Radiant quartz heaters

[Boondox]

Tapping the collective wisdom of TBN again. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In the middle of winter, regular maintenance of the tractor or car and truck can be downright painful! I back it into the garage, don as many layers as is humanly possible, but with metal so cold my bare hands freeze to it there is a huge temptation to put off preventive maintenance. Gloves don't always work, as it's difficult to pick up a small nut much less thread it onto a bolt with gloved hands. I have a propane heater, but don't use it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, all the heat goes straight up, so unless I'm standing right next to it I feel nothing at all. And secondly, open flame near gas and other petroleum products makes me nervous.

Lee Valley Tools has a two-foot long, ceiling mounted radiant quartz heater that is supposed to heat objects, not the air. I've seen something similar at Costco, a parabolic dish that really pumps out the heat, but the ceiling mount would be conveniently out of the way.

Any experience with this sort of unit?

Pete in the frozen North

 

[Inspector507]

Pete,
It's going to heat....some, but I doubt if 5K BTU will do much in a short time in an area like a garage. I may be wrong but, I think I'd look for a ceiling mount Unit heater, either Nat Gas or LP fired. Either way you do it, cold metal brought in from outside in the frozen North will take some time to heat up.

 

[_RaT_]

Pete, what are you talking about? It's not that cold in my shop, usually a long sleeve shirt will suffice. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I should think that puchasing a propane space heater would be far more advantageous. The ones that use 120 volts to run a fan work extremely well. The speed with which it heats and the directional ability of it is great. We use them in construction frequently. You do need a small amount of fresh air to feed the oxygen it consumes.

 

[Egon]

Pete:

The ferries on the Alskan Marine Highway had a solarium aft which was covered over but open on three sides. It was heated with overhead radiant heaters that did do a fair job.

This was the area where the poor people unable to afford a cabin rolled out thier sleeping bags.

Cold weather, cold tools and iron make it difficult to keep your fingers warm.

Remember changing a starter at - 20 F. Brrrrrrr!!!

Egon

 

[Boondox]

RaT -- I say this in the spirit of friendship, and remind you that I was a Californian until my escape eight years ago, but when the wind is howling and the entire world is covered in ice and snow...that small amount of fresh air needed by propane heaters is definitely begrudged here in Vermont! The idea here is to keep the warm air IN, and the winter OUT! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

My first winter here I valiantly tried to maintain my southern Cal habit of washing the car every week. In San Diego I'd wash the car and chamois it dry, then cruise around town before driving home. Tried that here at minus twenty. The car looked pretty good, but when I tried to dry it the chamois froze to the metal and I couldn't get it back till early March! My wife, whose family has been Vermonters since 1796, found this hysterically funny!

Pete

 

[Boondox]

Inspector507, thanks for responding. You've given so many of us such great advice over the years that I was particularly interested in your point of view. The problem with an LP fired unit is the garage is huge (3-bay), uninsulated, and you can see daylight between the planks that serve as siding. So whatever heat source I use will pretty much be on full blast as long as I'm out there. So I'm trying to figure out the most cost effective way to heat a very small area within that space.

I'm giving serious consideration to a small Modine LP unit in my woodshop, which is insulated and much smaller, but never thought about using one in the garage for fear of wasting gas trying to heat the universe. How efficient are those puppies?

Pete

 

[Inspector507]

Pete,
I had a Nat GAs fired unit at my old house. Was it efficient? Don't know....it put out heat though /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Currently I use an 80,000 BTU propane model whenever I'm out there working. I can see a lot of daylight myself. The garage does stay warm when it's on. I can work out there in shirt sleeves.
Now as far as the radiant heater......think of a Toaster/Broiler oven trying to heat your work area /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif The radiant heater will warm whatever it's aimed at and then the warmed item is supossed to warm the air somewhat. Picture your self leaning over the fender of the Dodge, the heater aimed at your back. Your back will be warm, but the front of you will still be cold and so will everything in the "shadow" your body creates.

 

[_RaT_]

Pete, interestingly, I just sent an message to 5030 explaining how Southern California and Northern California are two very different worlds. He was wondering if I had any issues with the fire and I mentioned that from where I am at, that is many hundreds of miles away. I have not even been to San Diego in all my years here in California.
I should think that for just heating a small work area rather then a space (as it does not sound as though your shop will heat anyway), a propane radiant heater would work well. Here in my area, no one uses electric heat, it's just way to costly, even for small portable heaters. Propane is the preferred way. I use a small variable heat output propane radiant heater. It works extremely well and the cost was right, $45 as I recall. It clamps right to the tank.

