Shop Heater??????

I am looking to put some heat in the new garage this fall to get ready for the (dare I say) winter up here in the great white north (upstate N.Y.).
Thinking about a hang from the ceiling propane unit, I think I need 60 to 80,000 BTUs its a cinder block 24X40 with 2 overhead doors and 1 36" man door with no wall insulation but the ceiling is, with a full attic.
Anyone know of any good deals out there? I am on a very tight budget.

Heater Size/Type

I think you're going to do the right thing by installing a GAS heater, to start with. They make a good, reliable system and thermostat controlled.

I would recommend you talk with a local heating contractor/installer and get his idea on what size unit would be the best for your shop. Placement of that unit can be crutial too. Heed his advise..........

It is possible to get one that is "TOO BIG" and it will cycle on and off too much and not do a proper-job for you. 80,000 sounds a little large to me, but I could be wrong too.

Styrafoam sheets are fairly cheap and easy to install on the side walls too,
and you can add some kind of cover to them as time progresses.

Good Luck on your project(s), you're making a good start anyway....
TexA

cosmic12 said:

I am looking to put some heat in the new garage this fall to get ready for the (dare I say) winter up here in the great white north (upstate N.Y.).
Thinking about a hang from the ceiling propane unit, I think I need 60 to 80,000 BTUs its a cinder block 24X40 with 2 overhead doors and 1 36" man door with no wall insulation but the ceiling is, with a full attic.
Anyone know of any good deals out there? I am on a very tight budget.

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We have almost an identical shop to you. Ours is 30 x 40 wood frame with no insulation in the walls but a whole lot of blown insulation in the ceiling. Something like r 32. Anyway we bought a Natural gas heater from Northern Tool last fall and had it installed. I work in this shop all day long everyday and the heater works great. We had it set up on a digital thermostat. In the evening it lets the temp go down to 55 degrees, at 7am the temp comes back up to 72. This keeps any pipes from freezing at night and if you had to go out there for something it was not so cold you couldn't do something if you had to.

It is a Mr Heater from Northern Tool a 75,000 btu. The gas bill ran about $125.00 a month last winter. We had a very bad winter here lots of nights in the single digits and lots of days with no sunshine and never got above freezing.

Here natural gas is about 1/3 the cost of propane, so you might want to look at that if natural gas is available where you are at.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200316363_200316363

I have been looking at the Big Max and that is probly what I will end with.
I wish I could go nat/gas but it just isn't possible so I have to put a big propane tank outside. I am kinda out in the sticks, no gas no water no sewer.
Wouldn't have it any other way so propane is the only way unless I can find a cheap used oil burner, that is what I used to have but it gave up a while ago.

I use a chicken house heater(thermostat controlled,auto start) on butane. used they are cheap. mine is a ranchhand model, heats uninsulated 32x40 pretty good(would be cheaper on me if i would insulate)

Wood stove.

wannadrag said:

Wood stove.

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Had one, still have one in the house. Lotta work procuring wood, other than that it ain't bad down here in the south.

hankus said:

Had one, still have one in the house. Lotta work procuring wood, other than that it ain't bad down here in the south.

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You got that right. If you dont mind the work it takes, wood would be your best bet overall.It's what I got.[[P

got wood

told my father in law i wanted one and he found one in about a week told me hed let me know how much I owe. that was a few years ago haha. mine looks like the old long skinny cast irons that they sale at sutherlands for about $200. might work if i didnt have a ton of air gaps

I heat my garage/shop with wood but I have access to wood that's free for the cutting.......yes it's work but it's cheap. Of course if you had to buy wood ya might as well burn dollar bills.............only thing worse money wise around here would be the propane, that's like burning fives and tens I switched my house from propane to an electric heat pump two years ago and it only costs me about a third as much to heat and cool now......I'm tempted to do one in the shop too, heat and A/C would be awesome!

I heat with a Duotherm oil furnace from a 5 room house...got it free 30 years ago. I've not spent a penny on it in those 30 years. My shop is wood framed insulated with 1 1/2" styrofoam. 16'X48'....12' high. costs me about 50-60 bucks a month to buy fuel.

