what do you about your cold shop?

My first furnace was a hanging resnore gas furnace. THen I added a lift bay and moved the resnore to there. I added a hanging infared furnace to heat up the tools Then in the front I converted it to a make shift some times spray booth, so I needed a furnace that didn't have to worry about explosion with the fumes. I got a condo unit. They mount in the closet of a condo and vent directly outside. NIce compact unit that also has ac! The burner gets its air from outside and then has a power exhaust for the fumes. I put it in a window opening. I still have that system, but now that I am unemployed I burn wood unless I am painting. I picked up a fireplace insert and made my own heatalater stack for it. I should have done that years ago. My garage is always really warm now, and I don't think I use a cord of wood a winter....My dad is old school and keeps his garage just over freezing, and its hard to get motivated to go out there. Mine is warmer inside than the house, so I love to go out there

 

Kept the shop at or above 50 all winter long. I bump it up when i'm out there. Last winter cost me about 250 bucks to heat 1700 sq feet.

 

I picked up a 1933 "Wickless" kerosene stove for free a couple years ago when I bought a project- the seller was just going to throw it out. I brought it home, took it all apart, put it all back together and replaced the old asbestos wick with a new fiberglass one. There is a small community of folks who have a user group on Yahoo that are obsessed with these things. They are a great source of information.
They require venting with stove pipe like a wood stove, but work VERY well and are pretty low maintenance. The best part is you can buy them on ebay or craigslist for under $50 - way under in most cases.
I've been using mine for a couple years now and love it. I can light it and be comfortable within 15 minutes and wearing a t-shirt in 45 minutes. And it gets COLD up here. I have 24x24 garage with open ceiling and a fan to push the air back down. Let me see if I can find a picture I took a couple months ago... Here we go. Its the little brown box there. I had to move that refrigerator I picked up this summer because the heater kicks out so much heat.

By earthshaker5769 at 2010-10-28

 

175,000BTU hanging Maxx does it for me and is cheap to operate. My shop has 5 tons of AC for summer and more than enough heat to maintain year round selected temp's. Many years I worked cold and hot and no more of that crap for me .

 

I have always been told the heat is in the tools!!

 

Ever had a wrench freeze to your skin?

 

Insulation is the key R 30 in the walls and R 50 in ceiling. Installed a 20 ft Spay Ray 120,000 BTU hanging radiant heater and it keeps everything toasty even the floor.

 

my shop is 28X100 so its kinda big, went long underwear yesterday and heated office with electric heater dont have to heat my shop, got all the water inside bathrooms and use electric heater to keep from freezing
we are at 0 Deg. F today gonna be kinda kool, but got a gigantic wood furnace can get it to 90 deg but takes a lot of wood and also drip in used oil, a dangerous set up, removes a lot of body hair from the flash bang backfires!!
sometimes just stay home too its gonna storm tomorrow and it is a 20 mile round trip to my shop in town so it is not free to get there

wood stoves are kinda dirty, mein puts out a ton of fly ash from the leaks and the pressure turbo draft system, you dont want to paint too close to it
I can also close off about 2/3 of my shop with doors and plastic curtains to cencentrate heating to a 2 stall garage so it dont take as much to heat when really cold

 

In my 42 x 36 garage I use a 100,000 BTU natural gas forced air furnace. I partitioned off the workshop side. Adding a ceiling fan really helped keep the air circulating. Usually just keeping it on low speed seems to works best. I do not heat all the time, only when I go out to work on something or just piddle around. It only takes about a 1/2 hour to get nice and toasty on the coldest days.

 

My shop is an uninsulated 30x40 and I gotta agree with the other votes on a wood stove. I use a porpane heater to take the chill off and let the wood stove get cooking. PLus there is something magical about fire. After done wrenching we will suck a beer and sit by the stove. Nice way to let your busted knuckles start to heal.



DuckusCrapus

 

I am coming to your place to live !!

 

I agree. Once the floor is warm, everything is warm. The new boilers are efficient also. This warms our shop. 3 zones on the ground level, 3 upstairs.

 

I have a 50' x 60' shop with 18ft ceiling and use 2 seperate 40ft radiant tubes with reflectors. I have insulated the walls as well as ceiling with the spray expanding foam and run an $80 to $100 bill monthy in the cold weather. Each 40' length of tube with a seperate head ran $1700 with tax. I hung these myself with an additional $280 for duct , insulated through wall and turnbuckles that I used for keeping everything level. I keep the thermostats set on 45 degrees and turn up to 65 degrees when I work. EFFICIENT AND COMFORTABLE.

http://www.reverberray.com/

I bought from the local wholesaler and they were very happy to give advice on sizing. Once done, I can advise that it is not hard, just a little scary the first time out. It really is a snap! Any questions, just give me a call.

Regards,
George
303 847 9980
Parker, CO.

 

This thread sucks
It is educational in the sence of heating options that water heater waste oils set-up is a great idea. Unfortunitly the awning would probably catch fire.
I just poured the floor and radiant heat would have been to much money.
And this time I put plywood up instead of just the green pvc sheets so maybe it will be alittle warmer this year. I'm getting to old to lay on the cold floor.

