a wood/coal stove and put some coals before I go to work and before I go to bed and stays on 24/7. Nice and toasty, the mice love it..
Also a "Hot Dawg" unit hung from ceiling. Walls and ceiling are insulated with taped drywall. May not be the most even heating but I keep the garage T-stat at 50 F and kick it up when I go out there. By the time I have a welding jacket and gloves on I'm sweating if the temp is over 60 F. If you don't keep a reasonable constant temp the steel, tools etc. never heat up. I've often gone out for for just a little time at night to stare at stuff, measure, and plan my next move, and just keep the temp at 50.
I have an old fuel oil furnace from a house. Did a lot of research on the waste oil burner type furnaces and discovered they use the same pump but a differant nozzle than my furnace. They also have a filtration system. After researching a little more found that my nozzle is good up to a 15 weight oil. So I'm using a 50/50 mix of fuel oil and drain oils. I also bought 2 spin-on style filters from tractor supply, one for hydraulic and one fuel/water seperator, and installed them inline between my tank and my furnace. So far I've used 4 gallons of used transmission oil and about 10 gallons of waste oil. I had roughly 15 gallons of fuel oil still in my tank when I poured the trans fluid and waste oil in. I keep my shop 50 when I'm not in it and 65-70 when I am in it, and use about 10-12 gallons a month.
This sounds like the ticket. Now throw some WVO in there and it will have an interesting smell to it.
30ft x 40ft shop w/14 foot ceiling, well insulated. Using single, natural gas, 100,000 btu Reznor overhead radiant with single 30ft tube. Fast warmup time and stays really nice (65-70deg) @ -30F.
I use this Q-mark electric garage heater: http://www.heater-home.com/product/MUH35.aspx Had one in an un-insulated 2 car garage in N.Y. years ago and I could work in a t shirt in the middle of winter. Bought another for my garage in SoCal. and it keeps it nice and warm and dry. Probably a very safe choice for garage too (no flame). Only down side is probably not the cheapest if you set the thermostat way up.
Got one a lot like this. I try not to go in there if I don't have to, but this will heat a 2 car garage up to 70 in about 5 minutes.
I use a combination of Wood Burner ...I converted a 250 gallon oil drum to a wood burning stove. Propane dual Sun Burst heater and 2 space heaters. for start up on a very cold day i fire them all up. and switch on 2 fans to move the heat around. Works great! very soon from 20 degrees to 55 and ready to work in. once it hits 55 i shut off the propane, and throttle back the wood stove. I leave the space heaters on to help with cold tools. was in the Teens this week and I've been out sandblasting in my new cabinet wearing a shirt. I keep it between 55 and 60. Im too old to be cold. bones and hands get to hurting, screw that.
my garage is a hundred years old with a tin roof and no insulation, impossible to heat up. I don't even have heat in my house, we are sleeping in the living room in front of the kerosene heater half froze to death.
i put i radiant heater in my paint room in my work side i have a down draft furnace out of a mobile home and also a wood burner i let the furnace keep the shop at 60 all the time then if im out there all day or week end i fire up the wood thinking about putting in a radiant in the work side as well . body filler dust is hard on them blower motors .
Home made wood burning stove .....torpedo gets it warm fast and the wood stove keeps it warm....14 foot ceiling so it takes a while to heat up.
I work in my attached garage. Natural gas radiant floor heating same as in my house. If you're building a new shop the only way to go.
Originally I had a 30,000 BTU unvented gas heater in my 24 x 36 basically uninsulated garage. But after 4 years of all the moisture it puts out, plus a smell we couldn't track down, I had a 60,000 BTU Reznor overhead heater installed. I would have installed it myself, but I had back problems at the time. I just keep the thermostat at 50 and that keeps the snow and ice melted off the cars and then I'll set it up to 65 and within 20 minutes, it's nice and toasty.
Western NY state,32x32 shop,insulated,9 foot sheet rock ceiling,one overhead door,45,000 BTU natural gas ceiling mount unit heater.heats it just fine. Whatever you use for heat,do make sure the flame or potential spark producing parts are at least 18 inches off the floor.Vapors,especially gasoline from parked vehicles gather at floor level.This is electrical code for commercial garages and should be followed for your residential garage if your work on stuff. If you use a wood stove be real careful and don't tell your insurance company
IF I had a shop, it'd have radiant floor heat from a solar water panel. Garage Journal has lots of info on shop heating.
I crawl under my truck with a couple of 500 watt halogen floodlights to get warm, other than that I freeze and wait till I get to the pub to defrost.
Forced air, oil. I have a 30' X 52' shop well insulated with 9' ceilings. I use approximately $5.00 of oil/per day keeping the shop at 50 while it is just above zero outside. A new oil tank was donated and the used furnace cost me a couple hundred dollars..... Truckedup: Exactly what he just explained about the safety aspect......
I have a Big Dog 175,000 BTU propane hanging heater that will make you sweat in 0 temp outside weather. Keeps my shop at any temp you want. I couldnt do without it.
I live in Austin, so keep that in mind...... For years I had a small space heater in all 4 corners of my garage. Worked ok, but didn't cut it on the really cold days. Recently I installed a 24,000 btu window unit through the wall. Works AWESOME. AC and heat pump.
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