Author Topic: Heating your shop (Read 3124 times)

Michael Brooks · « **on:** September 04, 2009, 09:17:35 AM »

By the end of the month, I'll finally have my own shop (no more building on the dining room table!

). It will be a 16X10 ft building in my backyard. It will be insulated and have a small a/c unit. Arkansas summers make for no other choice (Oh! The joys of heat and humidity in August.). I am, however, still working on a plan to heat it. Anybody have a suggestion? It can get pretty cold here in the winter.

Thanks,
Mike

Paul Taylor · « **Reply #1 on:** September 04, 2009, 09:30:16 AM »

Hey Mike,
Just crank up a few Fox engines w/o mufflers!

Or go take the heater out of Zuriels shop, that's what I would do.

Dan Labine · « **Reply #2 on:** September 04, 2009, 09:56:26 AM »

Up here in the Great White North I use a 5KW construction heater. It heats my 26 X 16 garage to approx 70 degrees when its -20 outside. I'm sure it would do fine.. They do require a special plug and 240 volts though.

Dan

Jim Oliver · « **Reply #3 on:** September 04, 2009, 10:06:23 AM »

Mike,

I use a wall mounted heat pump (Fredrick brand, I think) to heat and cool. It is 220 volt. My shop is frame on a slab, well insulated, about 18x 24 and the unit I have is probably at least twice a big as I need.

Cheers,
Jim

GGeezer · « **Reply #4 on:** September 04, 2009, 10:48:30 AM »

Quote from: Jim Oliver on September 04, 2009, 10:06:23 AM

Mike,

I use a wall mounted heat pump (Fredrick brand, I think) to heat and cool. It is 220 volt. My shop is frame on a slab, well insulated, about 18x 24 and the unit I have is probably at least twice a big as I need.

Cheers,
Jim

Jim,
Can you provide more information on your system. Approx. cost and infrastructure needed. Does your systemuse an underground heat sink?
I heat my shop electrically but think a heat pump may offer better economy.
Orv.

Michael Brooks · « **Reply #5 on:** September 04, 2009, 10:53:27 AM »

Jim,

I'd be interested in more info about your system too. My wife suggested a heat pump but all I found was way beyond what I'd need.

Mike

Bill Hodges · « **Reply #6 on:** September 04, 2009, 01:08:19 PM »

My shop is 12' X 20' and is not insulated. I use two of the oil filled electric heaters (110V) that look like the old style radiators. I put one at each end of the building. They keep it very comfortable during the winter months. I bought mine from Walmart.

Bill Hodges

Zuriel Armstrong · « **Reply #7 on:** September 04, 2009, 01:15:38 PM »

Mike,

The most effective heater in my shop is the door...it's hot oiutside

Bob Reeves · « **Reply #8 on:** September 04, 2009, 02:46:10 PM »

I'm in Oklahoma, not that much different from Arkansas.

We have a 15 X 20 out building we use for our office, it is insulated with metal siding and roof. I stuck a combination air conditioner/heat pump through the wall. Actually window unit but I cut a hole up high out of the way and mounted it through the back wall. It has been running 24/7 for almost 5 years. Forgot what BTU it is but that's not hard to figure, most units will have a tag that tells you what size room they will handle when you go shopping. It has been wonderfull and hasn't added that much to the electric bill.

Out front by the circles we have a 10 X 30 club house built the same way as the office, It only has an air conditioner which takes care of summers. In the winter before a club meeting we warm it up with a kerosene heater then keep it warm with a couple portable electric heaters.

My shop is 30 X 40 also with a through the wall AC unit. Normally keep it from freezing and heat it with a propain furnace that was in it when we bought the place. Due to the cost of propain and heating our house from the same tank I supplement it with a kerosene heater.

In your case I would recommend an AC/heat pump combo. Clean, relatively maintenance free and this time of year you can probably find a good deal on store display units or close outs. Bought the one in the office at Lowes, it was a display unit they put in the bargin bin and was marked down $150.00.

Bryan Higgins · « **Reply #9 on:** September 04, 2009, 04:09:49 PM »

115v Baseboard electric heater 10ft long at one end of the shop.
In thirty minutes it's nice and toasty in the winter here. (Denver)

W.D. Roland · « **Reply #10 on:** September 04, 2009, 04:31:32 PM »

I heat a 30x40 with electric quartz 110v space heaters.

1 on most days
2 when really cold

Shop is well insulated and no windows.

Does not add much to the bill.

David
51336

Jim Oliver · « **Reply #11 on:** September 04, 2009, 05:36:26 PM »

Mike,

My unit is a Friedrich (correct spelling) Model YL24L35, 220 volt, 24000 BTU, with an EER of 10.0.

It is mounted in an opening in one end wall of the shop, centered in the width of the wall, with the bottom of the unit about 5 feet above the floor. The unit could have been window mounted.

After about three years of use, I think I could have used a 12,000 BTU unit............

There is no underground heat sink; summer temps here run in the high 90's to low 100's, with humidity to match. Winter lows MAY get into the low 20's or high teens, but usually bottom out in the low 30's and upper 20's.

