Question About Heating a Shop

[Whiplash]

Re: Question About Heating a Shop

My garage is 1280 sq/ft with 16 ft. celings. I have one of these....

I turn it on about 5-10 min before I am going to be working out there and its nice and toasty.

$289 for 125k btu or $389 for 210k btu at Lowes (I bought mine off season so it was cheap).

I have a 40' x 60' pole barn fully enclosed with 12' ceiling height. I use this form of heater when I am out there working, and I have it connected to a thermostat that cuts it on and off to regulate the temp. I have a gas wall mount heater that I am going to install shortly that connects to a propane tank outside to help keep the temp steady, maybe even use it for my main source of heat after using the forced air heater to bring it up to temp. Funny, I was going to post this same question and saw this post. The floor heat sounds like a neat idea. You may also want to look into a mini-split heat pump. I installed a two ton unit in my daughter's nursery and it does a great job, plus it doubles as an air conditioner in the summer. Just some ideas. Good luck!

 

[CRNA]

Re: Question About Heating a Shop

good stuff

 

[turboj91]

Re: Question About Heating a Shop

When I built my house, I did full radiant in the basement (in concrete) and garage (in concrete). In the house I used Quick Tracks rather than running the tubing under the subfloor. I heat over 7500 sq ft and have no regrets. I designed and installed the entire system myself. Saved a ton of $ on labor. For the concrete slabs, lay down a vapor barrier, min of 2 inches of insulation, have heat breaks everywhere (or you will be heating the outside earth), lay down wire mesh (6 inch in center is best for fitment), run the tubing (prob 3/4 " , 1 foot on center), plastic wire tire it to the mesh, (should have tied the mesh together previously), pressure test the lines, pour the concrete. Should be no additional charge for the concrete pour just because there is tubing. There are many design rules for the tubing like run the hottest water to the greatest heat loss area first (ie to an outside wall), the return water temp should not be more than 20 degrees less than outgoing, your tubing lengths will need to be specific (there are heat loss calculations for the job which will determine how many tube circuts and what length each circut will be (including leaders and returns). In order for it to be cost effective, it needs to be efficient. You also need to have an efficient heat source. A water heater will not cut it for a garage of your size. I used a propane fired self modulating Munchkin boiler. I put a pyrometer into the exhaust pipe (only needs pvc pipe since the boiler is so efficient) and was able to tune the mixture screw and get 98.9% efficiency. I have specific radiant heat thermostats, have my exposed supply's and returns insulated, used Wirsbo tubing (DON"T buy the cheap stuff now available online), designed the layout to be within 2 feet of target length and I pay less than everyone I know and I heat sometimes over double the square footage. I would not go back. It's quiet as well, no forced air to blow dust and junk all over and I have no regrets. I'm not Ron Popiel but I set it and forget it.