Heating for Workshop

[Troy Beseman]

First post, so I'll try not to sound to dumb. Has anyone used the radiant ceiling panels to heat their workshop in the winter? I live in Minnesota...so it has to be somewhat powerful. If not, anyone have any recommendations? Its a detached garage so it will be on its own...whatever it is.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Troy,

Welcome to the Creek!

I use a75,000 btu Lennox hanging gas furnace to heat my detached 30'x24' shop. I have R-19 in the walls, R-40 in the ceiling, 1 10' insulated overhead garage door, one 36" steel walk in door and 3 4'x3' thermopane windows. It heats nicely and inexpensively.

[Matt Meiser]

After looking at a few options 7 years ago, I bought a 75K BTU hanging furnace by Beacon Morris. I keep my shop at about 42 during the winter, then turn it up when I work out there. I probably used about 200-300 gallons of propane a year. Install was pretty straight forward and it was relatively inexpensive. We got natural gas this summer and I had it converted but the 150' underground gas line was not cheap.

I had looked at radiant tube heaters but install was not as straight forward and they were pretty expensive. Radiant in-floor would be the way to go for a new build.

[Chris Damm]

I heat my 625 sq. ft. shop with a 5000btu oil filled radiant heater. While not quite as cold as MN it does get to -10° here. My shop is very well insulated (remember you only buy the insulation once), The walls have R13 fiberglass between the studs and this is covered with 1.5" of extruded foam and covered with 7/16" OSB. The ceilings have R19 fiberglass and are covered with 1" of extruded foam and 1/2" of foil faced expanded foam. I keep it at about 55° with the heater set at 2 on the low heat setting. Cost for the heater is less than $20@ month. When I turn on my overhead lights it will warm up enough to work in shirtsleeves in less than an hour. The trick is to insulate well first!

[Ed Hazel]

The big factor with radiant ceiling heaters is height depending on the unit you will need at least 4 feet of space between your head and the heater so you would need 10 ft ceilings at a min more would be better. This is from memory several years ago when I was looking at heaters. I have the 45k BTU hanging Mr heater does a good job I think it only hangs down 13 inches.

[Don Jarvie]

How many hours per week are you in the shop?

If its 10 to 15 per week then an electric heater maybe the best option. I have 20x20 detached garage with r19 in the walls and r30 in the ceiling.

I need to insulate the doors a bit and put in 2 new windows. A few of us have the Dayton electric heater and it works quite well for me.

It will get the shop from 30 to 60 in under an hour. I put it on and go back out in a half hour or so. I didn't notice any difference in our electric bill last winter.

I would have loved gas but the cost of running the line and the furnace didn't make sense for 12 hours a week.

[Ray Newman]

Besides ceiling height, there is another question: how well insulated is your shop?

If it isn’t insulated and sealed up well, I think you are going to be wasting your money and will probably find that the shop will not warm up and stay warm.

And as with any heating system, consider its cost as well as the installation cost, system efficiency, gas, propane, or electric rate and the amount of time you would be in the shop.