I am in central Alabama. Monthly $$ average $25 or so.

Cheers,
Jim

Clint Ormosen · « **Reply #12 on:** September 04, 2009, 06:26:54 PM »

Quote from: Jim Oliver on September 04, 2009, 05:36:26 PM

Mike,

My unit is a Friedrich (correct spelling) Model YL24L35, 220 volt, 24000 BTU, with an EER of 10.0.

After about three years of use, I think I could have used a 12,000 BTU unit............
Cheers,
Jim

.....and the 12,000 BTU should be available in 120 volt in case you don't have 240 v out in the shop. But if you have the option, use the 240 v.
Amanna makes a nice 12,000 wall heat pump too. I've installed lots of those.

Joe Messinger · « **Reply #13 on:** September 04, 2009, 06:59:43 PM »

The heated area of my work shop is 16' x 16'. It's well insulated and here in WV we have some pretty cold winters.

I first used a wall mounted 220 volt forced air heater. I found it to be pretty darn expensive to operate. I switched to a wall mounted, gas fired, forced air heater and have been quite happy with it. This unit has ceramic tiles in the firebox, doesn't need a flu or vent pipe to the outside and is thermostat controlled. The operating cost of this gas (natural or propane) heater is about that half of the electric heater. Price of the unit is around $150.00 and is easy to install.

Joe

Randy Powell · « **Reply #14 on:** September 05, 2009, 12:06:39 AM »

Yea, I'm using a kerosene heater right now that is pretty inadequate. OK as long as the temps stay above about 40 or 45 outside. but when it dips into the 30s, the thing just can't keep up with the heat loss. My shop is 24 x 20 with a open ceiling (about 15 feet from the floor to the ridge beam). The walls are insulated with R-24 and R-36 in the ceiling. Unfortunately, the floor is not insulated.

I will likely get a larger kerosene unit eventually. The shop is wired for 220 and I had originally planned to use an electric heating system, but decided it was too expensive. Wouldn't hurt to get the floor insulated either.

Larry Cunningham · « **Reply #15 on:** September 05, 2009, 01:21:38 AM »

We have a 600 square foot (20' x 30') enclosed "sunroom" on the south side of our home. We had added a gas log in the fireplace for heating, and finally got rid of its noisy and troublesome swamp cooler. And last summer the heat was brutal at times. Finally we bought a Mitsubishi cooler/heater unit, that fits horizontally over a window.

The unit is first rate! Does a file job of heating/cooling, and has a wireless remote control. Runs very quiet and is amazingly reasonable to operate. Our unit cost about $1300, has a 2 year warranty on the cooler and 6 year on the compressor and heat exchanger.

L.

"We must never assume that which is incapable of proof." -George Henry Lewes

Clint Ormosen · « **Reply #16 on:** September 05, 2009, 09:46:52 AM »

Quote from: Larry Cunningham on September 05, 2009, 01:21:38 AM

The unit is first rate! Does a file job of heating/cooling, and has a wireless remote control. Runs very quiet and is amazingly reasonable to operate. Our unit cost about $1300, has a 2 year warranty on the cooler and 6 year on the compressor and heat exchanger.

L.

Larry, the unit pictured has no heat exchanger (unless your counting the evaporator coil as an exchanger, but that's reaching). Its a heat pump. Where did you mount the condensing unit? The roof maybe?

Larry Cunningham · « **Reply #17 on:** September 05, 2009, 11:21:25 AM »

Sorry about that.

The data sheet refers to the two parts as the Indoor Unit and the
Outdoor Unit. The Outdoor Unit is located on the side porch outside the window..

And it's a FUJITSU! Model 12RLQ - 12,000 BTU..

I didn't even get the manufacturer right!

Anyway, it does work very well.

L.

"Please, please, no more of this music." -anonymous radio listener in France, after
French DJs dusted off old disco records to satisfy new domestic content laws, 1996

Robert Schroeder · « **Reply #18 on:** September 05, 2009, 12:09:52 PM »

I have a 5 car garage for my shop minus one car in the winter and a bit more removed for the bedroom closet. We insulated with 6" in the walls and R-52 in the ceiling then covered everything in painted plywood. There are two overhead furnaces for a 1.5 car garage from Home depot and two 6500 btu air conditioners installed. The furnaces are propane as we are in the middle of nowhere. In Northwest Ohio I can run one heater or air conditioner and keep the temperature at any setting I want. The insulation is the major factor. We also have a sunroom, 12 X 20 something. It has all electric heat which costs a fortune. I've heard we have the highest electric rates in the country. Case in piont.. with heaters going in winter and the hot tub working, our bill was over 450.00 a month. Needless to say the hot tub has ceen drained and the sunroom is closed off in the winter.

Bob

Leester · « **Reply #19 on:** September 05, 2009, 09:10:37 PM »

I had my screened in porch totally enclosed for my shop last fall. I think it's 14 X 24 The 18,000 BTU natural gas heater really kicks butt. I keep it on the lowest setting and don't need to use the fan either. West Central Illinois winters can be nasty. I got it at Lowes for 180.00 ?? and last winters bill only increased about 50.00 a month.