heat for my workshop

[bp fick]

I added a 16x32 pole barn to the back of my 24x24 garage last year. I wanted heat in winter and my 55,000 btu salamander wont handle all my space. I bought a used Miller furnace (80,000 btu) that was taken from a mobile home and installed it in the pole barn addition. The heat blows down to a box I made under the furnace which diffuses or directs the heated air flow 3 ways. I wired it to a digital T-stat place in the middle between the pole barn and garage which I set for 60 degrees. It runs on kerosene or home heating fuel which is pumped from a 15 gallon tank next to the furnace. Furnace exhaust goes through the back wall. I only run it when I'm going to work out there and 60 deg. is the ideal temp for me. For everything (used furnace, exhaust pipe, T-stat, etc) I have under $300. invested.

Nice. Had a natural gas setup similar to that, years ago. Pretty sweet.

 

[bp fick]

This is an example of what I have in mind. Mr. Heater Propane Garage Heater 75,000 BTU, Model# MHU75LP | Propane Heaters | Northern Tool + Equipment

Ceiling mounted rather than wall.

Nice!!! I will keep this unit in mind.

I have a 50,000 vented, console space heater in the house. We have a 300 gallon tank. Lasts 2-3 months depending on harshness of winter.

NOTE: Many LP suppliers give a major price break for tanks larger than 250 gallons. Volume purchase lowers the cost/per gallon of LP.

 

[kenmac]

Overview

Quiet, vented heater for residential and commercial use easily heats 2- to 3-car garage. Requires only 1in. clearance from ceiling with 2 included angle brackets which means heater is up and out of the way. Power exhaust allows for vertical or horizontal venting.

That has nothing to do with combustion air. As per section 304.IFGC you need xxx combustion air requirements per xxx # of BTU.. Not enough combustion Air leads to improper combustion which leads to CO. In my line of work, I wouldn't be allowed to install (permit) something like this without combustion air. Just giving advise. It's your garage

 

[cdaledave89]

The overhead propane "garage" heater is a nice way to go. I'm installing one in the new 24' x 32' garage that I'm building right now. For the size of your garage, you won't need more than 30k BTU. Oversizing the heater is just as bad as undersizing it. If you plan to do any serious woodworking or painting in there, then you'll want to consider a separated combustion unit that draws combustion air from the outside, instead of using the air in the garage.

 

[PILOON]

If I recall correctly, propane is 100 btu's per pound.
so with a propane furnace using 75,000 btu's you would expect 5.5 days of heat 'full blast'--however propane delivery drops as it gets colder so you get only a portion of the available fuel, the colder the less available.

In fact propane actually freezes somewhere like -30 deg or so.


Way back the parents heated with propane and we'd collect the 'empties' for later use as most had 30-40% left in them.
They ended up with a tank that looked more like a submarine in order to overcome the cold weather problems.

Have seen 500000 BTU construction heaters connected to 500 lb tanks freeze up as delivery demand in cold just plain iced the valve.
This due primarily to the venturi effect of a cold gas in small orifices.

Not the best solution in real cold climates.
Oil, while smelly and messy is still a better option IMHO,
And electric for cost of install and cleanlyness.
Or oil at low settings+ wood for fast 'heat up'.

My own shop uses a construction type 220 heater hanging from the ceiling, slanted downwards with the thermostat remoted to the other side of the shop.
I set it just over freezing and crank it up whenever I use the shop.
But then my shop is insulated R20 in walls and R40 in ceiling.
I built it to the same standards as my house.

 

[MikeInMaine]

A non-vented propane heater will dump a lot of moisture into the air. The colder it is outside, the more the heater will run, and the more water will condense on the insides of your shop windows. When you turn off the heat, and your shop cools, everything inside will get wet. You will be much happier with a vented heater of some type.

Some of the other suggestions work well -- the vented radiant heater suggested by KB9UDE would be my first choice for occasional use because it heats up fast!

