keeping warm

[Carol Reed]

I am not in the coldest region of the country, but the temps have been hovering around freezing.

My Mr. Heater tank sputtered empty last night. Propane is $3 a gallon to refill the tank. Propane is $1.50 a gallon from my house meter. The plumber is coming to extend a valve.

Planning new shop in the summer. Might buy the furnace/heater now and move it later.

So what are you folks heating with gas using and where did you get it and what else do I need to know?

 

[john lucas]

Carol Still new at heating the shop and having to do it on an extreme budget. I managed to get a 100lb propane tank free from my boss who wasn't using it. I used to use the 20lb tanks which cost $18 to refill. Refilling the 100 lb tank save me because it comes out to $15 per 20lb. The hassle is they won't come out and fill that. I have to haul the tank to them. for me that's not a big hassle but means I have to take the truck instead of the car.
I bought an Ashly heater made by Mr Heater. It has more BTU's than my Kerosene heater and Kerosene has gone to $4 a gallon which was killing me. The ashly heater has a thermostat and pilot light so when it reaches a decent termperature it will shut down which might save me more.
Unfortunately I haven't given it a good test yet. I got it hooked up the day the weather changed from very cold to spring like. Next week the temps will change and I'll be giving it a better test.

 

[John Jordan]

Carol, my shop is 1100 sf with 10 ft ceiling in the middle (8 ft wall). I use a good size ceiling mount furnace with propane. Good insulation allows me to keep it at 52 degrees when I'm not in there and turn it up when I work and it's very economical. Well, relatively, depending on the price of propane, but it sounds like you got that worked out.

I think it helps not to let the shop get extremely cold-it doesn't take much to keep it around 50, and nothing ever rusts, and the mass of everything in the shop is relatively warm.

John

 

[Dick Sowa]

There's usually several threads about shop heat every winter...with plenty of good advice. The first thing most folks will recommend is to insulate your shop very, very well. It helps keep it warm in winter, and cool in summer. Double pane window and insulated doors too.

I happen to use a small 1500W electric to keep mine above freezing, then a kerosene heater to get it toasty. But any portable heater using gas or kerosene will have an open flame...something to avoid when using solvent based finishes. They also will introduce moisture into the air, since water is one of the products of combustion for gas, propane, and kerosene.

If I had to do it over again, I would probably get a wall mounted heater, that is off the floor and out of the way. Several models draw combustion air from the outside, and vent to the outside, while heating and recirculating the shop air. They are more expensive, but would be a lot safer in a shop.

 

[Dave Fritz]

Has anyone used these?

http://www.steffes.com/off-peak-heating/room-units.html

I purchased mine used. It heats during off peak hours and seems to store enough heat in the thermal mass to put out heat most anytime I turn up the thermostat. The shop never freezes and rarely goes below 50 degrees F. I like it because it doesn't have any open flame. I always clean wood away from it and take the cover off and clean out accumulated dust frequently. Maybe there's a downside I'm not aware of?

Dave F.

 

[allen jay]

heating

carol
ever give any consideration to either electric or propane infered heating?
sorry about the spelling
i take it you are in a part of the country that does not have access to natural gas

 

[Rick H]

Heating

I am not sure what the problem is on heating a shop. I am in Iowa so it is cold here in the winter. My 3200sf of shop is attached to a 2800sf house. I have a furnace/airconditioner system installed in each one, so 2 units.
I keep them at 72 degrees daytime and down to about 65 at night. In all I am heating about 6000sf. Being well insulated is the secret to doing this at a low cost are my thoughts.
My gas bill is on buget billing, so the same price every month. Taking my service contracts off the total I pay just over $100 per month, so about $1200 dollars a year for heat on 6000sf. I don't think that is too bad.
I have 3 9' overhead garage doors on the front of the shop. I just replaced those last year to a higher R rated door, now 17, costing about $1000 each installed by Overdoor. Before I had the standard insulated doors from Menards, about $400 each, R 6 or something. That made some difference in the shop heat and I do not feel the drafts like I did before. It only took me about 10 years with the old doors to finally change them out.

 

[Griesbach]

Carol, I use a "Hot Dawg" heater from Modine. 75K BTU as I recall and it uses natural gas. Gas and electric lines were run to the shop from the house.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Hot Dawg would be my choice. What we did (granted North TX isn't as cold normally as you guys) is run a big vent into the shop when we had a new air/heat system installed. Then had the attic insulated as well as walls in the shop and added radiant barrier (of course the year before there were energy rebates). Have an insulated roll up door as well. Need a one-way vent so the cigar smoke doesn't get up into the house lines though 🙂

I do have a flameless propane heater if it gets too cold. Could always fire up the big glass kilns I guess, maybe cook a pizza in them.

 

[Carol Reed]

Wow! Budget was not prepared for a new heater!

For now, I will have a gas line plumbed to the carport. The Mr. Heater will be mounted on a solid stand and connected with an RV type hose from the carport valve to the regulator/valve of the Mr. Heater head. That will get me through this winter.

That set-up works safely for my B-B-Que on the deck. And the carport has almost as much ventilation as the deck! 😉

I do and will shut off the valves at their respective house locations when not in use.

New building will include LOTS of insulation and thermal windows.

Thanks for your input. The mountains of Arizona (1500 feet lower than Flagstaff but 5000 feet higher than Phoenix), are getting more white stuff and lower temps this year. Something to do with global warming I am told. At least that is what the guy down at the hardware store told me.

 

[Steve Worcester]

That works. Don't forget to put a fire/carbon monoxide detector in too.

 

[jack richington]

Hi Carol..this is not the question you asked, but an idea..I live in the coldest climate of the US and can hardly afford to heat my house, let alone my shop. I took a wall in my house and put my lathe on a large bank of drawers and yanked in the dust collector and the ceiling air cleaner, and turn inside during the winter. One cannot keep a 37 below zero space warm without spending a ton of money, so that was my decision on how to handle the issue..When it gets above zero outside, I go to shop and work in the cold and bring stuff inside to turn..

 

[fred holsclaw]

i use a heat pump in my shop its a mini split
my elect bill runs around 40 per month year round
thats for heat /cool plus shop tools

 

[Ian Jeffcock]

I have a wood stove in my basement shop, and electric back up. There is a pellet furnace sitting in the corner that hasn't been used in many years because of the cost of pellets. I look at that furnace and then at my piles of shavings and sawdust and remember seeing a video on Youtube showing a home pelleting mill. It does 300 lbs an hour, but over the course of a year, I could probably make enough to get me thru a winter. About $1800 for the mill, so it would take a few years to pay for itself. Has anyone tried one of these?
I live in NW Montana so fire wood is reasonably easy to get, but it would be great to find a use for all those shavings, plus I could sell it to the boss by saying "honey, I gotta go "turn" up the heat.