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Cold weather is coming, how will you heat your shop?
- Thread starter Nelson
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2010
- Messages
- 466
Pellet stove.
I have noticed some refer to the size of their shop in square feet. I guess that's ok, but it might be more informative if you were using cubic feet, after all you do have to heat the air above the floor too. My shop has 10' sidewalls and a 16' foot peak so my shop is 16,640 cu ft. I hope I'm not splitting hairs here but my square footage is only 1280 sq ft. so that is a whole lot more space to heat. It does take a while with the pellet stove to get the temp up.
Pat
I have noticed some refer to the size of their shop in square feet. I guess that's ok, but it might be more informative if you were using cubic feet, after all you do have to heat the air above the floor too. My shop has 10' sidewalls and a 16' foot peak so my shop is 16,640 cu ft. I hope I'm not splitting hairs here but my square footage is only 1280 sq ft. so that is a whole lot more space to heat. It does take a while with the pellet stove to get the temp up.
Pat
I have a 34x22 shop in a seperate building. It has natural gas, so a ceiling mounted furnace does a good job. I modified an old style manual thermostat to allow it to be set to about 4C (38F). Most thermostats don't allow a setting below about 15C (50F). I leave it there most of the time. When I go into the shop I turn it up and it is comfortable in less than 30 minutes. Keeping everything above freezing avoids most condensation issues and machine rust (our climate is dry anyway), and keeps the tools and floor comfortable enough to use.
The current shop is divided into two by a wall, with 3.5" of insulation in the insulated half. I'm in the process of upgrading the unheated portion to 6" of insulation (12" in the ceiling) so I can remove the dividing wall and use the full shop. the plan for next year is to upgrade the other half to 6" of insulation as well.
I didn't build the shop. We moved here about 18 months ago. If it was up to me, I would have used a heated floor. the shops I've seen with heated floors are very comfortable to work in.
The current shop is divided into two by a wall, with 3.5" of insulation in the insulated half. I'm in the process of upgrading the unheated portion to 6" of insulation (12" in the ceiling) so I can remove the dividing wall and use the full shop. the plan for next year is to upgrade the other half to 6" of insulation as well.
I didn't build the shop. We moved here about 18 months ago. If it was up to me, I would have used a heated floor. the shops I've seen with heated floors are very comfortable to work in.
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2011
- Messages
- 121
Hi folks.
3 years ago I sold my shop/store in town and semi retired. This allowed me to build a new shop beside our home out in the country on 6 acres of land. I spent some time planning this shop which is basically 40' x 48' with 14' sealing and an 8' out by 12' lean-to section. This where my water and heating system is. I super insulated, 6" fiberglass bats in the walls 12" blown in on the sealing and 2" hi density foam under the floor.
I then installed the tubing for in floor radiant heating and using a 40 gal. propane hot water heater. This way I also had warm water for washing up etc. although I turn it off once the warm weather arrives. I have three 2' x 6' thermo-pane windows on both sides just below the roof. The one side faces south so lets in some solar heat in winter but not much at all when the sun is high in the summer. I also built a 36' x 4' solar greenhouse along the south wall. Last winter I did not have the roof insulated yet, you could actually see out under the ribs in the steel. Still on a good sunny day and temp. near 0 the temp. inside would get up to 90 degrees. At the east end I have a door and about 15' from the other end we have a 12" hole in the wall near the sealing. A fan will be installed there as soon as I find a suitable thermostat that can read the differential between the shop temperature and the greenhouse temp. For now I leave the door open when the sun is out. Although we have had night time temp. of near freezing the temp. in the shop has not dipped below 50 degrees yet. In the summer the shop stays cool as if air conditioned even with outside temp. above 90 it seldom gets much above 70 in there unless you throw the big doors open. The beauty about the in-floor radiant heat is that, when you throw the big door open to take the tractor or fork lift out to plow snow or load Evapo-Rust and you turn the thermostat off and leave it off for about an hour after you brought every thing back an and closed the door. the heat will radiate from the floor and will bring the temp. back up to within about 2 degrees of where it was before you shut the heat off. This way it takes very little from the heater to get back up to normal.
The greenhouse will be getting some 55 gal. drums of water painted black, probably about a dozen or so to help hold the heat over night. The inside wall also has black steel on it to help draw the heat. We have just recently had the greenhouse insulated with sprayed on foam which sealed all the air leaks and you can already feel the difference. Even on a mild cloudy day you can feel it warming up. You can see the rest of the sop pictures in my photo album from start to finish.
3 years ago I sold my shop/store in town and semi retired. This allowed me to build a new shop beside our home out in the country on 6 acres of land. I spent some time planning this shop which is basically 40' x 48' with 14' sealing and an 8' out by 12' lean-to section. This where my water and heating system is. I super insulated, 6" fiberglass bats in the walls 12" blown in on the sealing and 2" hi density foam under the floor.
