Install Radiant Tube Heater??

[EE_Bota]

Have these in all my buildings. Installed them myself. I duct outside air to them. Only way to go as far as I'm concerned. I have $1080 total cost in the one in my 42 X 45 and $1200 total in the one in my 54 X 83. Try doing that with floor heat. Easy to service but mine have never needed any.

Biggest tip is set the thermostat in the fall and don't touch it till spring. Pretty cheap comfortable heat, floor is warm, tools are warm.

Our factory was heated with them, and I thought they were such a waste because they did NOT duct in outside air. So a wonderful heating system always fouled up and stopped working due to clogged filters.

Done right, this would have been the best heat our factory could have had, but now the units are gone and we are back to "heating the air" and then letting dust collection send the heat to the sky.

 

[ray66v]

I have put in the modern light weight units, and worked on the old sch 40 pipe Co-Ray-Vac systems.

As mentioned, they are very efficient, and very explosion proof if installed with intakes to the outside.

Much of the savings comes from the fact that the infrared aspect allows you to set the temperature much lower, still be comfortable.

If you intend to do a lot of heating, particularly in an application that would require opening the doors often, they will pay for themselves in fuel savings. Since your not heating the air, you don't loose all your heat when you open the doors.

Most systems now use line voltage thermostats. They don't always hold a temperature very well. But, newer line voltage thermostats are getting better.

Modern units are easily installed by one man who is creative.

The draw back in the past has been having a high enough ceiling, (14' or more), so that you don't cook, if your working near the burner. They now have "low intensity" units, that allow their use, even in a garage.

Size it carefully. Installing a unit that is too large can also cause heating that is too intense to work near. It's better to go with the next size down, if you not sure which one to get.

 

[monteu]

How big of one do I need in NE Kansas? I did a little checking and I was told 100,000-125,000 BTU. The problem is the way my lights and overhead door are positioned it does not look like I can get one longer than 20 ft. That limits me to 75,000 to 80,000. Is there a calculator somewhere to figure this out? thanks

 

[ray66v]

How big of one do I need in NE Kansas? I did a little checking and I was told 100,000-125,000 BTU. The problem is the way my lights and overhead door are positioned it does not look like I can get one longer than 20 ft. That limits me to 75,000 to 80,000. Is there a calculator somewhere to figure this out? thanks

The calculations for this kind of system can get really complicated. Our supplier always did a complete analysis. Have several different suppliers do that for you. A rule of thumb is 12% less size than a forced air system. But, factors like how fast you need to warm the space, and night time set back need to be considered. If you going to heat it all the time, you can get away with a smaller system.

We had a body shop that was originally 40x80x14, It had a "U" shaped system spec'd for it with (2) 80k btu burners. Then, we added 32 ft to the building, and never added anything to the heating system, it was still fine.

A "U" shaped system is the ideal setup. With that, you could have more than 20 ft of pipe. The more pipe you have, the more heat you get out of the money you spent for gas.

I don't know about Kansas, or how well insulated your building is, but I would be surprised if you needed 80k, and would not be surprised if you could use less.

Keep in mind, you can also mount some systems on the wall if necessary.