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cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
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Author:  Dave Livermore [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:46 pm ]
Post subject:  cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I've got an insulated, detached garage and heat the space with a 30,000 BTU natural gas wall heater.

I like that it keeps the place warm, but the downside is that if I only heat when I'm in the shop, everything cools down to Minnesota winter temps and as it heats back up, condensation forms on anything metal. Plus the humidity is always up in the 80-90% range. I rarely heat it warm enough to turn on the dehumidifier so I'm at a crossroads.

I'm thinking of getting a forced air furnace (either hung or floor mounted) and am curious what solutions or pros/cons you all have encountered with your climate control.

Thoughts?

Dave
Author:  Rod True [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
Electric baseboard heaters, it's 100% efficient and the cost is most economical in my area...
Author:  JSDenvir [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
Rod True wrote:
Electric baseboard heaters, it's 100% efficient and the cost is most economical in my area...

What Rod said.
Author:  Ken C [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I have a big garage, so I installed a gas tube radiant heater. Works great and no more condensation and rusting tools!
Author:  Darrel Friesen [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
Natural gas is a lot cheaper than electric in my neck of the woods. I use a ceiling hung Modine Hot Dawg. It's a 60,000 BTU with a totally enclosed combustion chamber and direct vent. A bit noisy at times, but heats up fast and trouble free.
Author:  Alex Kleon [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
In my old garage shop I used one of those yellow 220v construction heaters.
It was good to about -20C as long as it didn't get too windy. It was insulated and had a wood subfloor, though.

Alex
Author:  charlton [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
Alex Kleon wrote:
In my old garage shop I used one of those yellow 220v construction heaters.
It was good to about -20C as long as it didn't get too windy. It was insulated and had a wood subfloor, though.

Alex


What are you using now, Alex? I'm in Markham, so our weather is presumably similar. I've had a tough time finding someone to install a radiant tube heater so it looks like this winter I'll be using one of those construction heaters as well.

Thanks,
Charlton
Author:  Alex Kleon [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
charlton wrote:
Alex Kleon wrote:
In my old garage shop I used one of those yellow 220v construction heaters.
It was good to about -20C as long as it didn't get too windy. It was insulated and had a wood subfloor, though.

Alex


What are you using now, Alex? I'm in Markham, so our weather is presumably similar. I've had a tough time finding someone to install a radiant tube heater so it looks like this winter I'll be using one of those construction heaters as well.

Thanks,
Charlton


Hi Charlton ! I'm in the lap of luxury! I have a basement shop now - warm in the winter cool in the summer. The construction heaters are pretty good, especially if you keep the overhead door closed. If you aren't heating all the time, make sure you keep all of your glues, finishes and wood in the house until it is warm enough in the garage to work. The biggest problem would be relative humidity for assembly work.
Do you ever go to Century Mill? I haven't been there for about six years, but I've been meaning to check their Spanish Cedar and mahogany.

Alex
Author:  charlton [ Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
Alex Kleon wrote:
charlton wrote:
Alex Kleon wrote:
In my old garage shop I used one of those yellow 220v construction heaters.
It was good to about -20C as long as it didn't get too windy. It was insulated and had a wood subfloor, though.

Alex


What are you using now, Alex? I'm in Markham, so our weather is presumably similar. I've had a tough time finding someone to install a radiant tube heater so it looks like this winter I'll be using one of those construction heaters as well.

Thanks,
Charlton


Hi Charlton ! I'm in the lap of luxury! I have a basement shop now - warm in the winter cool in the summer. The construction heaters are pretty good, especially if you keep the overhead door closed. If you aren't heating all the time, make sure you keep all of your glues, finishes and wood in the house until it is warm enough in the garage to work. The biggest problem would be relative humidity for assembly work.
Do you ever go to Century Mill? I haven't been there for about six years, but I've been meaning to check their Spanish Cedar and mahogany.

Alex


:) I just moved out of the basement (well, I still have one room down there). It was too small and I couldn't stand tracking dust in and out of the house and my in-laws have decided live with us for part of the year so I had to make way in the basement. :) My only concern with the construction heaters is that they are deemed to be fire hazards so maybe the baseboard heaters would be a better bet. I wouldn't mind getting a gas radiant tube heater installed but most of the HVAC guys I've contact either don't do the installs or else they've been really bad about "getting back to me" with quotes. Now I'm thinking that maybe I'd be willing to pay the high cost of electricity which would likely take a few years to make up the cost differential to get the radiant tube installed.

