Winter's here. Do you heat your shop? How?

I used an old moble home furnace which I got for $60.00, drill orfice for natural gas, not LP and hookup to house natural gas and hook up 110v and vent it through the roof of the garage.
Love it, Blows from the bottom of the unit and heats the concrete faster and can use just fan in summer. HEAT RISES.

 

Just building a new shop and will use wood heat. I thought about adding an oil drip always hear about them working well goning to experiment on this one!

 

i've been using an oil drip in a converted elec. hot water tank. throws enough heat to work in a small area, but my large garage is filled with cars and metal and that sucks up a lot of the initial heat. it does require some cleaning out, right now it is smoky cause i'm not getting enough draft.

 

My humble 1 car garage is heated by a small portable electric heater. Add in some rolled up sheets to block any drafts on the doors, my thermal undies and a constant supply of hot tea and job done. Lack of room is my concern, not how warm it is. Pissing down rain and cold as ever here in Limeyland but all toasty in the garage.

 

I was able to scrounge up a free Modine heater. I converted it to propane and it works well. It's in the upper right corner of the picture. I do have the tubing in the floor for radiant heat, but I'm a procrastinator, I never finish any........................

 

I live in the north of sweden, its vinter here 8 month of the year.
Its he same latitude as the north of alaska.
Its averege -15 degree celsius and upp to -50 sometimes.
I have a big stove there i blaze old wood cargo packing from the lokal hardwarestore, its free and dry and give good heat, the stove are a 31 kilowatt.

 

Old propane mobile home furnace, with the old rotary thermostat tilted so that 60 on the dial is actually 40 (these old mercury thermostats don't go under 55 degrees) set it to 40 so stuff won't freeze and move it all the way up to 55 to work, 65 if the beer is cold!

 

I have an overhead radiant furnace. It heats the space really quickly and I can turn it way down when I'm not using it.

 

every 15 minutes i do a lap around a 26 year old! i'm 54 and every year it get easier!

 

Damn those are cool! Now I gotta have one...

I currently use a wall mount propane that has a thermostat and a circulation fan. It works great but gets terrible gas mileage.

 

I use a ventless stove. My shop is very well insulated and I have never seen it below 40 degrees inside. I turn it on ,heat it up to about 70 and shut it off. Will usally stay comfotale for 4-5 hrs. Then start the process over.
This will work untill I finish my solar water heater which uses a old car radiator. Then its free heat and damn the cost.

 

Basically I fly thru all of my projects so quickly the heat I throw off warms the whole place up.

OK - reality. The garage was an empty shell when we bought the house so I insulated the crud out of it before I drywalled - salamander heater when needed.

 

When I worked on a railroad track gang in my younger years, we'd be freezin' our asses off in the dead of winter. Boss'd say, "Heats in the tools boys, heats in the tools!" That no good son of.....

 

Heat in a garage? I just now finally got the damn garage I'm just happy I don't have to shovel snow and sit in mud to work on my roadster but I'll probably try to find a cheap wall mount propane heater for next winter

 

pics when you get it done?

 

Just bought 400 gals 2day @ 1.56 per
Enuf to heat shop 3200 sqft and house 1800 sq ft
Both very well insulated
All BRRRRRRRRRRRR winter long.
65 here 2day goin up to the 70' 2morrow.
Maybe won't even have to use it for a while.
Yahoooooooooooo !

 

Haha! Teach me the error of my ways, old timer.

 

I've got a 36x24 barn with a 10 ft ceiling and 2 role up doors, both insulated. There is 6 inches in the walls, and about a foot of blown insulation in the ceiling. I bought a 50,000 btu ceiling hung toaster on ebay about 6 years ago that I leave on about 45 degrees until I go out there. It takes about 1/2 hour or so to heat it right up, so I start out with a jacket and then shed it when I start to sweat. The furnace works great but it has blown a couple of electronic controllers, that aren't cheap, $280 or so. We have natural gas and we are on a budget plan where we pay the same payment all year, bill runs about $100 a month to heat the house and the barn. We also cook and heat our water with gas.

 

Yeah - but you live in San Diego... Try wet and cold Northern England. I could probably work year round in shorts and T shirt in SD - wouldn't need no sweater.

 

wood fire

 

75000 btu downdraft house furnace for 44 x 30 x 14 shop, r19 wals and 8 inches blown in the ceiling. Bought 3 furnaces out of a remodel of a big rich guys house. 2 were 3 seasons old, 1 6 seasons. Sold the newer ones, got mine for free and made enough to pay for my installations materials

 

I have a 24x36 garage, insulated walls and doors and this does the trick. It's actually direct shipped from Grainger.

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/electric-utility-heater/greenhouse-heaters

 

Didn't know they were ever sold in the USA. We had them growing up in the 1960's - so I have fond memories. A lot of older people don't like them as they are a reminder of hard times. People went to gas central heating as soon as they could afford it.

I take the cap off and boil a kettle on mine. I guess that you could run a frying pan too. Another bonus is they are totally silent.

As mentioned they are great for up to a 4 car garage but you have to be aware that,despite the built in safety devices, it is still a naked flame heater.

 

Whats Winter?

 

I use a modine hotdawg heater and this in the first winter with a heated shop. 28x48x10 well insulated two weeks ago. We will see how bad the cost is but it gets too cold here to do without anymore!

 

That's about 1/2 what it costs here in VA/WV

 

I remember actually shoveling snow away from the side of my '49 Ford (1963) so I could slide under it on an ice covered gravel driveway and change the clutch, and thats no bull sh*t either . I now have a nice heated 4 car garage but I have collected so much junk there is no room to work in it

 

Blackjack just checked on "that selling site" and found some close to home for not a lot of money. I've been told apart from the smell they can give out a lot of moisture. Is this right?

 

well i have a 48x60 uninsulated metal shop with 3 big roll-up doors and i have a hired hand heater thats hangin in the corner. at 2.59 gal for propane i wear alot of clothes.put when its to cold ill turn on the heater and in 15 min. its time to take of the jackets.but in a hr its time to put them back on.lol.that heater heats up good and fast but it sure does suck up the propane.right now the tanks empty.going to stay that way until i cant take it anymore.

 

small propane heater at night and a solar furnace during the day, enough to knock the chill off.