In floor heating vs. radiant vs. forced air in shop??

[Slackdaddy]

Are you going to live out there, as I used to do when I was younger or just use the shop now and then. That should answer the question.

Me. Heating a garage slab is for the filthy rich or hard core.

Mike

When I built my garage, heating the slab was the CHEAPEST way to go,
Not being a smart *****, but you need to run the #'s.

Slack

 

[zzvyb6]

My 30 x 50 shed is equipped for winter repair and hobby projects but its the temp of the tools that gets to me, not the air temp. What I do is to run a few beads from my welder onto a piece of railroad rail. Then I park the wrenches and parts on or near it. Having warm tools and thus hands and fingers is the best thing for me. I tend to use thin mechanics gloves to save my skin and normally these finger gloves make your hands even colder. The heated steel "toolbench" is sometimes a cheap but effective solution.

 

[ampsucker]

i'll just add my 2 pennies....

you have a couple of design considerations to consider that are probably tradeoffs.

first, how important is overall comfort to you? you'll definitely be more comfortable with in floor heat.

second, how often will you be in the building? if you are working in it every day, in floor heat will be not only comfortable but cost effective. if you are in it once a week, you'll be paying to heat the slab when not needed.

lastly, how much time do you have to build and do the work yourself or will you be paying somebody to do the work? makes a big difference on installed cost.

there are lots of hybrid solutions out there. personally, in our area (zone 5) with natural gas being our cheapest fuel source (besides wood), i'm going with IR gas fired plaque heater with thermostat control. i don't live in the barn, use it occasionally for all day projects and just want to keep it from freezing most of the time. no sense for me to heat the entire slab, even to 40 degrees (which in some areas, may be 60-70 degree delta or more over outside ambient) when all i really care about is the room where the water pipes come in.

the IR heaters give really quick "instant on" warm up as they heat objects, not the air. for occasional use, they are hard to beat on operating efficiency and installed cost.

as previously posted, the best investment is insulation and more insulation....

whatever you decide, you should run the numbers for your particular usage situation and location....

amp

 

[mike69440]

When I built my garage, heating the slab was the CHEAPEST way to go,
Not being a smart *****, but you need to run the #'s.

Slack

I don't know where land of the free is, but in live free or die country, a gas heater hung from the cieling will cost but a fraction of in slab heat, even if the house is set up for radiant heat.

If you did the work yourself, it would be closer.
I shopped and investigated my heating options. I have heat in the basement slab. Just the slab isulation material was $1800. the tubing an manifolds was +$2,500 plus labor.

Forgive my remark about the filty rich.
If I were planining on earing a living out of my basement Garage and the workshop above with drive on floor, I'd have expanded the scope of my radiant heat.

For project work, I'll rely on a pair of clean burning kerosene heaters. Later I can add propane space heaters hung from the ceiling. As long as my hands don't hurt from the cold, I can tolerate a lot.

 

[jgrreed]

My garage/workshop is very similar to yours, 32'x40', metal clad, 12'ceilings and a 10' garage door. Mine is insulated and drywalled with a concrete floor. I have a natural gas radiant direct vent wall heater. http://www.cozyheaters.com/pdfs/products/spec_sheets/DirectVent.pdf
I have to say that this heater was not properly sized for this shop space. The high ceilings seem to play a big factor. With the outside temperature at or near zero the inside temperature holds about 44 to 46 deg F. At 20 deg outside temperature it holds pretty well near 60 deg inside. If I use a fan above this heater it helps somewhat, but it is still too small. Unfortunately I was not in on the design phase of this building. I probably would of opted for some kind of a forced air heater, I am lucky enough to have free natural gas, so fuel consumption is not a limiting factor.
A good friend of mine put in an outside woodburner and in floor radiant heat. He did this after the fact and merely insulated over the concrete, laid his hose and built a wood floor over that. I have to say that the warm floors are nice and keep your feet warm all the time. He does have the same trouble with maintaining temperature in the extreme cold weather (probably due to the wood burning aspect, and the fact that the building is probably not insulated as well as it could be). I guess my point is, whatever you decide to use, make sure it is sized correctly for your space and make sure that your building is well insulated as mjncad pointed out. If I was building new I would probably look at in floor radiant heat very closely.

Mark

What??? How??? Can I get in on that??!!!!

-Jer.

 

[Slackdaddy]

I did build the garage myself - footers, block, slab, roof, etc.

The tubing from Radiantech cost about $250.00
The manifolds, pump, air purge, exp tank was about $220.00
Oil tank - free
oil fired water heater - 800.00

so I had about $1,270.00 in it.

I sold the place about 4 years ago, last I heard it was working fine.

Slack

 

[RonMar]

Jer
In doing some house plan research last night I came across this interesting link and thought of this forum thread. This gentelman put quite a lot of effort into a insulation research experiment when he layed the radiant floor in his dome home. He put in a bunch of below ground temperature sensors under varying insulation thickness and types. To these insulation methods, he attached the pex and poured 4" of concrete over the top. He has some temperature data posted at this link.

Radiant floor slab insulation test results - Bear Creek Dome

 

[polo1665]

What??? How??? Can I get in on that??!!!!

-Jer.

A perk of having oil wells on the property is natural gas at the well head. The deal is, I get free gas (up to 200,000 cuic feet). If I use more than that I pay at well head rate. Don't ask me what that rate is, I hope I never find out.
To get in on it you would have to let someone drill an oil well on your property.

Mark

 

[jgrreed]

Jer
In doing some house plan research last night I came across this interesting link and thought of this forum thread. This gentelman put quite a lot of effort into a insulation research experiment when he layed the radiant floor in his dome home. He put in a bunch of below ground temperature sensors under varying insulation thickness and types. To these insulation methods, he attached the pex and poured 4" of concrete over the top. He has some temperature data posted at this link.

Radiant floor slab insulation test results - Bear Creek Dome

Thanks for that!! That guy really thought it out!!

Looks like the bottom line is LOTS of rigid styrofoam insulation with vapor barrier below, then slab with PEX tubes to keep my little feet warm......

-Jer.

 

[jgrreed]

A perk of having oil wells on the property is natural gas at the well head. The deal is, I get free gas (up to 200,000 cuic feet). If I use more than that I pay at well head rate. Don't ask me what that rate is, I hope I never find out.
To get in on it you would have to let someone drill an oil well on your property.

Mark

Nice!! That's a good deal for you. There are thousands of wells around here and I've never heard of a company 'sharing' with the landowners. That must really contribute to your leasehold income. Is there not any issues with it not being 'refined' through a gas plant first?? Obviously not since your doing it...... just wondering the details of it.

-Jer.