Radiant tube heater question

[James Suzda]

Now that it’s -16 outside with the “chill factory” working overtime and it’s down to 28 in my shop/garage my thoughts again return to heating the shop. Is there anyone out there who is using a “Radiant Tube Heater” to heat their workshop?
If you are using radiant heat, do you consider it a good investment and would you install one again? Does it keep your shop warm without having to move the air around and what do you do to keep the dust out of the unit?
Thanks for any reviews!
Jim

[Kristian Wild]

Hi Jim, We use several of the big ones at work to "heat" our shop space. Just remember that it only really heats surfaces so you could still have glue bottles freezing under your bench. Besides the curling of unprotected sheetgoods left in it's radient area it's worked really well for us. If you haven't used it a few days you'll likely get a little bit of smoke from any settled dust. When we fire it up for the first time in the fall we blow it off first then open all the doors and windows until the smoke clears.
Hope this helps.

Kris

[David G Baker]

Now that it’s -16 outside with the “chill factory” working overtime and it’s down to 28 in my shop/garage my thoughts again return to heating the shop. Is there anyone out there who is using a “Radiant Tube Heater” to heat their workshop?
If you are using radiant heat, do you consider it a good investment and would you install one again? Does it keep your shop warm without having to move the air around and what do you do to keep the dust out of the unit?
Thanks for any reviews!
Jim
Jim,
I have natural gas as my heating source. When I was exploring putting heat in my pole barn I checked out the radiant tube heater as my heat source. The information that I came up with associated with the tube heaters was that they consumed quite a bit more fuel than other types of natural gas heaters. My information source was not an expert but was several people on a site similar to this one and a local heating and air conditioning installer. I had the impression that the dealer was not familiar with the tube type heater and because of that he discouraged me from getting one. I ended up going with the Hot Dawg forced air heater. I am happy with the heater but there is one thing that I wished I had is a heater that used outside air for its air make up source instead of using the shop air. My pole barn is pretty air tight except of around the roll up door. My heater is ceiling mounted so it is safe from most fuels but am not sure about saw dust. A dust collector may also be an issue when using shop air to supply the furnace rather than outside air.
I do not have enough information about the tube heaters to know about the sawdust potential problem. Before you commit to the tube type heater contact the manufacturer to get your questions answered if they don't get answered here. Another issue with the tube type heater is, you need ceiling height where that is not as necessary with the Hot Dawg type forced air heaters.
I have been in locations that use the tube type heaters and like the type of heat they provide. They heat the items in the shop so much better than forced air. Much better on the hands on a very cold day.
Good luck.
David B

[Jim Tobias]

James,
I'm not 100% sure what you are describing as "radiant tube heater"? If you are talking about radiant heat that is installed under the floor, then I wil say that it is one of the best feature of my shop area. When I had the shop area built several years ago, I had radiant floor (water tubes installed under the floor joists and then packed with insulation) heating put in and have had very consistent temp control in the winter. It is powered by a gas hot water heater that is located in a closet just outside the shop. It is totally quiet, no air flow (dust) probelms and gives the shop a very workable temperature in winter. If I am doing finishing work, I jsu crank up the thermostat a few degrees to around 70. otherwise I keep it at about 60-65. I have no rusted surface/moisture problems at all.
Just my experience with it here in the foothills/piedmont of North Carolina. Our winters are not terrible, but the high today is in the low 30's.

Jim

[Art Davis]

I, like David, have a pole barn. A couple of years ago, I investigated the question of how best to heat it and my solution was an oil furnace. It uses external air for the burner, but the combustion system is completely isolated from the interior, which uses makeup air from inside. I think this is a safe way to go, and the heater functions pretty well.

Slight hijack of the thread: question for David. How did you insulate your pole barn, and why do you feel you should have gone with external air? I insulated my ceiling with conventional batts and used three styrofoam sheets of insulation for the door. I put them up in the winter and remove them in the summer so I have access to the rollup door. (My pole barn was originally an rv garage.)

Art

[Kyle Kraft]

I think the radiant tube heater in question is the Co-Ray-Vac (and other similar systems) type often found in factories, warehouses, airplane hangar, and the like. This unit has a gas burner at one end of a porcelain lined pipe about 4" diameter and is suspended from the ceiling. There is also a reflector above the pipe to direct the infra red energy towards the floor.

Many plants use this stuff in their facilities, and my last workplace had trichloroethylene vapors in the air which would rot a unit heaters heat exchanger in about 3 years. When burned the vapors created a phosphoric acid!

They installed a Co-Ray-Vac heating system with outdoor combustion air supplied to each burner. The system vented out the side wall of the building and we cut our gas consumption about 50% compared to the direct fired air make up unit we were running. People complained less because the IR heat made them feel more comfortable than the forced air units.

I was going to use this in my shop, but I got a high efficiency furnace for free, so guess which one I used!

