Shop heating advice?

[ericm979]

Ventless heaters put the water vapor generated by burning into the air. That may not be what you want.

Some folks with mini splits in wood shops have made a case holds furnace filters to filter the intake air on the mini split head. If you use enough filters it doesn't make the fan work too hard.

 

[John_Mc]

Ventless heaters put the water vapor generated by burning into the air. That may not be what you want.

Exactly why I am not considering ventless combustion heaters.

 

[4570Man]

I have one of these in my wood shop. I’ve never cleaned the dust out of it. I don’t remember the size but I think it’s 75,000 btu. It’s oversized for my insulated garage but I like the fact that it can warm it up in just a few minutes. It’s not oversized when I turn on my dust collector. I got tired of emptying it and vented it outside. That part of the plan worked great but it sucks the heat out. I’m a builder and I usually put one of these electric heaters in the garages. They work surprisingly well and I don’t insulate the garages unless the owner pays extra. The electric heat cost more than natural gas but the cost of entry is low. I can install the electric heater for $200 and the forced air natural gas probably cost $2000.

 

[John_Mc]

I was looking at some of those electric heaters online, since they are closer to the size I think we need. Have you found any brands in particular that you like?

 

[KennyG]

If you have adequate electrical service, electric resistance heat would be the cheapest to install, although not necessarily to run. You can get line voltage thermostats that will control down to 40 degrees or less. You can just wire them into a circuit to control outlets for the plug in heaters or install baseboard heat hard wired in. (Baseboards are usually 240 volt.) I think DeLonghi is the best portable heater, but the baseboards are pretty generic.

 

[John_Mc]

Probably not doing baseboard. To much stuff at floor level already. Probably have to go with a wall or ceiling mount

 

[4570Man]

I was looking at some of those electric heaters online, since they are closer to the size I think we need. Have you found any brands in particular that you like?

I buy the $100 ones. I’m sure there’s better options but I’ve never had a callback for the cheap ones.

 

[David in KY]

I had one of these little electric wall heaters (240V) in a 20'x40' insulated shop in Boise, ID. I left it on the lowest setting, which kept the shop at an even 50 degrees all winter long. I primarily wanted to keep paints from freezing, but I found it very comfortable to work in. Also, I could turn it up if needed to make it warmer, but rarely did.

 

[Sodo]

Probably too late for in-floor radiant heating. Which would be almost immune to dust.

I have a friend with radiant floor heating in his shop. He says it's a pleasure to take a nap on the cement floor under his truck.
He says cardboard boxes of raw steel parts on the floor do NOT rust at all, for YEARS.

I wonder if you could get a heatpump-water-heater that could collect its heat from outside the shop. And put coolant in the system, and tank. The ones I've seen are expected to operate inside living-spaces and may be unable to collect any heat when it's real cold outdoors.

 

[dadster4]

Would it be possible to run lines from your existing boiler to your shop? You can hang a hot water coil fan unit in the shop with no worries associated with combustion type heaters.