I then installed the tubing for in floor radiant heating and using a 40 gal. propane hot water heater. This way I also had warm water for washing up etc. although I turn it off once the warm weather arrives. I have three 2' x 6' thermo-pane windows on both sides just below the roof. The one side faces south so lets in some solar heat in winter but not much at all when the sun is high in the summer. I also built a 36' x 4' solar greenhouse along the south wall. Last winter I did not have the roof insulated yet, you could actually see out under the ribs in the steel. Still on a good sunny day and temp. near 0 the temp. inside would get up to 90 degrees. At the east end I have a door and about 15' from the other end we have a 12" hole in the wall near the sealing. A fan will be installed there as soon as I find a suitable thermostat that can read the differential between the shop temperature and the greenhouse temp. For now I leave the door open when the sun is out. Although we have had night time temp. of near freezing the temp. in the shop has not dipped below 50 degrees yet. In the summer the shop stays cool as if air conditioned even with outside temp. above 90 it seldom gets much above 70 in there unless you throw the big doors open. The beauty about the in-floor radiant heat is that, when you throw the big door open to take the tractor or fork lift out to plow snow or load Evapo-Rust and you turn the thermostat off and leave it off for about an hour after you brought every thing back an and closed the door. the heat will radiate from the floor and will bring the temp. back up to within about 2 degrees of where it was before you shut the heat off. This way it takes very little from the heater to get back up to normal.
The greenhouse will be getting some 55 gal. drums of water painted black, probably about a dozen or so to help hold the heat over night. The inside wall also has black steel on it to help draw the heat. We have just recently had the greenhouse insulated with sprayed on foam which sealed all the air leaks and you can already feel the difference. Even on a mild cloudy day you can feel it warming up. You can see the rest of the sop pictures in my photo album from start to finish.
B
bvd1940
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Well it went down into the teens F last night and gunna get about 12 Deg F tonight 
and that new furnace sure made it nice working in the shop.
I work in my tee shirt now, had to drop the front knuckle on my 4 wheel drive tractor and it was real nice not having to bundle up:biggrin:
Had our first snow and expecting more by weeks end:angry: no going south this winter dammmmmmmmmmm.
Bill in SE Idaho
and that new furnace sure made it nice working in the shop.I work in my tee shirt now, had to drop the front knuckle on my 4 wheel drive tractor and it was real nice not having to bundle up:biggrin:
Had our first snow and expecting more by weeks end:angry: no going south this winter dammmmmmmmmmm.
Bill in SE Idaho
I have an old oak stove in my 28' x 32' stand alone shop/garage. It will turn dead of winter early morning temps in the teens (Fahrenheit)into the upper 50s once it gets going, which is comfortable enough for me. If I would insulate the building it would certainly do a lot better with a lot less wood but I have not gotten to that point yet. Trouble is if I want to do a little work in the evenings its takes too long to warm things up. It’s nice if I’m going to be out there all day but almost useless for a couple of hours after work. I should insulate and maybe change to a pellet stove…
Endmill,
Is wood the only heat source and if so how long does it take to warm things up once the fire is lit?
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2010
- Messages
- 937
I installed a 5000 watt office trailer heater in my shop. The house and hay shed are less than 30 feet from the shop so am hesitant to burn wood. The heat tends to stay near the ceiling so I hung a circulating fan upside down on a rotating base to direct the warm air down and towards the work area. The heater is thermostat controlled and the whole thing is turned on at the circut breaker panel.
I have noticed the thermal expansion on projects and will let them set overnight then make a finishing pass in the morning. It goes just the opposite in the winter as we have a few below zero nights.
Ray
I have noticed the thermal expansion on projects and will let them set overnight then make a finishing pass in the morning. It goes just the opposite in the winter as we have a few below zero nights.
Ray
Shop is in my basement which is temperature controlled with the rest of the house!
Cool in summer, warm in winter!
Have had no humidity issues or rust on anything.
The only issue i have had is buying tools in the winter and transporting them home.
By the time they are out of the car, into the unheated garage and into the basement they start to sweat a bit.
Just have to keep an eye on them and dry them off and ensure everything is sprayed down well with WD-40.
Once they warm up i can clean them up and reassemble.
Andrew
Cool in summer, warm in winter!
Have had no humidity issues or rust on anything.
The only issue i have had is buying tools in the winter and transporting them home.
By the time they are out of the car, into the unheated garage and into the basement they start to sweat a bit.
Just have to keep an eye on them and dry them off and ensure everything is sprayed down well with WD-40.
Once they warm up i can clean them up and reassemble.
Andrew
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