It's gonna get cold!

[Batmanacw]

There is a solar salesman in my business networking group, he mentioned he has a client that was spending about $125/month heating his pool and bought a few panels for the roof of the pool cabana. I know solar is not as efficient in the winter, but would something like that work for the shop? Might be able to hook up directly to a resistance type heater to keep it cheap.

Long term a mini split is a really good option. I'll end up spending $250 to $300 on resistance heating in the shop for the year. A four year payback on a mini split isn't bad but I'm not going broke as it is.

 

[woodchucker]

Those torpedo heaters work. Lol.

I have a small and tightly sealed shop so I only use electric heat in the main shop. I'm avoiding both smell and water vapor. I keep a oil radiator heater running all winter and two big radiant heaters for quick heat.

In the fab shop I was running a Mr heater buddy heater to warm it up quickly and a infrared heater to maintain it. Now I've got three machines in the fab shop.

My torpedo failed, the thermistor went, and for $25 I picked up a contractors convection heater. (No thermistor, no AC for the fan). I like it, I also can put things on top to heat up for expansion... if I had to buy again, that would be my choice.

 

[rabler]

I have a mini-split, and a natural gas "Mr. Heater" furnace to heat the shop. But what gets used the most is the small woodburning stove. I like the morning ritual of lighting a fire, only takes a few minutes during which I can wake up, finish my morning dose of caffeine, and make a plan for the day.

 

[Batmanacw]

I have a mini-split, and a natural gas "Mr. Heater" furnace to heat the shop. But what gets used the most is the small woodburning stove. I like the morning ritual of lighting a fire, only takes a few minutes during which I can wake up, finish my morning dose of caffeine, and make a plan for the day.

I wish I had room for a wood stove.....

 

[brino]

I framed the garage door in today so I can insulate the temporary wall. 4 screws and the wall will pop right out.

I love that idea!

I have been toying with the idea myself. For mine I picture a couple big "square insulated corks" to fill the two garage door recesses.
Even if they turn out to be heavy awkward corks I have the tractor and front-end loader to help place/remove them now.
Summer storage I have not worked out........

In the current 2-bay attached garage used solely for a workshop* I do get some heat leakage from the main house so I can keep it above freezing most of the year with just a single base-board heater on the far wall. I manually add a 240V construction heater when it gets real cold.

Oh, and an electric infrared heater that I can turn on right over one work bench. I can pull out the tools have them warm to the touch there even when working outside in the snow on a vehicle with the doors open.

Despite the weather stripping attempts around my two current roll-up (and insulated) garage doors I can still see slight light leaks when and I take the dog out at night and the shop lights are on. Also, when the wind howls I hear the door panels squeak as they shift.

Brian

*lathe bench right up against one door and welding table bolted to floor blocking about 1/3 of the other door.

 

[mmcmdl]

I wish I had room for a wood stove.....

Just split my last log in the yard . I'm ready for this firewood to heat me up for the LAST TIME !

 

[PLASTICULTURE]

Batmanacw said:
I framed the garage door in today so I can insulate the temporary wall. 4 screws and the wall will pop right out.

Being that land here is at a premium and my income is not! My shop is in my 2 car garage. However much of my work is in my home office where I do 3D CAD work for the design/engineering of plastic components. My shop is for proving the proof of concept of design. Generally by 3D printing and/or machining. Since I m a Mold Maker, I also do some hobby machining for some parts that I sell on Ebay. So when I am in the garage I am much more looking to cool the area. Believe it or not... much of the cooling is done with my hot water heater. It has a small heat pump in it and as the water is heated a coil gets very cold like an air conditioner. The fan inside the unit forces cold air out and I have an external fan to help improve the circulation around the space. As long as I don't open the service door often it will stay cool most of the day. The time factor could be improved if my wife had more clothes to wash to keep the water heater continue heating the water.

To get to the point of the insulation. I insulated my overhead garage door with 1 inch Styrofoam which surprisingly did not added much weight to the door. It has been that way for a couple years and has worked quite well. Being in Florida we have hurricane bracing on the door and it helps keep the foam in place. The door continues to operate as normal garage door. There is no insulation above the ceiling.