 

[kevincook]

I bought a kerosene heater about five years ago to heat my uninsulated garage so that I could work in there. I have found that the heater works well enough that I can usually just work in a long sleeve shirt. I also like the fact that I can aim the heat where I want it. If I'm working on something that won't fit all the way in the garage and the door is open I can get enough heat on me to make the job tolerable.

I saw these at Walmart the other day and the price was pretty reasonable. I think the kerosene heater will be much more economical to run than a propane heater unless you have a bulk propane tank and not just a 20# tank.

Reddy Heater

 

[Inspector507]

I've used those as well Kevin........I just can't get used to the kerosene fumes.

 

[kevincook]

Mine doesn't have any odor at all after about two minutes of running. Does yours have fumes longer than that?

Kevin

 

[_RaT_]

Thats right Kevin, I had a Kerosun heater that after it got fired up (outside), the fumes were non existent. When you turn it off you also need to take it outside. Start up and turn off were the only times it smelled. It worked well and lasted quite a while. Kerosene has skyrocketed in price around here now, I recall HD selling it for about $5/gal

The Reddy heater you show is the style I mentioned to Pete in his first post. I should think that even thought the idea is to keep the warm air in and the cold air out as he mentions and pretty much goes without saying, any fuel fed heater will require an oxygen source since it is the oxygen in the room they consume. In Pete's case, it sounds like there are plenty of sources for that. You can purchase a Reddy heater in Kerosene or Propane. The kerosene ones do tend to emit a bit more smell. The other drawback is they are quite noisy. At any rate, I should think far more cost effective then anything electric resistance heat offer's. The fan forced Reddy heaters are the standad in construction because of the enourmous BTU capabilities available. The homes I built in Maine had these available in the later months of consruction.

 

[BubbaJr]

Hi Pete,

I have a quartz radiant tube electric heater that works pretty well for what you are doing. This is the vertical style with 2 quartz tubes. The trick is to aim it at yourself and the project you are working on. Ideally you would have 2 of them, one on each side to heat you uniformly, but I have gotten along with just one very nicely. The bad part about a fixed unit is that it will usually be pointed where you aren't. The portable one you can position so it shines just where you want it.

I now have 2 LP radiant tube heaters in my barn, and they work great, so I don't very often use the other unit. But I have even worked outside in the winter (below zero - no wind) with the quartz tube heater, with satisfactory results.

Good Luck!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Pete,

Check out Reznor brand radiant heat tubes. We had a 32' set up on natural gas in an old block garage with three uninsulated overhead doors that were opened and closed quite a bit in a service garage situation. The heat tube was shielded to direct the heat and did a nice job. Working in there with long sleeves was no problem. We had the heat tube running along one long wall at the ceiling opposite the OH doors. The Reznors can be set to use natural gas or LP and can be run from maybe 20' up to hundreds of feet. They're real popular around here.

 

[alan40]

Hi Pete, I looked a Modine heaters then went with ADP basically the same unit only a little cheaper. My garage is insulated and the unit is 65000 BTU. Heats it up in a hurry and the cost is'nt that bad. Considering I can work in total comfort and my coffee won't freeze in 10 minutes. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Installed the heater myself but the gas company had to do the hook up. Ultramar sells Modine around here. Picked up my unit in Burlington.

 

[Egon]

Pete:

Have you considered tarping in a smaller area in the garage and then heating that area when working in the winter?

Egon

 

[Boondox]

Yes, that is an option and I actually did it one winter...but with everything on casters to roll around it became more of a pain than my comfort warranted.

Pete

 

[Boondox]

Gary -- Yesterday I walked into our local Costco and felt a huge blast of hot air. It was a Reznor heat tube over the main entrance. Those things really pump out the heat!!!

Pete

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Like I said, Pete... Those Reznor heat tubes are a good way to go. They're actually not that much money, either. I think they're a great way to go for a shop where you want heat NOW and don't want to wait for a forced air system to heat all of the air in the room.

 

[thcri]

Whtever you guys do, if it is infra-red make sure you have proper clearances to the products your working on. I have seen many products destroyed because of infra-red heaters. Anything plastic will be gone in no time at all. Fiberglass will also be affected by it. You can't find a nice heat (other than in-floor) you just have to be careful.

murph