I do go to Century every once in a blue moon but I find their prices to be somewhat on the high side. I haven't compared their instrument woods to other places (I'm just really getting ready to start building guitars so I'm a complete newb). :)

Cheers,
Charlton
Author:  Daniel Minard [ Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I use a wood pellet stove in my shop. (And in the house) I used to burn wood, but it lost it's charm many years ago. No problem with insurance with a pellet stove. And... no need for an expensive chimney. Just a short stack horizontally through the wall.
Cheaper than electric and natural gas in our area.
Nice dry heat, easy to run and maintain. I like it a lot. Just throw in a bag of pellets & I'm warm for a couple of days.
I use an electric space heater in the spray room.
Author:  dradlin [ Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:33 am ]
Post subject:  cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I had a direct vent gas heater installed in my garage and it's working well.

The combustion air intake comes from outside and exhaust discharged there too.

The unit wall mounts to an exterior wall and installed in a morning.

I should have done this years ago. Prior to this I used an oil filled electric heater.
Author:  mikemcnerney [ Tue Nov 22, 2011 8:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I've been using the 220v construction heater in my garage in Ottawa. & have gone through a few because I work 6 days a week building other stuff & creating a lot of dust.
I just learned from an electrical supplier, there is on of those heaters, they virtualy all look the same , that has a more 'enclosed' fan motor, that is safer.
Maybe $40 more.
MM
Author:  charlton [ Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
mikemcnerney wrote:
I've been using the 220v construction heater in my garage in Ottawa. & have gone through a few because I work 6 days a week building other stuff & creating a lot of dust.
I just learned from an electrical supplier, there is on of those heaters, they virtualy all look the same , that has a more 'enclosed' fan motor, that is safer.
Maybe $40 more.
MM


I bought one that has the enclosed fan motor. I'm not sure if it will make it last longer but we'll see. :)
Author:  Alex Kleon [ Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I must have had one of the good heaters. I used mine for at least five years 30-40 hrs/week with no problem. When I moved, I gave it away, and it was used for a while longer. I always made sure that it was kept clean and as dust free as possible as I was making a lot of furniture at the time.

Alex
Author:  douglas ingram [ Tue Nov 22, 2011 10:23 am ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I run an overhead radiant tube heater using Natural Gas. Our winters get plenty cold. I work year 'round, Monday to Friday. No moving air, no exposed flame, does not consume shop air or exhaust into shop, and is safe with wood dust. quiet, too.

My best solution is to keep the heat in the shop pretty constant. The thermostat is usually at 17C, based upon where the thermostat is and how the heater is working this keeps it pretty comfy, it feels like its 20C whatever the thermostat says.

If I let the shop get too cold then everything in it gets cold and it takes a long time, and a lot of energy, to get back up to the comfort range, never mind the impact that the cold has on my adhesives and finishes.
Author:  Stuart Gort [ Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
My shop is 2400 sq. ft. and is sectioned off into three smaller rooms and one big one. The large room stays heated to 55F at night with a 220v commercial electric overhead heater. One room is storage and remains unheated, one room is my finishing room and remains unheated. The third room is my office and finsihed parts storage. That is heated with a small electric space heater.

The unheated rooms have weather sealed doors....which effectively makes the entire room insulation for the heated rooms. The whole shop (outside walls and ceiling) was seriously insulated and sealed. I can have the room at 65F and turn down the themostat to 55F at night and often I come back into the shop the next morning and find the temperature is still 58F or 59F...even though the outside temp was below freezing.
Author:  Mike Collins [ Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I use a Monitor direct vent propane heater.
Uses outside air & vents outside.
No pilot.
Works great & is 85% efficient.
No problem with dust also.
Keeps 900 + sq.feet toasty .

Mike
Author:  bluescreek [ Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: cold climate hobbyists. How do you heat your shops?
I use a hot air oil fired furnace . I have 24 by 40 2 floors. I also have a humdifier in this. I set to 58 at night and 68 in the day . Insulated and good vapor barrier
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