Hi Everyone
Many years ago when I was a teenager growing up in Maine, a buddy needed some work done on his car so we went to Bob's garage. Bob had a pretty good sized shop( about 2000 sq. ft). No Insulation, high ceilings and being in Maine in the middle of January( and about 20 degrees) I figured would be pretty cold.
We went into the garage and there was Bob under a car. He slid out to greet us and was wearing a t-shirt. I commented on how warm it was in the shop and he pointed to his home-made heating system in the corner. Basically what he had was an old 50 gallon electric water heater piped into a car radiator mounted on the top with a squirrel cage fan blowing air through the radiator. A small electric pump circulated the water through the system.
I have kept this memory in the back of my mind through the years figuring that some day I would like to build one for my own shop as it seemed to work pretty good. So after working in my shop for 10+ years with no real heat and not taking on as much work as I'd like because of the cold, I bit the bullet and put the heating system together.
I built the back addition to the shop a few years ago but had to build the steps and door .
The electrical panel is right next to the addition so getting the power for the heating system is no problem.
I piped in a circuit for the light and a general use outlet .For the heating system I needed a 30 amp 220v circuit for the water heater, a 20 amp 220v circuit for the air handler and a 20 amp 110v circuit for the pump so I ran a 3/4" conduit from the panel to where the system would be located.
I kept the air handler from when we had to get a new system for the house but did not need the a/c coil or the heat strips so I stripped them from the unit only leaving the squirrel cage fan and the electrical controls.
In order to make my heating system work I had to rewire the old control circuit so when the thermostat calls for heat, the fan and the circulating pump come on to circulate antifreeze through the radiator. I used the auxiliary heat relay to turn on the outlet that the pump is plugged into. I bought a radiator, a pump and the water heater plus all associated copper piping, fittings and sheet metal for the duct work and put it all together.
The little red valve on the top of the water heater was installed with a short piece of pipe to allow me to fill the water heater .
On the inside of the shop you can see the supply duct on the top and the return duct on the bottom. I know I will be changing and or cleaning the filter frequently so I made it easily accessible.
I put the whole system on a pressure test and everything is good to go. I still have to add the 40 gallons of antifreeze and hopefully will have some heat so I can get some woodworking done.
Mike
Many years ago when I was a teenager growing up in Maine, a buddy needed some work done on his car so we went to Bob's garage. Bob had a pretty good sized shop( about 2000 sq. ft). No Insulation, high ceilings and being in Maine in the middle of January( and about 20 degrees) I figured would be pretty cold.
We went into the garage and there was Bob under a car. He slid out to greet us and was wearing a t-shirt. I commented on how warm it was in the shop and he pointed to his home-made heating system in the corner. Basically what he had was an old 50 gallon electric water heater piped into a car radiator mounted on the top with a squirrel cage fan blowing air through the radiator. A small electric pump circulated the water through the system.
I have kept this memory in the back of my mind through the years figuring that some day I would like to build one for my own shop as it seemed to work pretty good. So after working in my shop for 10+ years with no real heat and not taking on as much work as I'd like because of the cold, I bit the bullet and put the heating system together.
I built the back addition to the shop a few years ago but had to build the steps and door .
The electrical panel is right next to the addition so getting the power for the heating system is no problem.
I piped in a circuit for the light and a general use outlet .For the heating system I needed a 30 amp 220v circuit for the water heater, a 20 amp 220v circuit for the air handler and a 20 amp 110v circuit for the pump so I ran a 3/4" conduit from the panel to where the system would be located.
I kept the air handler from when we had to get a new system for the house but did not need the a/c coil or the heat strips so I stripped them from the unit only leaving the squirrel cage fan and the electrical controls.
In order to make my heating system work I had to rewire the old control circuit so when the thermostat calls for heat, the fan and the circulating pump come on to circulate antifreeze through the radiator. I used the auxiliary heat relay to turn on the outlet that the pump is plugged into. I bought a radiator, a pump and the water heater plus all associated copper piping, fittings and sheet metal for the duct work and put it all together.
The little red valve on the top of the water heater was installed with a short piece of pipe to allow me to fill the water heater .
On the inside of the shop you can see the supply duct on the top and the return duct on the bottom. I know I will be changing and or cleaning the filter frequently so I made it easily accessible.
I put the whole system on a pressure test and everything is good to go. I still have to add the 40 gallons of antifreeze and hopefully will have some heat so I can get some woodworking done.
Mike