Workshop Heat

Chris Barton

Member
Messages
294
Location
Brentwood, TN
I know that many of you are like me in that your shop area doesn't have dedicated heat or air. Mine is in my basement where it stays between 58* - 78* year round because of the thermal mass of the earth. I just recently bought one of these heaters from Tractor Supply and it has been great! It cost around 130 but, is portable and has an O2 sensor that's for safety. I keep a CO monitor in my basement shop area as some insurance. It does a very nice and economical job of warming things up via both radient and convection heating. It may be a solution for someone else wanting a bit more heat at a reasonable cost. Also, it comes completely assembled so there's really no work to invest in getting warmer.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/wcssto...ontAssetStore/images/products/600/3240730.jpg
 
I could have used something like that tonight out in my shop. I'll echo Glenn's question -- what's the heat source?
 
This unit in question uses propane and I have a standard 25lb bottle on mine but, you can get an extender hose and use any size commercially available. Stu is right about the "lawyer speak" and that's why I have a CO monitor within 12 feet of it when it's in use. Explosion is not the big worry, carbon monoxide poisoning is. This unit is essentially a small standard space heater like many millions that heated the rural USA homes of our parents. There is no visible flame when using this unit, the radient elements glow red and it gives off both radient heat as well as convective heat.

All that said I fall back on a well worn lines from "Bones" on Star Trek; "**** it Jim, I'm a doctor not a licensed HVAC contractor." Use at your own risk.

PS: it is not intended for "Residential use" but, then go on to explain just how much ventilation necessary for the unit and even uses examples of how far you should open your windows if used in an enclosed space...
 
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There's some code issue with bringing propane bottles indoors which is probably why they say not to. Every store around here that does propane tank exchange has signs on the doors not to bring them inside. It looks pretty similar to the wall-mount radiant propane/NG heaters.

We have an unvented propane fireplace unit and about the only issue with it is the amount of moisture it pumps into the air. You can see it condense on the windows in the nearby rooms. That might be a bit of an issue on cold cast iron in the shop. I know it was for an unvented kerosene heater in my dads shop.
 
Hi Matt,

I think you are spot on about the propane bottles. I've heard about the moisture issues but, interestingly I have a hygrometer in my shop and monitor the relative humidity and it never goes above 70% and using the heater doesn't seem to budge it a bit. I think the situation where people see the condensation is more caused by cold windows in contact with warmer air. When folks add heat using combustion the condensation is caused by getting the room temperature up to the dew point of the windows.
 
This old thread has been a big help. We are having an unusually long cold spell in the Ozarks. (today is cloudy, drizzly, cold, lousy and we had a small ice storm last night) I have been unable to spend much time in my shop for quite a few weeks. To say I miss it is an understatement. I believe I will need to get one of those unvented propane heaters. I have about a half dozen 20 pound propane bottles around so will have plenty of fuel for a while. We have a nice little unvented propane fireplace in the family room for back up heat and a 250 gal. tank outside. It's a dandy and throws a lot of heat. Haven't experienced moisture problems using it.
 
Hi Frank,

Since you breathed new life into this thread I thought I would give you and update. I've had the heater in my unfinished mountain cabin which is about 200 sqft for the past few weeks and it's worked flawlessly and I do have a CO monitor installed in the cabin for safety sake. I've used the heater regularly and can only say that you could probably get about 24 hours of continuous heat on the "high" setting off a single 20lb bottle. My cabin has lots of windows so I do get some passive solar heat (if it's sunny I don't need heat unless it's below 40* outside) and the cabin stays about 20* warmer than outside in the winter during the day. I believe this heater is a good value for the money and I would buy another if I needed some supplemental heat...
 
Hi Frank,

Since you breathed new life into this thread I thought I would give you and update. I've had the heater in my unfinished mountain cabin which is about 200 sqft for the past few weeks and it's worked flawlessly and I do have a CO monitor installed in the cabin for safety sake. I've used the heater regularly and can only say that you could probably get about 24 hours of continuous heat on the "high" setting off a single 20lb bottle. My cabin has lots of windows so I do get some passive solar heat (if it's sunny I don't need heat unless it's below 40* outside) and the cabin stays about 20* warmer than outside in the winter during the day. I believe this heater is a good value for the money and I would buy another if I needed some supplemental heat...



Good info, thanks. I installed a CO monitor in our family room also. When I called the local fire department to ask if it should be mounted high or low they didn't know. I spent some time Googling and found that it doesn't matter. CO is about the same weight as normal air and disperses evenly.
 
Hi Frank,

I too was curious about location for my CO monitor because I knew that CO2 is considerably denser than air but, found the same answer that you did. The one caveat would be if you have one of the CO monitors that has a meter for actual PPM that you place it at eye level for ease of reading.
 
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