Here come the garage heat questions

[RichMagnone]

Anyone ever seen this? It sure looks interesting.

http://suncloud.com/product.shtml

[George Summers]

I get a security warning when I try the link. I trust my firewall/anti-virus software so I didn't approve a go ahead.

George

[Dave Richards]

Try it this way: http://suncloud.com/product.shtml

[Tom Pritchard]

Rich, I looked at their site, and this unit looks like a 1500 Watt (375 watts x 4 bulbs) heater. I don't see any mention of BTU output, but most $20-$30 ceramic heaters are 1500 Watts (about 5,200 BTU) and should accomplish the same heating. Not sure if there are $599 worth of savings or gains with this unit. I know that my 5200 BTU electric heater will not keep my 10' x 14' enclosed porch with a 7 1/2' ceiling warm when it gets below 45 degrees F, and I believe that 1500 Watts will always produce around 5200 BTU regarless of the type of heater. Don't know if this would be enough to keep your shop toasty warm on a cold day! Just my 2 cents worth!

[Jerry Olexa]

You can get 1500 watts much easier and quicker for much less money. Most regular elec heaters generating 1550 w are under $50. I also do not think 1500w is enough to handle a garage. IMHO

[RichMagnone]

Tom, you're right. I found this "quick fact sheet" digging around a bit more on the site. Definitely not worth the $$!

QUICK FACT SHEET

Heats approx. 500 sq. ft.
1500 watts
5118 BTUs
Uses standard household current--110/120
12.8 amps
Fan--120 cfm
Cabinet - Oak Veneer w/ casters.3 year warranty--includes lamps
Patented System

Solar Comfort may be used to heat that cold room, to provide supplementary heat to existing system or as a total system.

Solar Comfort is ideal for homes, apartments, cabins, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, boats, workshops, and animal or livestock enclosures.

Safe-No flames, fuel or fumes clothing or paper igniting.

No worries about children being burned,

Appearance- Attractive enough that most people use it as a piece of furniture, (usually as an end table).

Convenient and clean. No film or soot. Uses clean electricity.

Portable--Moves easily from room to room on casters

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

I've been sorely disappointed with several 1500 watt heaters that are supposed to heat xxx sf.

I have a 4000W Farenheat wall heater w/blower and thermostat thingy in the shop that will maintain a 16x20 portion at 65 degrees no matter how cold it's been outside...and 70 during a normal Texas winter when the low is only in the 30s. And this with one 'wall' being plastic sheets separating it from the unheated area.

We also have a 4000W Patton space heater with thermostat as the primary heat in the 1344sf house, and it's been adequate. As I recall, both the Patton and Farenheat were in the $100-150 range.

KC

[Andy Hoyt]

I use a cheapo $30 1500 watt heater for a 14 x 16 Finishing Room in the loft of my barn. Has a built in thermostat which stays at the lowest setting and it keeps this room at least 50 deg F all winter long and we do get some cold cold days up here - 20 below and such. Of course this space is very well insulated.

[Bernie Weishapl]

My thoughts were that is awful pricey for supplemental heat. $600 is quite a chuck of money. I use a $40 quartz rotating heater from Wal-Mart with a thermastat and remote control at 1500 watts. It keeps my 12 X 20 shop at about 68 degrees during the coldest days.

[Dev Emch]

Rich...
This is a complete joke. You taking four flood lights and attaching them to a cheesy air to air heat exchanger along with a tiny cooling fan. Remember my old adage from college... Twinkle twinkle little star, power equals I squared R.

Your offloading your heat requirements onto the grid. Now most home use will be non-demand residential. In our area, we are allowed a maximum of about 20,000 kilowatt hours per year. Should we exceed that, we can be hit with demand billing. OUCCCCCH! This is very bad. VERY VERY BAD!

And the largest portion of our grid energy is comming from fossil fuel steam turbines. Many of these were switched over to the REALLY CHEAP and CLEAN natural gas supply. OPPPPPSSSSS! Here come the rate increases!

Right now, the best deal out there is fuel oil in terms of commercial engergy supplies. Fuel oil contains about 132,000 BTUs per gallon and propane contains about 92,000 BTUs per liquid gallon. So even though fuel oil may be a tad more than propane in some areas, its Dollar per BTU is still lower. Also, I can buy fuel oil in the summer when its cheap and store it in virtually any container from pickle jars to oil barrels to real, official fuel oil tanks. I dont need a certified pressure vessel.

There are some shop heaters out there that use fuel oil and have been rather successful. I personally use propane to keep the super chill away... that is, anything from MINUS 20 F to about 40 degrees. From 40 degrees up to working temperature, I use old fashioned wood in an 1890s wood stove.

[Richard Wolf]

I use old fashioned wood in an 1890s wood stove.

Why did I know that!:D

Richard

[Dev Emch]

Richard...

You should see some of these. I found this stove in an old Mass. hardware store that was in its third or fourth generation and the kids wanted to move on when the father died. They tore it down to make a shopping mall. Its a #4 Marathon Globe heater from the Marathon Stove Works which was located on waterstreet in New York city.

My neighbor has two larger stoves each equiped with a Magic Heat exchanger. This is a metal box about 1.5 feet high, 1 foot thick that contains an air to air heat exchanger and a fan. It attaches to single wall black stove pipe below and above and sits inbetween the single wall pipe run from the stove to the thimble. These cost about $250 dollars by todays standards and they really put out some heat in a hurry!

Right now, I am finally getting started on the final design of a new heating furnace. This thing is styled after the older vintage steam boilers used in launchs and other boats. Lots of welded black steel. But it has copper, rolled exchanger tubes and double wall contruction. The exterior fittings are all brass boiler fittings borrowed from the vintage steam nuts. Hey, they look good so good, I could not resist. The whole thing is plumed into the baseboards and infloor heat. It uses a thermal storage tank and can get a secondary boost by solar and wind power. Everything is converted into heat and stored in this thermal storage tank. On super cold days, I need to fire twice. On moderate fall and spring days, once every two to three days.

[Rick Schubert]

One caution on the Magic Heat exchanger:

I used to sell woodburing stoves many. many moons ago and I heard that Magic Heat can pull so much heat off the chimney into the room that the chimney is cooler and creosote builds up much faster.

Rick