Lynn

hankus said:

Had one, still have one in the house. Lotta work procuring wood, other than that it ain't bad down here in the south.

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The trouble with wood is the time spent cutting and hauling it could be spent building hot rods. That and wood heats you twice, once when ya cut and then again when ya burn it.

There is also so safety concerns with wood stoves in a garage. If you have a car in this shop and it leaks some gas. The gas fumes are heavy and go down to the floor, as soon as the gas fumes get to the flame of the wood stove, you have a blown up garage. For this reason garage heaters are suspended from the ceiling. This gives you a chance to ventilate the shop or turn off the flame before it all explodes. Just something to think about.

Ductless heat/air

I have a freind that has just installed a Hitachi ductless heat and air with heat strip back up in his new shop for about $850.00 installed. I do not know what it will cost to run. I do know he got it cheap on Ebay.

I do know he has put this in because his old shop burnt after he painted his 54 chevy and went to lunch last winter. He lost his car, a lot of tools, and got cancelled by his insurance company. He had an improperly installed pellet stove.

I understand your statment of being on a budget. Just make shure you cover yourself, and heat your shop safely and correctly. Its been tough watching John rebuild. Self inflicted wounds cut deep.

Jim

I heat a 1200 sq ft 12 ft wall shop with an electric 33,000 btu furnace.
It's not too expensive and you can paint with it on because the elements don't get hot enough to ignite fumes

Jim

Insulation is cheap if you buy a couple bundles at a time and the next thing you know the shop is warm, holds in the heat your using and the cost savings pay for the insulation in a short time. I wouldn't heat with out the insulation, it's way to costly compared to the insulation. A vapour barrier over the insultaion cuts down the drafts as well plus gives you something to spray paint on when setting up your paint gun. Insulation helps keep the heat out in the summer as well.

Going to talk to a furnace guy today, I have to put a new oil fired boiler in the house so now my budget for the shop just got lowered by alot.
We will see what he says and if I can get some kind of package deal.
Someone said they had electric on here, I would have thought it would have been more money to opperate than propane[S
See what happens today, thanks for all the comments guys.

cosmic12 said:

Going to talk to a furnace guy today, I have to put a new oil fired boiler in the house so now my budget for the shop just got lowered by alot.
We will see what he says and if I can get some kind of package deal.
Someone said they had electric on here, I would have thought it would have been more money to opperate than propane[S
See what happens today, thanks for all the comments guys.

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Yea I'm runnin a 33,000 btu electric furnace in a 30x40 building with 12' walls insulated.
I guaranty I would not switch it out even if someone gave me a brand new propane furnace.
The operating cost difference is miniscule compared to a fire and the loss of everything you have worked so hard for
Like I said I even run it when painting a car as the heating elements don't get hot enough to ignite the fumes
It's hanging horizontal from the roof perlins like a Reznor style does out of the way
When you work in a shop the temp is only around 60 degrees anyway not like in a house 70 to 78 degrees cause you get too hot and sweat
Even at 0 degrees outside it cycles on and off with no trouble and every time I leave the shop I turn the t-stat down to 50 degrees
Got this for $50 bucks at a yard sale and have had 0 problems out of it and never runs over $125 a mo. during the coldest part of the year. Average for the number of months we run it is $80 bucks

Jim

TexA said:

Styrafoam sheets are fairly cheap and easy to install on the side walls too,and you can add some kind of cover to them as time progresses.TexA

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It ain't cheap. Regular fiberglass insulation is much cheaper. It's usually cheaper to have someone else do it. Call a small company that specializes in insulation. I did my 30x30 garage and it was cheaper to have it done than me buying the materials, and they used *green* insulation.

I heat a 30 X 40 X 12 foot shop with wood (and a little bit of used motor oil - shhhhhhh).

It does ok, and cutting the wood keeps me in shape!

Used Motor Oil

I'd Like to build a furnace to burn (recycle) ha ha used oil. Seem to have a large supply since that darn Kenworth gets changed every 12,000 mi and 12 gal. each time