 

I have a quartz heater in my garage. I sometimes use my propane convection heater to get it warm first. On the very coldest of days I use a combination of my quartz heater and a keroseen heater but anything above about 25 once I knock the chill off the quartz heater will keep it fine to work in (above 40).
It gets blue cold here for long periods of time once it happens.

We have been lucky most days so far it gets into the upper 40s and I am still working (thrashing) outside on my snow vehicle. Once it gets into the 20s I'll be inside for the duration unless I have to do a repair on something outside. But I do understand the cold really makes me ache, uh, more than usual.

 

My "shop" is the great outdoors with a current temp of 14 degrees.My garage is storage for parts and stuff.Got a few calls and emails for parts so off I go to one of my favorite junkyards to pull parts.Few steering wheels,couple of gauge cluster sets and some side trim.Sun is shining so some warm boots and insulated coveralls should do the trick.

 

Answer: Shiver

Actually, I put about three feet of insulation in the roof and a hanging propane heater, which turned out to be surprisingly cheap to run. It takes about 10 minutes to warm my 1200 sq. ft. shop, which then stays comfortable without running the heater much. A 250 gal. tank lasts all winter.

It does occasionally get cold here in Montana....

 

right now I just wish I had a real shop that I had to figure out how to warm up to be able to work in it.

I've got both a big forced air oil furnace and a nifty wood stove that cold heat a shop and no shop to heat.

If you have a small enclosed work area a 500 watt halogen work light hanging overhead and aimed down at the work bench will not only light things up but provide enough heat to be able to work on something on the bench and not be miserable. A couple of them under the vehicle with you and a tarp around the vehicle will let you change a clutch in 20 below weather too.

 

Same with me. The garage has a house-sized oil forced hot air system in it. The previous owner had a dog kennel behind the garage he used this to heat it with.

I fell like an ass for complaining about this, but it does take up a lot of room with a 275 gallon tank and the older unit. But once it gets running, I can work with a T-shirt on.

I've told myself when it goes, I'm going to get one of the propane-fired "Dawg or something like that" brand heaters that hang from the ceiling.

 

We just installed a Mr Heater garage heater from Northern Tool. 75,000 BTU. The coldest it has been has been is 29 and it warms right up to 72. We did install a digital thermostat it turns the heat on 1 hour before we open shop and turns it off about 30 minutes before we leave in the afternoon. We have it set for 45 over night to keep pipes from freezing.

 

Like Joe in post #6, took the old gas furnace from the house when it was updated to a new one. Hooked it up in a 1.5 car garage, with insulation on the walls, This was in the western suburbs of shitcago, so def got cold! Would be -20 outside and with the tstat set at 55 I could comfortably work in there in my t shirt. When people upgrade their furnaces, they often leave them by the curb, or a furnace guy would prolly give you one being replaced for free or REAL cheap, just to get rid of it. Gas is the only way to go up north!!



P.S. I picked up a bunch of replaced carpet off of a curb, and my garage had 2inch hot pink shag carpet on the floor. (there was a HUGE pile of this, so they musta had it all thru the house!)

 

Nothing (and I mean nothing) is better than in floor heat for a shop. I have the floor set to 65 deg all winter, and a 100,000 BTU natural gas forced air heater hanging from the ceiling to help the shop recover after a door is opened. Even at -30 F, it keeps the shop nice an warm. It is cold too many months out of the year around here not to have a heated shop.

 

Both my house and 1200 sq ft shop heated with wood stoves. Cutting and splitting wood is about the only exersize I get aside from power lifting 12 oz at a time.

Really kick my self in the ass for not prepping the shop for in floor heat though, because I'm thinking about getting an outside wood boiler now.

Was talking to Gramps the other day about this very topic of heated work shops, and he said the only way he could get heat in his tools back in the day was by picking them up!

Heat and A/C in my shop. Lucky and spoiled I guess.

-Row Z

 

Hi Mark,

Not sure what you might find down there for price, up here in Canada I paid $1400 for the 10' heater with the venting kits and a 110 volt thermostat.

 

Extra long johns heavy hooded sweatshirt and an electric heater 10" from my a$$!

 

Longsleeve shirt, or on a REAL cold day i might put on a hoodie.
Around here the coldest day gets down to the 50's so its never really tooo cold.

 

I really got to get motivated in the winter to go out there. welding projects help (radiant heat) and turn on the big work lights (radiant heat). I have heat but you have to turn it on, I guess I do miss the California weather, but not smog checks!

 

Bought a 70,000 BTU furnance, form a heating cooling company. A DEMO FURNANCE in the show room, for $400.00,and got a free plemum too.
Toasty 70 degrees all winter.

 

I have oil fired furnace and it gets pricey trying to stay warm, $25 a day kinda pricey. I'm here every day. If i ever build another shop i'd doing one of those outside wood burning furnaces with in-floor heat pipes. A buddy has his huge air plane hanger/car shop heated like that it is toasty! He loads the furnace 2 times a day and the water circulates thru his house, his son's house, garage and the hanger - and it is big, 3 airplanes, and likely a dozen cars or more.

 

got a used natural gas 175,000 btu forced air house furnace
in the utility room ducted into the 3 garage stalls