 

[Grandad4]

We added a 14' x 35' insulated work room at one end of our shop building 3 years ago. After considering all the options, we went with a 220v combination ac/heat unit (18,000 btu), as some others have mentioned, mounted through a wall opening. Unit is visible near ceiling at the left in attached pic. Photo was taken while construction was still going on. Unit has been reliable and cheap to operate. When temps dip low enough and no one is using the shop, we keep it at minimum temp setting (55 deg F.) to keep water lines from freezing. AC gives us a nice place to get out of the summer heat also, although 18,000 btu is overkill for this space.

 

[Luremaker]

I heat my insulated shop (40' x 60' x 14') with a multifuel corn/pellet stove. It will burn wheat, rye, corn or wood pellets whichever happens to be cheaper. It easily keeps my shop around 72 degrees 24hrs a day 5 days a week. I load it once a day and burn on average one bushel per day most of the winter. I often have to shut the stove down for for a few hours because of over heating.

The stove is a locally manufactured stove and is rated for 60,000 btu. It is a direct vent stove with a fresh-air intake.

 

[Gizmo2]

I installed this in our basement about a month ago so my wife could work on her hobby's, should have done it 15 years ago.

Unit Heaters | Berko

 

[2manyrocks]

I think the Consumer Product Safety Commission made the nonvented propane heater mfs put a statement in the operating manuals that you are supposed to crack a window open when using one in order to vent and get combustion air. Who's going to run their heater with the window open?

If you have a pretty air tight workshop, you should be looking at a vented heater IMO. There are some propane wall heaters that direct vent through the wall.

 

[pitt_md]

I heat my insulated shop (40' x 60' x 14') with a multifuel corn/pellet stove. It will burn wheat, rye, corn or wood pellets whichever happens to be cheaper. It easily keeps my shop around 72 degrees 24hrs a day 5 days a week. I load it once a day and burn on average one bushel per day most of the winter. I often have to shut the stove down for for a few hours because of over heating.

The stove is a locally manufactured stove and is rated for 60,000 btu. It is a direct vent stove with a fresh-air intake.

I was wondering when this option would be mentioned. I use a multifuel stove in the basement of my new house. I lit the thing in the fall and stoped it once for cleaning the fly ash out of the airways. Last year I did not get the stove running and used the Main LP furnace to heat everything. So far this year with the stove going in the basement I have used less than 1/4th what I did last year at this time. Easy to keep running/operate cheap fuel. The down side is the initial purchase/install cost.

 

[Luremaker]

I was wondering when this option would be mentioned. I use a multifuel stove in the basement of my new house. I lit the thing in the fall and stoped it once for cleaning the fly ash out of the airways. Last year I did not get the stove running and used the Main LP furnace to heat everything. So far this year with the stove going in the basement I have used less than 1/4th what I did last year at this time. Easy to keep running/operate cheap fuel. The down side is the initial purchase/install cost.

The cost of my stove was less than $2000 including the direct vent kit at the local TSC store a few years ago. This is a simple stove with no fancy electronic circuit boards. There is basically an on/off switch, a feed knob and blower adjustment knob. There are two blower motors and an auger motor. Not the best looking stove but it makes a great shop heater.

 

[helle253]

16ft x 20ft x 50btu/sq.ft = 16,000 BTU's required to heat your shop.

Go to mrslim.com and find an M-series heat pump. They are very, very efficient and the bonus is----wait for it, wait for it----it is also an air conditioner baby.

One draw back, doesn't operate below zero, not sure what your lowest temps are there...

Indoor Unit Item # MSZ-GE18NA, Inverter Heat Pumps on Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics - HVAC Advanced Products Div.

 

[Gsquared]

An earlier poster said the heat from propane is 100 btu/lb, but it is close to 20,000 BTU/lb (the actual HHV high heating value is 21,700, but you won't see that much heat more like the LHV which is a few percent less to allow for the heat of vaporization of the water that is formed from the combustion of the propane) If you want to know more check wikipedia for "heat of combustion"

OK enough science, I have a 40X60 metal barn with insulated roof. I bought an old pot belly stove thinking how great it would be to have a good fire and a toasty barn. Sure enough, with a big fire the heater puts out a lot of heat. If you are within 2 feet of the stove it is great, otherwise you will never know it is there. I bet if I got up near the roof (~20') it would be toasty, but not down where I am. Oh well live and learn. So distribution of the heat (ie a fan) is pretty important.