48x39x14 shop build

[murph1]

Most stats are on a 4 degree swing. 2 up and 2 down.

 

[ovrszd]

Most stats are on a 4 degree swing. 2 up and 2 down.

I've just got a cheap thermostat. Not sure what it's tolerance is. Might be contributing to this issue.

It's not a big deal at all here in the shop. Might be in the house.

I'll get the bugs worked out this Winter. Then be better educated about the house.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

I've just got a cheap thermostat. Not sure what it's tolerance is. Might be contributing to this issue.

It's not a big deal at all here in the shop. Might be in the house.

I'll get the bugs worked out this Winter. Then be better educated about the house.

On a monolithic slab you want the water temp to be about 10-20 degrees above room temp. Then as heat loss goes up, colder weather outside, you have to increase your water temp. If you are not opening and closing your doors you should not being seeing those temp swings.

I run 85 -90 degree water in the house garage(door opens very little) cheapest thermostat you can buy temp stays right where it is set. In our shop i run about the same temp water and we will see swings when we open the doors. If we do not open and close the doors stays right where it is.

My understanding of the probe being in the slab is they control room temp by the temp of the slab. They then have temp sensor outside that senses outside temp. When the temp outside decreases they raise the water temp going into the floor. This gets the or keeps the whole, slab at about 5 degrees above room temp. Just shot both slabs, runs right at 5 degrees above until I get to outer edges. Then at about 2' out I will loose 2 degrees. Knowing what I know now I would have put the tubing more closer together on the outer edges.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm at 110 degree water temp. I'll lower that another 5 degrees.

My slab temp is uniform until I get within a foot of the wall. I don't recall my tubing being any closer together out at the walls.

I see temp rise without opening the overheads. We haven't had any real cold weather yet. Right now we don't have any frost in the ground.

I think I have my water temp too high. I've learned to make adjustments in small increments and to allow longer time span between them.

I'll report my adjustments and results as they happen. Going to 105 water temp now.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

You want your water temp to be as low as possible and still be able to maintain your ambient temp. Ideally you should find a spot where it is just about running water through the floor all the time. That will give you an even heat. They also make a variable displacement pump now. Which helps with some of this, how I have not figured out because I don't have one. There is a specific change in temp you want on supply and return in your floor. My son says with more flow in my floor i could run a lower water temp, he says there is too large difference between supply and return. New manifold solved my issues and don't see fancy pump in my future.

So thinking out loud with a variable displacement pump, probe in the concrete, instant hot water heater boiler, sensor on inlet and return, all connected together with microprocessor one would think it is possible to find a sweet spot. Then with it sensing outside temp you should be able to maintain constant temp if the loads in the home do not radically change. Like opening garage door in the shop.

I can heat 900 square feet with a 40 gal electric hot water heater when ambient temps stay right around 40 degrees and it stays right at about 65 degrees. I didn't believe it was possible either until the geo had issues and had to use the back up. Much colder and the electric hot water heater can't keep up. The geo unit loves making 85 degree water, it is the domestic hot water that is ruff.

 

[Fallon]

I fought with radio reception in my barn/shop. In the end I gave up & put a cheap sntenna outside & found a cheap stereo system at a flea market that had an external antenna input.


I'm a HAM radio guy, which in theory means I know RF & radio a bit better than most people... in thoery.


A barn with metal siding & a roof is basically a faraday cage. Which is a fancy name for something that blocks radio waves. Not a perfect one by any means, but most are enough it will cause you problems with any radio stuff (AM/FM radio, cell phones, WiFi, etc).


Old transformer & new digital ballasts end up being unintentional radio transmitters. As such they basically act as poor quality jammers. You can try various ballasts & some are better than others. Industrial or commercial ones are usually quieter on the RF spectrum than ones for home use. I was putting in lighting into a WAY under lit barn & shop at the time so I was buying new fixtures at the time.* I tried a few, but none were quite good enough. LEDs were still almost double the price, so I didnt go that way at the time.


I'm slowly ripping out ballasts & putting in LED tubes as I have problems now though. Not even troubleshooting, just rip out the tubes & ballast & toss in 4*$7*LED tubes any time a fixture has issues.


The faraday cage aspect of the barn & jammer aspect of the ballasts individually weren't enough to kill my radio, but combined* were. I didnt like working in the dark, so put up an antenna outside, which works.


I loose radio reception just driving my tractor into the barn. If the lights are off you get extremely poor reception. If the lights are on, there is none at all.

 

[ovrszd]

I've got one more external antenna idea to try. If no success then I'll work toward eliminating the ballasts in my lights.

Really aggravates me that I have the same opener and same lights in my old all metal building and have 200ft range on the opener.....

 

[Citydude]

Well, if all else fails and I can tell you loath the idea, high bay LED lights are an option. My neighbor has a 40x60x14 shop with no ceiling and installed just 4 of them in his shop. Huge difference in lighting that size of shop. You literally can not look at them they are so bright. He order them off of Amazon. I think he paid $130.00 for each.

 

[GSVette]

Here’s my 40x60x14, no ceiling with LED high bays (15 of them to be precise)-don’t lack for light!!!

 

[Ford850]

I tried Liftmaster antenna extenders which runs the antenna outside, no help.

