Shop Heater

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patlaw

Mike
Corporate Member
My shop is in my two-car garage. The outside is brick veneer. I'm almost positive there is no insulation in the walls, which are covered with drywall. When the temperature gets below 40, unless I'm moving a lot, it's hard to stay out there long. Does anyone have a thought as to how well this heater would work in this situation. I wonder how long this thing would run at full blast on a 20 pound cylinder.

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Propane Heater

EDITED TO ADD: The picture is smaller than 800x600, but it's still not showing up.
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
For fire safety reasons, I avoid using any kind of heater in my wood shop that has surfaces that get hotter than about 140 degrees. My shop is also in a separate building for this and to keep my sawdust out of and away from my house. My former shop was in the basement of my home, and I vowed that I would never have a shop under or attached to my home again. I do use an oil filled electric radiator in the shop occasionally on the coldest days when the heat pump can't quite keep it comfortable as no surface of it ever gets anywhere near the 140 degree level.

That heater in your links is intended for outdoor use. Burning propane un-vented indoors is going to add a huge quantity of moisture to your shop air since the main byproduct of burning propane is water vapor. A heater that is not designed for indoor use is also going to add undesirable things like carbon monoxide to the air. My shop is heated and cooled with a heat pump for these reasons - no surfaces above 140 degrees, no open flames, no added moisture to the air, and no harmful carbon monoxide or other undesirable combustion byproducts either.

Do yourself a big favor health and safety wise. Buy a safe heater and some insulation for your shop.

Charley
 

Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
Mike, if you plan to stay in the house, I would second Charley's suggestions. Put in an appropriate and safe heater and insulate the walls and ceiling. I put in a 45,000 BTU Hot Dawg-style heater for my shop. I bet there you could get by with a 30,000 BTU unit just fine. Power vented outside and a garage t-stat that goes down to about 40°.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
The problem with a fuel heater is moisture content, as it is a byproduct and dumped in the shop.

My old shop was a big attached two car garage and I got by with opening the door to the house and the AC did a reasonable job. However, when curing stuff such as conversion varnish after sprayed I used a 240V heater once, it worked pretty good, with a thermostat cycling on and off.

This is the unit I used and it did a pretty good job. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000DZFZ8Y/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don't need it any longer as the new shop is conditioned. Will let it go for $40, or make me an offer, it is still in it's original packaging box.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
I have a 60,000 BTU output commercial heater (on our home propane supply) in an uninsulated 24 x 26 garage with 10' ceilings. It's suspended from the ceiling and the exhaust is vented through the garage roof so no carbon monoxide or water vapor inside). I should have insulated the garage years ago but it's a major renovation to do it now.
 

Pop Golden

New User
Pop
HVAC - I use a small natural gas heater when the weather gets really cold. It's run at a very low level. My main heat & cooling comes from the HVAC unit located in the basement with my shop. My other secret weapon is the way my shop is orientated. In spring and fall my garage door & back door create a light breeze through the shop. I don't do ant finish work in my shop. I spent a few years with the fire dept. and I'm well aware of what those vapors can do. I know that my set up is of little value to your situation. I have seen wood heaters, window AC heater units, gas heaters & just about anything you can imagine. For gosh sake be very very careful with CO. You can't smell it, you can't feel it until you're in trouble. It's mean stuff. I'll kill you.

Pop

 

ehpoole

Moderator
Ethan
If you are using any sort of fuel based heater then you will want one that is designed to shut down when the oxygen levels fall too low (such will only be found on some indoor style heaters as inadequate oxygen and CO production are not ordinarily concerns in outdoor usage). This ensures that the heater shuts down before it is likely to produce any meaningful amount of carbon monoxide if the oxygen level in the room falls dangerously low (at which point the risk of incomplete combustion and, thus, carbon monoxide production increase significantly since CO is produced as the result of incomplete combustion).

If you are using a propane or oil based heater then it is preferable to use such only as a booster for initial heating before you get started, then use either electric strip heat or a heat pump to keep things warmed after you get the shop up to temperature. This reduces the total amount of moisture you add to the air by avoiding a long duration fuel burn plus it avoids any open flames while you are doing work in the shop as both large dust clouds as well as flammable vapors are a real risk in a shop environment. Or you can go bigger and install a propane/natural gas or oil furnace (check with insurance before installing oil these days) with an enclosed/isolated combustion chamber isolated from your shop environment, though such requires ducting for fresh air intake and exhaust but it does offer the advantage of full time heating if you do not want electric strip or heat pump as a heat source — but such heaters are much safer alternatives (versus exposed flame) since their flame is never exposed to your shop air/environment, instead they use a heat exchanger to transfer the heat to your shop.

