Heating new garage

[forgeblast]

I was also going to say use a three brick propane burner, you can put it on high to get the place warmed up and keep it on low to maintain the heat.

 

[90cummins]

90cummins, how much did you pay for the heater? Were do you live and how insulated is you 40x60? I live in Southern AL so I'd only need it for those really cold winter nights to keep shop around 50. The CB2800 max consumption is 2.0 GPH, what are you burning a month and at what temp are you keeping the shop? Even at 1/4 GPH that would be almost 200gal/month seems like a lot of waste oil to find/store.

I paid 5k+- new in 2005.
I live in the NE Ma.
My building is a fully insulated steel building with (2) 12x12 doors. I'll have to look at the hour meter to calculate the gallons used.
Tim

 

[George2615]

I insulated my garage when built so I'd be able to heat it when needed. I thought of a waste oil burner but they are rather expensive and no used ones were readily available in my area. I do a lot of oil changes on my own stuff but couldn't justify the waste oil burner purchase. I ended up buying a used mobile home furnace and set it up in my garage. I can run it on kerosene or #2 fuel stored in a 15 gallon plastic container and it does a great job keeping my garage warm when I need to use it. My total cost including exhaust duct piping was under $400.

 

[90cummins]

I paid 5k+- new in 2005.
I live in the NE Ma.
My building is a fully insulated steel building with (2) 12x12 doors. I'll have to look at the hour meter to calculate the gallons used.
Tim

I checked my records and on 3/5/2006 the hour meter was 34 hours.
5/1/2008 hours 487
1/29/2011 hours 993
4/24/2011 hours are now 1056
Fuel consumption of my furnace is 2 gallons per hour x 1056 = 2112 gallons used since installed.
You need to consider the BTU content of fuel when making your selection.
Propane has 90,000 BTU per gallon.
Diesel has 130,000 BTU per gallon.
#2 heating oil use to have 138,000 BTU per gallon.
Consider that while you may not be able to totally heat with waste oil you will reduce your heating bill and have no waste oil to dispose of.
Oil can be accumulated and is free, propane needs to be purchased.
As was said word gets around and friends will bring their oil to you if you want.
But only take oil from a trusted source. Water, antifreeze, brake fluid and cleaning chemicals can cause issues.
I have a 275 gallon tank that receives all oil so it can settle out. When the 250 gallon furnace tank gets low I run a pump that transfers the oil from the 275 to the furnace tank.
Tim