how do you heat your garage/ workshop

[diesel lover]

Just as the title says. I would like to see how you are heating your workshops. Its been -14 ｰF here. I would like to comfortably in my own garage. I'm about to buy a house.

In my parents 2 car deep garage we used a wood fireplace and a propane air forced heater/ salamander to "JumpStart" the temperatures to a comfortable level. After the high btu heater for a little while straight firewood heat maintains it for not much cost.

How do you guys heat? Thanks

 

[deerseeker001]

I do the same turn on the LP salamander face where i am working and then build fire in wood furnace.

 

[Western]

I got kinda lucky, I was at a guys place that had "junk" everywhere. I noticed an large propane heater, similar to the kind I have seen in orchards, he sold it to me for $25!!.

The best I have had was infrared ceiling mounted gas heaters. Ran them with a thermostat and supplied by 250 gallon LP tank. They sure aren't cheap though.

 

[kenmac]

I have a 4 ton NG forced air furnace that blows through duct work. I keep the thermostat set at 35-40 degrees just to keep water and anything else that can freeze even when I'm not working in there

 

[George2615]

I installed a used mobile home oil furnace in my garage. I use kerosene for fuel. Bought it cheap from a guy who services furnaces. Also have a salamander if needed but it's quite noisy when running.

 

[dave1949]

Be careful with wood burners in garages. Insurance companies may frown on that set-up, and it wouldn't be smart to hide the fact from them either.

My passive solar garage is heated with sunshine. It has a full earth berm on the north side and about 2/3 bermed on the west end. Eight big windows on the south side and an overhead door on the east end.

Even this winter with the cloudy and cold weather we've had, it stays above freezing (~40*F) overnight and gets up to 50-55 degrees on a sunny day. That's plenty warm for working in a pair of coveralls. I do have a ceiling-mounted 17K btu 230V electric heater if I would need more warmth. Pretty expensive to run that. Being retired, I just skip the cloudy days if it is too cold for comfort.

If you plan on doing finishing with paint, urethanes or varnish for example, you would want to keep the temperature above 55*F overnight most likely.

 

[Code54]

I have a ceiling mounted LP forced air unit (sort of like what a warehouse would have. I think it is 120000 btu's and have it hook to a thermostat. I mostly walk over when I get home, run it up to about 70, and in about an hour the 40x30 shop is mostly in the 60's (if its about 20 or more out). Works great - propane is not super cheap but it really

 

[timster2]

I have a 24 x 36 detached three car garage. Currently it is being heated with a wall mounted infra red propane heater. This is the second year and so far it has been working better than I expected. I have the heat set at about 42 and it has maintained the heat all winter. Temps here have dipped to -10 and no problems. I had plans of putting a larger heater, however, this is working out so the larger heater will wait until after I expand the garage.

 

[Rustyiron]

You can't beat radiant in slab heat! (Well Dave's passive solar might) My last shop was a ceiling hung Modine LP. With 16' ceilings all the heat went up to the ceiling and running the ceiling fans to push it down felt more like a cold draft. Opening one of the big garage doors would let all the heat out and recovery took for ever no matter how fast you opened & closed the doors. It is not complicated or very much more to install than a more conventional heating aproach to things and very comforable. There are considerations like the additonal cost, and they do not have a fast "response" time. That is you just need to set it and forget it for the heating season. It will not heat up Sat. morning for a weekend job.

 

[Toyboy]

Hydronic in concrete garage floor and baseboard upstairs on 2nd floor. Garage/shop has it's own boiler.

 

[Clint S]

For my 24/24 attached garage which is nicely insulated I run a salamander to get the temp up and then maintain it with an old gas grill I converted into a heater. The sali is too loud (and expensive) to run all the time. I try to do all the work I can in there When I have to work in the pole barn that is not insulated I start the wood stove, which barely helps and just blow the sali right on the the area I am working.

 

[grsthegreat]

i have a 125,000 btu propane furnace in my shop. the shop isnt insulated yet...but i plan on doing this over the summer. Im tired of it not being insulated.

when it was built the place was going to be storage only.

I also sometimes use the salamander heater to jump start the heating also. thats 225000 btu gets it up and hot fast.



For a 1-2 car garage i install lots of 5,000 watt electric heaters. these cost about $200 plus install and work ok as long as the garage is insulated. Not the cheapest thing to run, but ok if its only occasional use.

 

[Rustyiron]

Insulation is the gift that keeps on giving! Money well spent. (and should be spent before you start heating)
Got any snow out there yet Grsthegreat? or did your new front blower setup jinx you

 

[grsthegreat]

Insulation is the gift that keeps on giving! Money well spent. (and should be spent before you start heating)
Got any snow out there yet Grsthegreat? or did your new front blower setup jinx you

the front blower jinxed me again. only have used it 3 times this winter season. i removed the blower section from the front weeks ago and im running the bucket. I left the hydro pack and hoses hooked up...cause ya never know.

 

[Gunny]

I use a homemade wood stove, 1/4 steel with a small firebox to keep floorspace usage down, but my woodworking shop is insulated. I do need to add some double pane windows and get a better entrance door, but it works pretty well.

I usually get the fire started, then go back to the house and drink coffee while waiting for it to warm up. It's pretty easy during the day to occasionally add a couple of chunks to maintain it.

I've got an oil mobile home furnace and an electric mobile home furnace sitting in my storage building, but I just couldn't get myself to hook either one up when I've got so much firewood and having a wood stove in a woodworking shop makes sense to me, I've always got plenty of kindling to get a fire started.

 

[Ken45101]

My wood shop is in the basement and leaving the halogen lights on warms it up a bit.

My welding shop is a shed attached to the barn. I have a "tophat" type propane heater in it that brings up the temp fairly quickly but frankly I don't do much welding in the winter. That's more a warm weather thing when I can have the doors open for ventilation.

 

[dodge man]

Like Grsthegreat, I have one of those forced air heaters that is LP that mounts in the corner of my shop. Its 28'x30' and even on a really cold day it will warm it up from 45 to 65 degrees in just a few minutes. It doesn't take any duct work and is vented to the outside with a small flue. The only thing is it wouldn't work well in a large shop.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I keep a 1500 watt electric heater (small coil type) in the 10x12 bathroom of my shop next to the commode just to keep it from freezing. It supplies enough heat to my well insulated 30x30 shop to keep it comfortable to work in even on those 15F days we have had lately. I have a small catalytic propane heater that I keep in my house for emergency heat should we loose power.
I also run a little 1500 watt ceramic coil heater in my house. It is enough that the central HVAC unit wont come on very often even on the coldest days.
GOOD insulation is the key to easy heating.

 

[s219]

I have a "PTAC" unit on the wall of my 16x24 workshop, which is a walled off bay in our garage. It's the same thing you'd find in many hotel units -- basically a self contained heat pump that mounts in the wall. It's about 16" high and 48" long. Does AC in the summer and heat in the winter. Been working great so far. When we built, this was the best affordable option available for part time heating/cooling that was acceptable to the building inspector and insurance.

I normally set it to a nominal temperature -- like 55F in winter and 85F in summer, then crank it to a comfortable temperature when working in there.

The workshop is framed with 2x6 exterior walls, spray foam insulation, and blown cellulose. Despite having a garage door (R-20 insulated I believe), it stays cozy in there.

 

[rrrkkk]

In my 36x40x14 shop I use a 30' infrared tube heater hung from the ceiling. It's natural gas. Shop is insulated and I keep it at 50. It's sometimes pricey but it keeps the equipment including the motorhome warm and dry.