shop heat

silversink

silversink

Senior Member
Here in McMinnville Oregon I went to the shop to work on the A in 34 degree temp. Fired up the wood stove trying to get some heat in my 30x40 shop so I could get something done but after burning up 3 wheel barrow loads of wood 50 degrees was all I could get as far as warm. It's 24 now and I'm staying in the house.
What kind of heat are you using to get some work done?
 
Our low tonight here in Iowa is predicted to be -11 degrees. The shop is not heated, but the work room inside the shop is natural gas. The space is the size of a single car garage with room for work bench, and well insulated (6"). The temp can be set wherever I want it.
 
I use a 50,000 propane salamander, but it usually does not get that cold here. Go over to the garage journal .com , sister forum to this, and see suggestions there.
 
I use a hanging heater that is poweed by elec.

The secret is to insolate well. In cold (25) it takes it up to 60 in 15-20 min

I find that warm enough and cost is low hear in Taunton.
 
24 x 32 pole barn. Walls and ceiling insulated. Modine 30,000 BTU heater suspended from ceiling. Propane ($!) fired. Last week, with heat OFF, -10 outside temp was 48 degrees in shop. Heats up quickly. 250 gal tank usually lasts me 1 1/2 seasons. I only turn on heat when I am going to be working out there.
 
I have a 36x48 garage that is well insulated and heated with natural gas, with a programmable thermostat . At 8am temp goes up to 70 and at 11pm temp is cut back to 55. So my shop is always ready to work in or paint. Here in Michigan we generally get quite cold winters.
 
Used oil furnace, works very well, cheap, I can get 2-3 weeks on 250 gallons of used oil
The down side, every thing gets full of oil, (leaking barrels, spills, oil on hands and touch something) getting oil out of the shed with the forklift at -30 degrees and snow, wind comes out of the wrong way it will prevent the fire from staying lit and the sensor will stay cold so it will trip the reset and the furnace will stay off

Other than that it is really nice , keeps the whole shop warm, we always run the fans to keep the heat towards the floor
John
 
None, I just work on warm days and for short periods, I hate it! Northern Bucks Co, Pa
Terry
 
The best thing you can do for such a large space like that is to section off a smaller space, maybe 16x20 with an 8 or 9' ceiling and heat that. You end up with one area of the shop that you are able to keep free of shelves, tools, storage, etc. Just a dedicated workspace that you can either be messy in cutting woodwork or painting without contaminating everything else in the shop. You can build permanent walls, use heavy lumber tarps suspended on a steel cable to make curtains, I have seen it done several ways.
I know some guys that spend so much time trying to heat their huge shop in the winter, they never get anywhere on their projects.
A guy needs a big shop because it ends up being a storage place for all kinds of things, but the actual work area doesn't have to be that big. I would rather have a warm small work space versus a cold huge storage building, however a man shouldn't have to choose between one or the other, he needs both.
 
25 below zero here this morning. My current shop is pretty small, 12 x 24 I just use a propane tank mounted heater. Usually does a great job, I can't even leave ot on very long when the temps are in the teens. 100# Bottle of propane lasts about 2 years.
But I am also insulated pretty well.
 
For those of you that can not heat the shop continusly tank an old refridgeator. jump the light switch but in a 50 wat bulb and it will keep freezable items from frezzing.

just a thought
 
I have a small diesel Salamander I got from Home Depot/ Lowes for less than $100. I have a 40X40 shop with 10 foot height, no insulation. I start it about an hour before I go to the shop. I am usually very comfortable. If I run it a lot it will use 2-3 gallons of diesel a day. Another nice thing (rather than wood) when I leave the shop, the fire is out.
 
This coming fall I'm planning on sectioning off a small area of my detached garage to make a 9x18 heated area for my Model A. I've been wondering about the same thing, how to heat it. I don't want it heated 24/7, just heated when I want to work out there. The problem I see with small open flame heating systems is that the water vapor created by the heater with condense on anything still cold in the room. Is there a small propane heating system that is similar to a hot air furnace where there is an exhaust for the water vapor.
 
"Have a well insulated shop with central heat and air, uses natural gas. I never turn the heat off in the winter, I just turn it down when I am not in the shop."

Ditto. I use a high fan to blow the heat to the floor. Main shop is 30x30. Other areas are car and parts storage

Back east I used a waste oil burner I made and got used motor oil, used cooking oil, etc from any place I could

"The problem I see with small open flame heating systems is that the water vapor created by the heater with condense on anything still cold in the room."

This is a very real issue that must be dealt with
 
Old gas fired forced air furnace in shop/barn with sectioned off partitions/rooms. Only used when needed.
 
I do most of my own A work in my cellar.I mostly heat the house with wood,and the stove is down there.Once the concrete is warm it is just a matter of keeping it warm for the winter.I've been down with the flu,and didn't have the energy to haul wood in,so I let the oil take over.The stove was out for 3 days and I restarted it a couple of days ago.It has been cooking away,and is taking a long time to warm the concrete up again.I heat my shop with waste oil,I bought a new commercial unit in 1986 that works pretty good.Those units were built with oil disposal in mind,not economy.The more they burned the better off the garages were.Oil is getting harder to come by now though.I have always had oil generated by trucks but things have changed.Just one guy here changed his oil at 10,000 miles.He runs about 150,000 a year,and his truck with filters holds 15 gallons.That was always 225 gallons for me and the furnace.His new truck holds seven gallons,and gets changed at 50,000 miles.Now I get 21 gallons and it is synthetic to boot.The furnace doesn't like synthetic.The computers have those trucks running so clean now the oil never soots up.
 
I've got my 40x98 shop very well insulated (R-65 in the ceiling) and real tight. It's kept at 50 degrees all the time with a propane furnace, but when I'm around I keep a wood furnace going, and that works real well. But the 3 overhead doors were a real problem leaking around the frame. I found some spring loaded hinges that completely solved that problem,so the shop is cheap to heat and always warm. If you let the temps. go up and down below freezing then there will be condensation issues. No good.
 
My garage is 30x40 not overly insulated but is fairly good . I use a buck stove and it does a good job heating the garage . In an 8 hour period I will Load it 3 to 4 times.
 
That is a sweet looking shop! Could sure use some of that heat here in OKC this morning. 5 degrees when I got up.

1930 coupe said:
Have a well insulated shop with central heat and air, uses natural gas. I never turn the heat off in the winter, I just turn it down when I am not in the shop.
Click to expand...
 
In my 12' X 24' garage I run a "Vintage" Siegler 400UR (Lear-Siegler), this would be considered an oil drip stove. There is a definite learning curve as to the operation of these drip stove, one can get themselves into trouble if not paying attention, especially during start-up.

My garage is also quite dated, but if I can get it started when the temperature is above about 20 degrees and let it run for a few days it will hold 55 - 60 F degrees even when it gets 20 or 30 F. below zero. If I start it much colder than that it doesn't quite get the chill out of the air.

When I get it tuned in just right I can get the oil consumption down to about 1 to 1.25 gallons a day. Usually I am limited to using #1 heating oil due to an outside tank, but if I can get away with burning #2 it is much more efficient.

Attached is a rendering from a sales catalog of the exact same stove as mine.

Darryl in Fairbanks
 

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