What do you heat your garage with?

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Passive Solar heat

On sunny days (very few in S.E. Mich.) I have two passive solar heaters that create a little heat. Basically it's a box with no top or bottom. I used shingles for the heat sink, theres a layer on the back panel and a layer in the middle. The middle layer has no backing. The idea is that this layer heats up two air spaces. These two spaces are at different temperatures creating "lift" on the middle layer. This lift moves the air; cold air in from the bottom hot air out the top. On sunny days an hour or two will go by before the furnace kicks on. The south wall of my shop has two 3X3 windows, this is what I use as my glaze panel. I used stuff I already had to make these, I wanted to see if there was any benefit before I spend any money. There are better designs that allow the use of blowers. I just bought a thermometer to track the heat range and there is no sun...

I keep the temperature at 45F when I'm not using the shop, and this past week we had 20F outside, bright sun and my shop was at 55F.
 

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Home made

I heat my shop (40x60) with this wood stove that I built !
It is made from 1/4" plate and is lined with fire brick. The outside is surrounded with a shroud that I made from 14ga . I mounted a large squirrel cage fan on the bottom back side that has 4 fan speed settings and blows the heated air that is trapped out the top into the T and distributes the warm air to each end of my shop! My chimney on the inside is 8" well casing and outside is 8x8 1/4" wall square tube that is set in a 3x3x3 cube of concrete and is 24' tall to get above roof for good draw!
 

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I know the feeling Sgt., I lived in Ohio for 45 year, and froze my back side off every winter. When my job of twenty years went bye bye, I decided it was time to find warmer weather. I heated my shop in Ohio with a kerosene torpedo heater, froze from the ankels down and rosted from the ankels up. A buddy of mine built a new shop with in floor heat, man that was nice.
 
it gets cold here at 5500 feet.
and since i rent my house.
i didnt want anything i cant throw in the truck.

this bad boy runs on diesel.

Thermoheat 125000 BTU Kerosene Forced Air Heater

it was $100 off
so i paid $199

it has a built in thermostat.
and a pressure gauge as well as a fuel gauge that tells you how much time you have left.

oh yeah
when i went to buy diesel for it.
i found 20 bucks at the pump!

872076015925xl.jpg
 
Heat

Okay trying to get a head start for the cold. A while back I worked on an oil heater that I just could not get to work right so I scrapped it and got a barrel stove kit and a good barrel. So tonight I started to clean it up and get it ready for wood. I use wood that I can get for free, pallets are okay because they are dry and easy to get. Well this last summer there was 200 acres logged out so the stuff that did not get logged is ready to be cut and stacked for the wood stove.

any one else using wood this winter??


52 fordman
 
Since my carport/shop is open on two sides, heat doesn't do much good. I do have one of those "daisy" head heaters that screw onto a small propane tank that I will use if I have to work out there in real cold weather. Otherwise, it's just put on the insulated coveralls or stay inside......:D
 
I don't. I go to Florida for the winter. LOL. I do have a salamander that my sons use when they work in there if its not too cold.
 
Sorry you couldn't get that waste oil heater to go...

Okay trying to get a head start for the cold. A while back I worked on an oil heater that I just could not get to work right so I scrapped it and got a barrel stove kit and a good barrel. So tonight I started to clean it up and get it ready for wood. I use wood that I can get for free, pallets are okay because they are dry and easy to get. Well this last summer there was 200 acres logged out so the stuff that did not get logged is ready to be cut and stacked for the wood stove.

any one else using wood this winter??


52 fordman

Mine worked good for 2 years until I fired it after getting back in the barn after my knee surgery last winter...had a heck of a time getting it fired..and then had to play with the air flow constantly.....my thinking is maybe due to synthetic oils....going to tweek it when I get the time......in the mean time I've got a natural gas furnace to use.....
 
Natural gas.....don't have to go to the bush to get, getting lazy in my old age.:)

yeah
after using wood for heat for years
no more
i will let someone else espouse the joys of a brisk fall day in the woods busting their butt hauling wood around and hassling with chainsaws.[cl
 
Yeah, I use wood for heat. Have two woodstoves in my 2500 sqft shop. Ripped through 4 cords last year. I don't mind going to get the wood it's all the work to keep the fires going during the day that's a drag. Not to mention the time it takes to get the temps up. I'm liking Billy's idea a lot...
 
I had a wall mounted ventless Propane heater in my last garage, a 3 car. Heater worked great! I don't want it sweating hot, just enough to take off the chill. I would turn it on when I came home from work and after dinner it was perfect temp. It seemed to be efficient and didn't make me go broke!:eek::D
 
Still using LP gas worked great last year but I just got done doing the ceiling with 9's of insulation and tin. Sealed it up pretty good I hope but we will see what the heat bills are this year. I also added a few lights, I hate shadows:rolleyes:
 

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Free

[The other day I stopped at a couples house and asked what they had planned to do with the wood pile that had been sitting in there yard all year.
So I got this for free.

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So I have some work to do.
 

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I have infloor heating with 3 zones. One in my garage, one in my office and the 3rd in the main shop. It uses a small central boiler on LP. I can set the temperature in the shop to 60 and feel very comfortable in there. During the winter I will tank up the 2-100lb tanks once a month. It's a 2200 sq ft shop with 11.5' walls.

I had the water lines filled with glycol. This way if I don't want to heat during the winter I can leave it with out worry of freezing. I had one incident during the first year where the furnace failed. My shop dropped about 2 degrees per day with no heat on. The concrete floor has so much mass that it kept the place warm while we waited for a part over christmas.

I'm loving it.
 

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