what do you about your cold shop?

I'm at the computer now largely because it's in the twenties outside and I'm too old and soft to go out to a cold shop.I actually have a propane catalytic heater that keeps up pretty good once its warmed up inside. What do you guys do when it gets cold? Do you buck up and work in the cold, or have a heater, wood stove or.... Oh yeah and you guys that live where it doesn't GET cold I don't want to hear about it right now!

 

I feel very fortunate that we have a regular house sized oil fired heater in the garage. we seem to be able to hold around 60 degrees regardless of the outside temps. We are also unfortunate that the bathroom is 75 feet away and is not heated........makes you learn to hold it if you know what I mean

 

It doesn't get "up north" cold here, but it does get pretty cool at nights, at 4500 ft elevation.

Insulation....can't have too much insulation. 6" walls, a whole bunch in the ceiling, finished (drywall) inside walls, double pane windows, insulated doors. I don't ever need heat in the shop.

 

I have a hanging natural gas heater in my shop...never had one before until I bought the house!!

 

75,000 BTU nipco to warm up the shop while the wood stove is getting started.

 

Got a free natural gas furnace from a contractor doing a remodel job. Installed myself so the only cost was for materials. No problem heating but the concrete floor is still cold. Neighbor across the street is a cabinet maker and has radiant floor heat - that is the ONLY way to go if you are building a new shop! Floor and everything in his shop is warm to the touch.

 

I know how you feel,,,Previously I used the old torpedo blast furnace in the winter with fumes so strong I would end up with headaches and nothing more than a squirrel cage fan in the summer.

Needless to say not the most ideal working conditions.

I'm not a spring chicken anymore so,,,,when I built my new shop heat and air was a planned and I have got more accomplished in my shop in the last 5 years than years before freezing to death or having a heat stroke!.

I also insulated the shop to the max,,with energy efficient windows and doors,,It is a pleasure to work in my shop now. HRP

 

Move South? I just left the shop, and it was still in the 70s. Wore shorts and a t-shirt. It does get cold here, but not too bad so far. I have yet to fire up the heat (central heat and air).

 

About 2 years ago I splurged and bought a 125,000 btu Hot Dawg by Modine hanging garage heater. My shop is an uninsulated 30'x40' cement block garage with 13' celings and I stay warm as toast with the thermostat set at 60 degrees.

 

driveway, in Kansas, no heat, still work on my car.

 

It hasn't been cold here yet but I use a 75,000 btu infra red heater & a 50,000 btu torpedo heater. It stays toasty

 

My "garage" is a temp canopy and I heat it with a propane catalytic heater. Gets warm enough to be comfortable as long as temps aren't too low, but otherwise I just suffer if it's not quite enough.
My real garage has my other car stored in it, and I just can't bring myself to swapping the two cars so I'll be more comfortable. I'd rather have the finished car comfortable, than me!

 

x2, anyone else have to replace the thermo couple EVERY year?

 

I hate the fucking cold. when it gets below 60 I go in the house and drink hot chocolate and don't come back out til it warms up..

 

I have the shop connected to the house.... I get to walk to work !!

 

When I built my shop 20 years ago, I put central heat and air in it. Smartest thing I did.
Look around at some of the heating shops in your area. Lots of people have changed out their older units for the high-efficency ones. The old units can be set up with a chimney, a gas line, a power line and a plenum on top, with a couple of trunks ran from it.

 

I close up the shop until spring. I do have heat in the house attached garage but too small to do to much.

 

burn lots of mig wire.. gets warm after awhile

 

60?! The high here today was 8. 60 is warm.

 

Till what warms up the hot chocolate????

 

40'X80' 2 story shop heated by a 150,000BTU hanging natural gas furnace is at whatever temperature I set the thermostat. I've got several tons of steel/ieron in the shop with all of the materiel and heavy machinery so I set the thermostat 15 degrees lower at night. Setting it any lower is false economy as whatever gas I save overnight is used bringing everything back up to temperature in the morning.

Frank

 

If will do a search you will find there are several threads on here already about garage and shop heat ideas.

 

Wood stove, if I fire it up in the morning it is tee shirt warm by afternoon. It takes about 1hr to get it warm enough to work if it is dead cold outside. Sometimes I don't let the fire go out all week and can walk in anytime and work or piddle around.

 

I turn the heater on.

 

I have a 30X40 insulated shop with a 14' ceiling up here in northern Minnesota. When I bought it, I didn't get the optional furnace, since it was too expensive and I was going to spend my winters in Florida. Since the economy has gone south, my plans have changed. By the time all of this happened, I had the shop pretty well filled up, including where the standard unit heater was supposed to go.

After reading a bunch of stuff on here and other places, last year I bought a 70,000 to 250,000 BTU propane construction heater from Northern Tool. It worked better than I expected, but it used a lot of propane. This summer, I added a couple of ceiling fans to the place, and since the weather has turned cold up here, it has been working very well. Too well, in fact. I have never had to turn it up from it's lowest setting (70,000). I am considering buying a 35,000 to 70,000 BTU model of the same heater to replace it. I think I could save the price of the new heater ($89.00) in a winter or two of savings on propane. Plus, now when it gets too hot in the shop, I have to turn the heater off for an hour to get it to cool down in the shop. (I have a mezzanine built in the back of the shop for storage and have a sort of office area up there; it can get brutally hot up there while it's still quite cool on the lower level.) I am thinking that with the smaller heater, I could just turn it down and not have to fool with re-lighting it when the shop cools down.

Bottom line, these things put out a lot of heat, and it's easy to buy too much capacity. Also, they are dangerous. Last spring, I was standing with my back to it, buffing my boat, wearing a pair of pretty frayed jeans. All of a sudden, I felt heat on the back of my leg, and found that my jeans had caught fire, even though I was at least 2 feet from the heater. Three months later, after a skin graft, 3 days in the hospital, and $20,000 in medical bills, I am recovered to the point it doesn't bother me anymore. I kind of believe that if I had the lower capacity unit, I wouldn't have had this problem. Needless to say, I give this thing the respect it deserves now.

They're great; just make sure you buy the right sized on and treat it with the respect it's due.

 

wood heater works great ,

 

Well I hope "tubman" is alright! But everyone should know that torpedo heaters can be very dangerous as "tubman" can attest too.

 

ive had to put a jacket on twice in the last 3 years if it gets any colder i dont know what im going to do

 

Out here we just throw another log on the fire

 

I have a well insulated 32 X 36 shop. I use a wood stove and have to choke it way down to keep the temp 70 or lower.