Heating the shop

H

howareb

New member
Ok, what are you guys using to heat your shops. I need to get a system to heat my shop. I temporarialy got a forced air kerosene heater which did well, but it also had an odor that I am not happy with. I am looking for a permanant solution and contact information for the manufacturer.
 
I heat my 2 car garage with 2 1500 watt ceramic heaters and a 18,000 BTU indoor safe propane heater, i bought off Ebay.



The garage is well insulated and the system works well. The ceramics maintain the heat on most cold days, after all 3 are used to bring the heat up to a comfortable temp.
 
I work outside and freeze my butt off. Really fun this morning before blowing dust forced a reschedule of the Corvette I was polishing. Nothing like low to mid 40s with 20-25 mph winds in the shade to make for a fun morning.



I have a few customers with heaters in their garages, not sure what kind but a couple of them keep the garage toasty warm. I'll see what I can find out about them for you.
 
We have one of these in our garage:

20041101_ASK_TFH_page002img006.jpg




And it works wonders in the winter, even though it is poorly insulated, on a -45 day it can still be 20C inside the garage.
 
Hey Digital - what's the name/make/model of that heater? Does it have a thermostat?



I have an electric too, but want something with a bit more juice. I'd have gone gas, but no gas line.
 
Scottwax said:
I work outside and freeze my butt off. Really fun this morning before blowing dust forced a reschedule of the Corvette I was polishing. Nothing like low to mid 40s with 20-25 mph winds in the shade to make for a fun morning.



I have a few customers with heaters in their garages, not sure what kind but a couple of them keep the garage toasty warm. I'll see what I can find out about them for you.
Click to expand...



Thanks Scott. I really apperciate it. I agree about those cold days in the 40s and you are further South than I.
 
Guys, Eric forgot to mention the size of his "shop"



He opened up last week and what a place!



A detailers dream!!!:goodjob:goodjob:goodjob





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IMG_0180.jpg
 
Picus said:
Hey Digital - what's the name/make/model of that heater? Does it have a thermostat?



I have an electric too, but want something with a bit more juice. I'd have gone gas, but no gas line.
Click to expand...



I am 2 hours away from home right now, so I can't comment on the brand yet. However yes it does have a thermostat, its exactly like the one you have inside your house (you could even put one of those fancy digital ones on if you so desire)
 
Picus said:
Hey Digital - what's the name/make/model of that heater? Does it have a thermostat?



I have an electric too, but want something with a bit more juice. I'd have gone gas, but no gas line.
Click to expand...



If you keep your eyes open you can score some deals on electric infrared heaters for workshops at Costco, Princess Auto and Lee Valley Tool here in Canada. I'm pretty sure I just saw them on sale for around $60 at Princess Auto and if you are just working out of your garage at home you could easily get away with 2 of them to heat it up pretty well. The electric models suck a lot of juice though.



edit: Here's the one I was talking about:



| ON SALE NOW | CAN208.109.162.89_102808 | 1 |
 
Scottwax said:
I work outside and freeze my butt off. Really fun this morning before blowing dust forced a reschedule of the Corvette I was polishing. Nothing like low to mid 40s with 20-25 mph winds in the shade to make for a fun morning.



I have a few customers with heaters in their garages, not sure what kind but a couple of them keep the garage toasty warm. I'll see what I can find out about them for you.
Click to expand...



You should check out these radiant heaters Scott or even a propane powered patio heater might work for you if you wanted to lug it around with you to each job.
 
When cold, heat is heat as far as my body is concerned, however has anyone given any thought to the different heat sources affect on the detailing process?



For example, could infrared cause some sort of weird curing issues vs electric? etc.



Also, I imagine placement is important so that heat is being well distributed around the car. Anyone do anything special in consideration, or anyone run into any particular problems?
 
For a large shop of that size, a forced air, fuel oil heater would work. If you are worried about fumes, find one with a heat exchanger unit that will vent outside. With roll up doors, you need a heat supply that will replace the loss quickly when you move a car in/out of the bay.



If that is your shop pictured above, you might want to look into something similar to these: Oil Fired Unit Heaters - Portable Oil Fired Heater, Modine Oil Unit Heater, Modine Heaters (the 3 bottom units shown) or a similar unit if you have access to natural gas. They might seem expensive but the heat sure is nice.....
 
GeorgiaHybrid said:
For a large shop of that size, a forced air, fuel oil heater would work. If you are worried about fumes, find one with a heat exchanger unit that will vent outside. With roll up doors, you need a heat supply that will replace the loss quickly when you move a car in/out of the bay.



If that is your shop pictured above, you might want to look into something similar to these: Oil Fired Unit Heaters - Portable Oil Fired Heater, Modine Oil Unit Heater, Modine Heaters (the 3 bottom units shown) or a similar unit if you have access to natural gas. They might seem expensive but the heat sure is nice.....
Click to expand...



Yeah that is the shop I am in. These item look like what I am searching for. They look like they have enought BTUs to handle what I need. I am currently using a force air heater, and the fumes get to be too much after a while.
 
While on that site, use the BTU checker, punch in the values for your shop and the type of insulation that you have and it will give you a good idea of what will be needed. Looks like a NICE setup for you. Congrats on the new space.



Edit: We always set ours up high in the back corner on an angle frame and aimed the unit to the front corner opposite the heater. Worked well for us when I had my shop.
 
ShineShop said:
If you keep your eyes open you can score some deals on electric infrared heaters for workshops at Costco, Princess Auto and Lee Valley Tool here in Canada. I'm pretty sure I just saw them on sale for around $60 at Princess Auto and if you are just working out of your garage at home you could easily get away with 2 of them to heat it up pretty well. The electric models suck a lot of juice though.



edit: Here's the one I was talking about:



| ON SALE NOW | CAN208.109.162.89_102808 | 1 |
Click to expand...



Cool thanks. I do have to find one with a thermostat because I'll need to run it at night, have water in the garage. I'll check out PA's site.
 
I'm telling you, don't waste your time with expensive heaters. Check out Craigslist or some Metal Halide lights, they will create enough heat that you don't need a heater, and they will help you see everything inside the shop.





John
 
Something else to look into for your doors is a air curtain to place over them so you don't have a big thermal loss when you open them up in the winter. And if the shop is cooled in the summer, so it doesn't let the A/C out. We have them at the venues I work at, and they work really well.
 
I've had direct experiences with both Radiant and Forced Air in both of my shops and hands down, Radiant is way cleaner and less expensive to run. Our doors opened up and down atleast 50+ times a day and the Radiant style recaptured the loss temps the best. Especially on zero degree days.
 
I have to agree the Radiant heat is nice. My step-grandfathers shop has it. Whenever I help him with his equipment (does a lot of work for the state for road construction), it's nice, always warm underneath the equipment as well as all around it.. And it does heat back up nicely.
 
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