Since this subject was brought up, I guess that I should also mention that we have solar on the roof and was installed about five years ago. It was a good choice us as it helps to protect the roof and the shingles that are on it. The panels also reflect a lot of the heat generated from the sun. I know this because inside of our home on the second floor it was much warmer than downstairs. Ever since the solar was installed, both upstairs and downstairs are pretty equal. The downside is that the power company still wants a bigger cut. When the solar was first installed we had a $5 surcharge per month to be hooked up to the grid. BTW, we do not have a battery wall. The monthly surcharge is now $35 because they were able to force through an increase for low usage users. We still get a check every year for the power that is sold back for over production and that is enough to pay the surcharge. But the power company will not deduct from the money they have on account so they are still using our money. Based on the math of current KPH, we wind up saving about 35% from a normal power bill. The biggest take away is that I don't worry about any cost to power the machines in the shop. The panels on the garage roof are responsible for reflecting much of the heat from the sun. We have 35 panels on our roof.

 

[whitmore]

I installed a mini-split with a heat pump that works well, before that I used an LP catalist heater which doesn't put off carbon monoxide (it is rated for indoor use).

Heat pump is good. Catalyst heater, while not outgassing monoxide, does generate water vapor... not ideal. Of course, coolants
and breathing humans generate water vapor too...
Is there an economic dehumidifier solution that tolerates wide temperature changes? The humming-box type needs
something over 55 F to be effective, wouldn't work in my garage.

 

[Batmanacw]

Being that land here is at a premium and my income is not! My shop is in my 2 car garage. However much of my work is in my home office where I do 3D CAD work for the design/engineering of plastic components. My shop is for proving the proof of concept of design. Generally by 3D printing and/or machining. Since I m a Mold Maker, I also do some hobby machining for some parts that I sell on Ebay. So when I am in the garage I am much more looking to cool the area. Believe it or not... much of the cooling is done with my hot water heater. It has a small heat pump in it and as the water is heated a coil gets very cold like an air conditioner. The fan inside the unit forces cold air out and I have an external fan to help improve the circulation around the space. As long as I don't open the service door often it will stay cool most of the day. The time factor could be improved if my wife had more clothes to wash to keep the water heater continue heating the water.

To get to the point of the insulation. I insulated my overhead garage door with 1 inch Styrofoam which surprisingly did not added much weight to the door. It has been that way for a couple years and has worked quite well. Being in Florida we have hurricane bracing on the door and it helps keep the foam in place. The door continues to operate as normal garage door. There is no insulation above the ceiling.

Since this subject was brought up, I guess that I should also mention that we have solar on the roof and was installed about five years ago. It was a good choice us as it helps to protect the roof and the shingles that are on it. The panels also reflect a lot of the heat generated from the sun. I know this because inside of our home on the second floor it was much warmer than downstairs. Ever since the solar was installed, both upstairs and downstairs are pretty equal. The downside is that the power company still wants a bigger cut. When the solar was first installed we had a $5 surcharge per month to be hooked up to the grid. BTW, we do not have a battery wall. The monthly surcharge is now $35 because they were able to force through an increase for low usage users. We still get a check every year for the power that is sold back for over production and that is enough to pay the surcharge. But the power company will not deduct from the money they have on account so they are still using our money. Based on the math of current KPH, we wind up saving about 35% from a normal power bill. The biggest take away is that I don't worry about any cost to power the machines in the shop. The panels on the garage roof are responsible for reflecting much of the heat from the sun. We have 35 panels on our roof.

I already insulated the garage door. It helped with retaining heat but the door never sealed up tight. There was always a gap here and there. Wind moving the door would open up gaps. Now that area is double insulated.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Heat pump is good. Catalyst heater, while not outgassing monoxide, does generate water vapor... not ideal. Of course, coolants
and breathing humans generate water vapor too...
Is there an economic dehumidifier solution that tolerates wide temperature changes? The humming-box type needs
something over 55 F to be effective, wouldn't work in my garage.

As bad as humidity can be in my area I have never had an issue with that heater creating excessive water vapor; actually, when I lived on the fard in the old house we heated exclusively with this type heater and we had to run humidifiers because they dryer the air out. I do not think it is the heater that is producing the condensate but rather the heating of the air around cold metal which causes whatever humidity is already in the air to condense on it.