Was it the coax style, and did you ground it as required? Everything I've read says coax and proper ground procedure makes the difference with these. Here's an installation guide showing how coax can be used to get to the external antenna. http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/1688767~ab1a5f77e498f19bc19b04b1787fb2f6/External antenna.pdf

There are also instructions to use coax, extending externally as shown above, to avoid interference. The difference is how you connect the coax to the opener. Rather than connecting to the end of the existing antenna, you open the lifter and remove the antenna. Then strip the coax as shown above, but connect the center wire (solder) to the point on the board where the original antenna was connected. Connect the twisted braided shielding to a ground point on the circuit board. On the other end of the coax (outside) connect the original antenna wire to center wire of the coax. This shields the entire antenna to the outside of the shop.

 

[BrinkME]

Got them yesterday, installed today, no change.

Talked to an Electrical Contractor today. Said he has two buildings with same equipment, same problem.

One last thing I'm going to try. My shop is 35ft from my transformer and meter pad. They are grounded with a copper rod driven into the soil. I did not do that at my shop. Tomorrow I'll add a ground rod. I'll report my results.

That's a shame, sorry to hear it. I hate to suggest someone spend money and it doesn't work out.

 

[ovrszd]

Well, if all else fails and I can tell you loath the idea, high bay LED lights are an option. My neighbor has a 40x60x14 shop with no ceiling and installed just 4 of them in his shop. Huge difference in lighting that size of shop. You literally can not look at them they are so bright. He order them off of Amazon. I think he paid $130.00 for each.

Yeah, I just hate to give up on my current investment.

There's a lot of difference in LEDs. What you mentioned abou brightness and not looking at them is what I want to avoid. I don't want anything brighter than 5000K.

 

[ovrszd]

That's a shame, sorry to hear it. I hate to suggest someone spend money and it doesn't work out.

No worries. Thanks for any offering of things to try.

 

[Fallon]

Yeah, I just hate to give up on my current investment.

There's a lot of difference in LEDs. What you mentioned abou brightness and not looking at them is what I want to avoid. I don't want anything brighter than 5000K.

5000k is color tempature & measured in kelvin, not brightness, measured in lumens (use to be watts, but that's a measure of power draw, not output, LEDs really killed it). Light Bulbs Color Temperature Range - Choosing the Light Bulbs - Batteries Plus Bulbs

Basically the lower you go below 4,000k is more yellow, over that starts getting rather blueish. Personally I prefer 4,000-4,500k mostly. 3,500 is good for living rooms & bedrooms.

 

[ovrszd]

5000k is color tempature & measured in kelvin, not brightness, measured in lumens (use to be watts, but that's a measure of power draw, not output, LEDs really killed it). Light Bulbs Color Temperature Range - Choosing the Light Bulbs - Batteries Plus Bulbs

Basically the lower you go below 4,000k is more yellow, over that starts getting rather blueish. Personally I prefer 4,000-4,500k mostly. 3,500 is good for living rooms & bedrooms.

Yep. Over 5K hurts my eyes and seems stark.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Do you have pictures of your barn lighting? I ordered LED replacememnt tubes from china off of ebay. It is where LED;s come from, so just taking the middleman out is my opnion. Might want to price that out first before Amazon or Sams

As for kelvin, 2800K is the desired warmth for interior homes, at least in the USA. Some countries find the 5K flourescent blue more attractive. 3500 is way too blue for my eyes for interiors.

 

[countrybumpkin]

I just installed 11 with 5k LED tubes in my 30 x 40 x 14 work area, with the white metal walls and light gray floor worked out nice. I too don’t care for anything over 5k , the LED work lights on my tractor are 6k or better and are to blue for me.

Now you have me curious if the lighting will bother my openers, guess I need to try them.

 

[ultrarunner]

I can have two bulbs with the same 3500K and one will have much better color rendering... in GE the difference ordering is between the SP and the SPX 4' fluorescent.

I use the SPX in the public spaces of the hospital... makes for just the right lighting...

I use the cheaper SP bulbs for supply, mechanical rooms, storage areas, etc...

The CEO want to know when I had painted the hallway... said nice job... ALL I DID WAS CHANGE OUT THE BULBS TO THE 3500K SPX

The GE SPX series T8 lamps offer high efficiency at 91 lumens/watt and long life - up to 36,000 hours with programmed rapid start operation. This lamp delivers high quality illumination with a CRI of 85 making it an excellent choice for office troffers, classroom ceiling fixtures and other diffuse ambient lighting applications.

 

[goeduck]

Here痴 my 40x60x14, no ceiling with LED high bays (15 of them to be precise)-don稚 lack for light!!!View attachment 583805

That is a nice structure :thumbsup:

 

[ovrszd]

I just installed 11 with 5k LED tubes in my 30 x 40 x 14 work area, with the white metal walls and light gray floor worked out nice. I too don’t care for anything over 5k , the LED work lights on my tractor are 6k or better and are to blue for me.

Now you have me curious if the lighting will bother my openers, guess I need to try them.

I'm almost positive that my problem is the ballasts. They are emitting a radio frequency very similar to the frequency used by my openers. This creates "noise" that the opener can't handle. So it never "hears" the remote signal.

If your lights function without similar ballasts you should be fine.

I can't find anyone with this problem. I've talked with others that have range problems. But none that are as specific as mine. Just my luck...