Garage/Shop Heater Installs?

[bigtiller]

Yes. I know. It's getting R19 walls and R30 in the ceiling. One heating unit will be simpler, but I was concerned about spreading the heat all around as even as possible. It's in North Central Iowa, so it does get cold there...

Why are you planning on an R30 in the ceiling?
If I were in Green Ia., I would be trying for an R-value of 50 or 60. That's pretty far north for an R30.

 

[PEJ5]

You might want to consider a bit more up top. I just blew in R60 in my attic and it only cost me CDN$1.10 per sq ft. I have a second floor on my garage that will become living space. The walls upstairs are R30, but the garage level walls are only R22. I do not plan to keep the garage level very warm so there were diminishing returns on going higher...so far. The garage ceiling will soon be R45 blown cellulose. It is a work in progress.

I did not get much construction work done today because I "had" to clear the driveway with the tractor and blower. . Woohoo - tractor time.

Have fun with your project.

 

[dragoneggs]

You might want to consider a bit more up top. I just blew in R60 in my attic and it only cost me CDN$1.10 per sq ft. I have a second floor on my garage that will become living space. The walls upstairs are R30, but the garage level walls are only R22. I do not plan to keep the garage level very warm so there were diminishing returns on going higher...so far. The garage ceiling will soon be R45 blown cellulose. It is a work in progress.

I did not get much construction work done today because I "had" to clear the driveway with the tractor and blower. . Woohoo - tractor time.

Have fun with your project.

That sounds quite a bit lower than when I priced it out. Did you blow it in yourself? What material did you use? My Home Depot price seems a fair amount higher.

 

[gstrom99]

With the size and cost you are talking about, what about an 80K or 100K home 95% furnace? That would be an easy install and you could add basic ductwork to get good distribution.

That's what I was going to consider next. I would have not problem going with a downdraft unit and running ductwork along the walls...

 

[gstrom99]

Why are you planning on an R30 in the ceiling?
If I were in Green Ia., I would be trying for an R-value of 50 or 60. That's pretty far north for an R30.

Well, it's inside my pole barn, but with the ceiling/joists being 24" and exposed, I can blow in a bunch or use multiple batt layers, before I put a "floor" on top. R50 or R60 would be great. I hadn't been out there since New Year's day and last Saturday I drove in okay with the Jeep and trailer, but managed to get the tractor stuck real quick when starting to clear the drive. The mower deck got me hung up... I'll be taking the deck off for winter plow work and I ordered chains yesterday.

 

[dragoneggs]

Well, it's inside my pole barn, but with the ceiling/joists being 24" and exposed, I can blow in a bunch or use multiple batt layers, before I put a "floor" on top. R50 or R60 would be great.

I like the idea of laying in rolls of batting vs. blowing it in so it can be moved if I have to crawl around and do some wiring or something, but when I priced it out at Home Depot it seemed quite a bit more expensive. :smiley_aafz:

 

[PEJ5]

That sounds quite a bit lower than when I priced it out. Did you blow it in yourself? What material did you use? My Home Depot price seems a fair amount higher.

I blew in Thermoshield cellulose. I live in Canada so not sure what USA stores offer. Home Depot price is 10.60 per bag - 10% when buying more than 30 bags + 15% tax. A bag covers 11.9 sq.ft. at R60 so that works out to $1 per sq.ft. but I blew it in slightly thicker because it is not a perfect science when you are in a cloud of dust. HD did not have much stock so I actually bought from Kent building supplies for about the same cost. Blowing machine was free to use.
I chose cellulose because it is somewhat rodent proof - mice do not like the fireproofing content. Also, cellulose settles and I think that is better than Corning. Lots of differing opinions on these points so no need to discuss.
I built a walking platform in my attic; 2 rows of 1x6 planks at 24" high so I can crawl around above the insulation as required. Of course the attic hatch has 22" high walls so the 18.5" of insulation stays put.
The sound proofing is amazing compared to when I just had the vapour barrier and strapping. It should be cozy.

 

[LouNY]

I insulated my garage (workshop) to the same standards as the house. (walls=R20, ceiling =R40) vapor barrier covered by gyprock.
For the garage door I added 2" of HD foam panels.
My heater is a simple construction heater slung from the ceiling with the thermostat portion bypassed but used a remote thermostat across the shop so as to sense the cold spot.

My take is watts are watts no matter how you produce them and watts = BTU's=heat.
Even light bulbs produce BTU's, ergo heat.
Now I do keep the heat low and only boost it if I'm onto a project.
My main interest is to not freeze when collecting a tool or onto a project.
For a project I simply turn up the heat for the duration.

Works 4 me!

There is no magic. Watts=heat no matter how much U pay for a fancy heater. OK maybe add a solid state thermostat and there will be less highs and lows but it still uses the same amps KW/hrs to heat that shop.

For straight resistive electric heaters your pretty close, once you head into heat pumps doesn't work that way.

 

[John_Mc]

Yes. I know. It's getting R19 walls and R30 in the ceiling. One heating unit will be simpler, but I was concerned about spreading the heat all around as even as possible. It's in North Central Iowa, so it does get cold there...

Insulating and sealing air leaks is one of the best ways to assure even temperature. You can do it by simply overwhelming the space with lots of heat, but simply insulating well and sealing off air leaks will make a big difference. Our 24/26 workshop with 10' ceilings is heated most of the time by a 5 or 6000 BTU electric space heater. (looks like an old radiator. no circulating fan) The temperature is remarkably even, but it won't quite keep up if the temperature really dips, and it does take some time to warm the room up from 40˚F where we keep it when not actively in use. On those occasions, we either kick on a second heater for run a small portable propane heater. We've never run into a situation where running the "Big Buddy" portable propane heater by itself on the medium setting (9000 BTUs) has a problem keeping a steady temperature (we'll kick it into high = 18,000 BTU to bring the room up from cold, but other than that, medium setting is plenty even when it's 0˚F and windy out). We don't tend to run off that a lot, since it put too much moisture in the room when run continually.

The shop is 2x6 construction in the walls, with sprayed in foam for insulation (good R-value with no gaps, while also providing excellent sealing against drafts). The foam is also sprayed in at least 6" deep on top of the ceiling (it might be more, I'd have to check to be sure). On the other hand, we're not trying to keep it toasty in there: 65˚F is plenty for my wife (I prefer even a bit cooler myself when working). One of these days, we'll put a permanent heating system in there.

 

[ovrszd]

John, your building is definitely sealed tightly with no air transfer.

In regards to Spray foam (closed cell). It has an R value of 6-7 per inch. 95% of it's R value is gained in the first two inches. So in a 5.5" wall you have somewhere around R value 17. If you were after R value you would have been better served by spraying an inch to seal the building, then blowing "wet" cellulose or batt fiberglas.

Batt 6" fiberglass would have added R value 19.