Shop heating

[Roy McQuay]

I have a small, 20' X 20', two car garage that is all wood shop. I don't use it much in winter because of no heat. It is detached, and cold. I am wondering if anyone can tell me if I can use an electric hotwater heater and a circulating pump to run hotwater through baseboard heaters along the inside walls to help. I am sure it would never keep it toasty, but could that work to make it bearable? That way, I wouldn't have any open flames or exposed heating elements. Alternate suggestions are also appreciated. I can deal with 45 degrees, but we get a lot colder here. Thanks for any help.

[Tom Pritchard]

Roy, I don't know where you are located, but a couple things came to mind:

1) If you don't plan on running the system all the time, will it get cold enough to freeze the lines when the pump isn't running?

2) I believe electric water heaters are fairly expensive to run. If you have 220V electric in your shop, you may want to try one of these http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200316428_200316428

3) Not sure what kind of BTU transfer you would have with 140 degree F water from the heater. It may not have enough to warm your shop.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a wet blanket on your idea, I just don't know how practical it would be. Maybe someone else will chime in and prove me wrong!

[Roy McQuay]

Thanks Tom, I have suspected myself, that it won't work. Else it would be a common source of heat. I was just hoping it might take the chill off. I live northeast of Baltimore. Everyone around me has natural gas except my street, not enough houses, I suppose. I will try the link.

[Al Willits]

If this is a dedicated heating system, you can use antifreeze in the lines, that will prevent freezing.
Al

[Don Abele]

Roy, I am currently located just outside Boston and heat my 2 car gar...shop with the same unit that Tom linked to. I keep the thermostat set to keep the shop about 50 when I'm not in there and turn it up to about 65 when I am. The shop isn't very well insulated, standard 2-car size with 15 foot ceiling.

Here's a link to an old thread about heaters, I posted on the second reply with links to several other threads about heating shops when I was stationed in Virginia: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=13209

The cost to run this heater in my VA shop came out to about $40 a month and here it's closer to $75 (just a wee bit colder up here).

Be well (and warm),

Doc

[Wayne Gauthier]

I have a wood stove in my shop, use it every weekend, burn up the scraps I build up over rest of the year, works great and heats my 28 X28' shop in 30 minutes to a degree I can work in there.

I don't do any spray finishing, but i do everything else, put finishes on (poly and stains), sand, plane, use bandsaw and tablesaw. My dust collector takes care of all the shavings and some of the tablesaw dust. Never is there enough dust in the air to create a hazard to where I would have combustion. I also run my air cleaner, and have no fears that there will be a fire.

My wood stove is cheap to keep, and should last a long time. Cost me nothing to heat my shop..

[John Shuk]

I know you can use a hot water heater to run radiant heat so why not baseboard?

[Al Willits]

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I know you can use a hot water heater to run radiant heat so why not baseboard?
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Barring code violations and such, technically it would work, only problem might be in very cold weather its not unusual to have a boiler run 180 degree's or more, that's a bit warm for hot water heaters, I think some of the newer ones won't get that hot even.
Should work with the lower temps and a bit more radiants though, maybe a exchanger like the modine hanging unit, that uses a fan to get more out of the radiators might be more efficient, not sure if it'd work in your case or not.
Al