Shop Heat Poll

How do you heat your shop?

  • Propane: Radiant heat

    Votes: 17 6.6%
  • Propane: Hot water

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Propane: Vented Unit

    Votes: 20 7.8%
  • Propane: Unvented Unit

    Votes: 21 8.2%
  • Wood: Hot Water

    Votes: 2 0.8%
  • Woodstove:

    Votes: 26 10.2%
  • Oil: Forced hot air

    Votes: 7 2.7%
  • Oil: Hot water

    Votes: 4 1.6%
  • Oil: Radiant

    Votes: 2 0.8%
  • Natural Gas: Forced Hot Air

    Votes: 50 19.5%
  • Natural Gas: Hot Water

    Votes: 3 1.2%
  • Natural Gas: Radiant

    Votes: 8 3.1%
  • Coal stove:

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • Corn Stove:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Geo Thermal:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Kerosene: Salamander Type Unit

    Votes: 15 5.9%
  • Kerosene: Monitor Type Unit

    Votes: 10 3.9%
  • Electric: Wall mounted Fixtures

    Votes: 26 10.2%
  • Electric: Portable Space Heaters

    Votes: 37 14.5%
  • Other:

    Votes: 35 13.7%

  • Total voters
    256
Messages
2,369
How do you heat your shop? There seems to be a lot of heat related questions lately and I thought it would be cool to see some statistics on what we heat our shops with.

Mine is via a propane powered vent free unit.
 
75K BTU Hot Dawg type unit from Beacon Morris converted to propane. I just installed the same unit, but 4 years newer running on NG for my dad.
 
30,000 Btu Natural gas radiant heater. Keeps my 800 ft² shop nice and toasty. I have a 'setback' thermostat, and keep it programmed for 65° daytime and 50° overnight. The shop is very well insulated, and it takes an overnight temp in the teens for it to drop below 50° overnight, so most of the time the heater never comes on at night.

I'm in NE Ohio, and our coldest night so far has been 13°. (predicted for 11° tomorrow night, though...)
 
My wife brought in a few Christmas presents/projects to complete after Thanksgiving so I bought a new design Reddy Heater forced air unit at Lowes. It has a variable 30,000 BTU - 55,000 BTU which was definitely enough to keep my 650 sqft 3 car garage toastie (with 12 foot high ceilings). I was concerned about an extra 20 lb grill-sized propane tank running out too soon so I purchased a new 43 lb tank. It was the biggest tank I could legally put in my mini-van here in Ohio. It provided more than enough heat but it was EXTREMELY NOISEY!!! I'm curious to see if 55,000 BTU will be enough to heat the garage up when it gets colder outside in January and February. I do not have insulated garage doors yet.

A safety note: You cannot store or operate propane tanks in a garage in Ohio. Since I didn't want to go through the hassle before Christmas of drilling a hole through the garage wall, I simply placed the tank outsize the garage door and ran the hose underneath the garage door that was mostly closed. That also provided enough ventilation for the unit.

I've attached a link to a the unit I saw available at msn shopping since lowes.com doesn't have it.

http://shopping.msn.com/specs/shp/?itemId=892481096
 
I use 2 heat sources: a Lennox 45,000 BTU propane hanging unit with the thermostat set at 48 degrees and a wood stove. The woodstove is lit in the morning and burns through most of the night.
 
75,000 btu natural gas forced air hanging Lennox heater. Set to 55º at night and 63º during the day when I am working out there. I go out....set the thermostat for 63....go back to the house and have another cup of coffee. Go to the shop it's ready....
 
Radiant . . .

Only have 10x10x12 and ( as Mike Holmes would say ) " open-concept " ceiling.:rofl: Finally broke down and got a 'lectric/quartz overhead jobber. Just right for my digs.
 
Current shop is heated with a propane jobsite heater. After shop warms up I shut it off and turn on the electric haeter. The new shop will have a pellet stove for the main heat source and a propane hot water system for the spary booth as I will be able to keep it warmer then the rest of the shop during the cold winter month.
 
I use a Mitsubishi kerosene heater..next to the door so I can open it periodically, and it works very well for my garage shop. This heater has been back and forth "across the pond" a couple of times....Bought it when we lived in the Tokyo area.

 
Not much need for heat living in the Florida Keys, but on those 95 degree 97 humidity days in July - August an A/C is a must to get the finishes to fully dry in anything less than a week.
 
I use a kerosene torpedo heater but fortunately, we only have a couple of weeks of sub 40's weather in most years. I would like to close in my open rafters but then I'd have to add on to the shop to store all the "stuff" and lumber shorts that's stored up there. :dunno:
 
At the moment, the shop is in a basement, so its portable electric down there, just to keep the feet warm - space is about 3000 square feet!

Once I get the "real shop" (read theoretical) built, it will use a woodstove, perhaps with electric or hydronic-electric radiant to keep it around 50 when the stove is cold.
 
Now did you guys run your natural gas to your shop?

I have a natural gas hanging heater that was given to me and I need to get natural gas to my shop from the house. How did all of you guys get your natural gas to your detached shops? Any input would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
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