Regardless of what you do, you are going to want to insulate your garage door and install weather stripping around all doors (garage door, entry doors, attic access, windows, etc.) to reduce undesirable air exchanges that are going to cost you a lot of precious heat. You will also want to insulate your ceiling since that area should be accessible to you. If you will be spending a lot of time in your shop over the years then it may even be worth opening the walls to insulate them as it will save money over the long haul if you will be heating or cooling the shop on very many days in a year and will be staying put in that house for some time (you may be able to determine if your walls have insulation by inspecting through an existing switch or receptacle box as they are seldom fitted tightly to the drywall, or you can drill a small inspection hole and then spackle over it afterwards — any insulation will usually get caught up in your drill bit when you pull it out).

Good luck!
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
And every one of these heaters suggested so far gets hot enough to ignite saw dust, thus it is a fire hazard.

Charley
 

Richo B

Richo
Senior User
And every one of these heaters suggested so far gets hot enough to ignite saw dust, thus it is a fire hazard.

Charley

Depending on how much sawdust you generate and how clean you keep your shop it may not be. I keep my shop pretty clean and don't put out anywhere near the amount of sawdust that others do. So in my case my electric heater is great for my needs and not a fire hazard because I run it far away from the work area. But every shop is different.
 

nn4jw

New User
Jim
I use a single 240v 19,400 BTU electric heater in my 24x24 uninsulated garage shop. Technically there is some amount of insulation value under the vinyl siding but it's not a lot. I have a second one I need to run a circuit for, but the one I do have wired up does a pretty good job except on the coldest of days when I'm not usually in the mood to trudge out to the shop anyway.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200395481_200395481

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If it's been a while since I've used it I blow any dust out of it, but I don't really make a lot of sawdust in the vicinity of the heater anyway.
 

Pop Golden

New User
Pop
I'll kill you - - It'll kill you. Fumble fingers strike again. Sorry folks I'm not that harsh.

Pop
:XXcompute
 

RobS.

Robert Slone
Senior User
nn4jw;6142 [URL said:
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200395481_200395481[/URL]

700095_200x200.jpg


I have one of these you can have for free plus the receptacle and about 45' of wire. I bought it years ago to heat my barn/shop but it does not do well. My barn is just tin nailed to the studs with no insulation. I only used it a couple of times and it's been sitting in the barn for several years. I'm about an hour from Cary.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
My 14x24 foot shop is insulated but has no heat or cooling. It is under finished space but I do not normally heat or cool those rooms - I use them if they kids are home. When the heat or AC is on above the shop, it stays pretty nice. When it's hot, I open the doors at each end of the long direction and the breeze makes it OK most of the time. So far, it hasn't been cold enough in there to bother me but was getting a little cool last night.

I also believe proper insulation is the right first step. My house is an old lake house that I've just about finished re-doing the interior of. One step was to get all the single insulated glass windows replaced with double insulated windows. The largest room of the house also had effectively an uninsulated ceiling due to improper insulation installation. I've also replaced all the exterior doors except for one and done a lot of sealing. Most recently I had the uninsulated floor covered in closed cell foam insulation. Prior to all these changes, the 3 ton heat pump for the first floor could neither heat or cool the space in the most extreme weather and I had bills as high as $450. With these changes, it stays whatever temperature I set and bills have not exceeded $250.

Moving back to my shop, I will probably put in a little 5,000 btu window unit for the extreme of the summer. I'm still not sure I need to do anything about the winter. Once you get the space insulated, it doesn't take a lot to move the temperature around and you might even find it stays OK without conditioning.
 

Raymond

Raymond
Staff member
Corporate Member
Mike, I have a two-car garage and I use half of it as my workshop. I did fully insulate my garage including the garage door (neither the door nor the walls were insulated when I bought it) and I use the following space heater during the winter. I go out set it to 70 degrees about 2 hours before I go out to work and shut it off for the next 4-6 hours and I work comfortably. During the winter I take all of my water based products inside to prevent them from freezing (just to be on the safe side).

https://www.lowes.com/pd/DeLonghi-1500-Watt-Oil-filled-Radiant-Electric-Space-Heater/1000107815

No fumes and no flammables - of course, no kids at home nor any pets, so that is not a worry. For $70, you don't have much invested and you can see if it works for you.
 

walnutjerry

Jerry
Senior User
Mike--------I just recently had a 2.5 ton heat pump serviced and turned on after sitting idle for several years because a lack of closed in boxing and overhead insulation being blown out of place when we had strong winds. I did have the heat strips wired to a switch between the thermostat and the air handler. Now the unit is only producing heat from the atmosphere until I flip the switch for more heat quicker. The next power bill should tell the story on efficiency. I have set the thermostat at 60 degrees which is plenty warm for working but probably not as warm as needed for finishing. Will let you know about cost factors later when I get another bill. It is a 32 x 50 block building with 10' ceiling BTW. May not be much help to you as far as my situation but insulation makes a world of difference and it can be blown in. Jerry
 
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