[David G Baker]

James,
I'm not 100% sure what you are describing as "radiant tube heater"? If you are talking about radiant heat that is installed under the floor, then I wil say that it is one of the best feature of my shop area. When I had the shop area built several years ago, I had radiant floor (water tubes installed under the floor joists and then packed with insulation) heating put in and have had very consistent temp control in the winter. It is powered by a gas hot water heater that is located in a closet just outside the shop. It is totally quiet, no air flow (dust) probelms and gives the shop a very workable temperature in winter. If I am doing finishing work, I jsu crank up the thermostat a few degrees to around 70. otherwise I keep it at about 60-65. I have no rusted surface/moisture problems at all.
Just my experience with it here in the foothills/piedmont of North Carolina. Our winters are not terrible, but the high today is in the low 30's.

Jim
Jim,
Keeping the dust out of the tubes led me to believe that he meant the overhead type tube heaters like they have at the entrance of Walmart in cold areas.
I wish I had in the floor type heat. In my opinion it is the best type to put in if you have new construction.
David B

[James Suzda]

Thanks everyone for the replies, and I guess I should add more to my original post as to what type of building I'm going to heat.
It's a 40 x 50 attached garage made as a pole shed type construction with a cement floor. I went the pole shed route when I built the garage because I didn't want to dig down 5' to put in footings and walls. Plus I have a 40 wide span with no posts or walls.
Anyway, the walls are insulated with R11 bats but I still want to make a false ceiling and blow in some insulation. (The tin roof has foam insulation under it.) I'm planning on making a false ceiling with blown in insulation at 10' because right now the ceiling joists are at 8' and I would like have a little more headroom. (Except for under the joists! :rolleyes: )
IF I were to build this building now I'd put in pex tubing in the floor for heat, but now that is too late to do that.
Jim

[Mark Duginske]

There are two types of "radiant heat". I have the infloor radiant heat in my shop which is a Morton building. I insulated under the slab with the flexible "bubble wrap" type insulation from Canada. Then I spread out wire mesh for the concreate and secure the pex tubling to the mesh and then pressurized the tubing before the cement was poured. Here in north central Wisconsin where we expect -35 chill factor tonight it is wonderful especially with my passive solar southern windows. Many days the passive solar heats the shop all day without the back up gas required. This next year I plan on hooking up an external wood boiler.

I was a partner in a business in which we heated space with the type of radiant "heat tube in the ceiling". The celings were high and the ceiling tube was very costly and inefficient. It may work if the ceiling isn’t too high. I know some people who have it in their shop and like it. I would suggest looking at some local installations to see if it is for you.

Good luck,

Mark Duginske

[Dave Shively]

Jim,

When I built my shop 3 years ago one of the major things I was going to incorporate into
it was hot water radiant floor heat. I would not even think about doing it any other way.
It is easy to install, maintain and cheap to run. My shop is just over 1500 sq. ft. and there
is about 1500 feet of PEX tubing with six zones. I use a water heater as a boiler filled
with a 50/50 mix of water and anti-freeze. The whole system, water heater, pump &
fittings, PEX tubing expansion tank and all the copper to make up the system was just
under $2000. A boiler alone all be about $2500 to $3000. The slab of concrete heats
up and stays a constant 62 degrees (what I keep the thermostat). No air movement
and no open flame in the shop. The water heater is in a separate utility room with the
DC and the air compressor. If anybody is considering building a new shop, I believe this
is the only kind of heating system.

Dave

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[David G Baker]

Dave,
You have yourself a dream set up. Wish I had seen your set up prior to having mine built. Is your water heater electric or gas?
Thanks for the tour.
David B

[Al Killian]

You can use a hot water tank and baseboard raiidant heaters. This will keep you shop nice and toasty.

[David G Baker]

You can use a hot water tank and baseboard raiidant heaters. This will keep you shop nice and toasty.
Al,
Another good idea. I have an 18'x20' building that I am going to make into my dedicated wood shop. I like to experiment and the base board idea just may do what I need. I am also thinking about making the East side of the building into a passive solar heater. The combination of the two should more than take care of my heating needs as well as be cost effective. If I keep the thermostat at a reasonable temp setting all the better.
David B

[Brian Ross]

I have a schwank radiant tube heater in my shop which is 28 x 48 ft with about a 17 ft ceiling. It is 135,000 btu and does an excellent job. It gets fresh air from the outside and exhausts outside also. I am confused when people make statements such as thinks would freeze if they were under your bench. It heats the whole shop.For the past several weeks my in line thermostat ,which is mounted on the wall, has been covered by sheets of plywood and everything works as normal. They work best in a high ceiling as it gives the opportunity for the heat to spread out. I have included a link that does away with a lot of misconceptions. I might add that I live in Ontario and we probably share the same temperatures. The one mistake I made was initially it was on propane and it was costing about $375 to $425 a month in the winter to heat. I switched to natural gas 2 years ago and my heat bills are a quarter of what they were and the shop is heated all the time
http://www.schwankgroup.com/en/prod-tube-intro.asp
I might add that in floor is the way to go but the ceiling tubes are second best

Brian

[Jim Becker]

The overhead radient tubes are very nice...but generally require a bit of head-room to use. They make different ones for different heights, too.

[Dave Shively]

Dave,

I have a gas water heater. I would not even think about using an electric
one. An electric water heater would just run to often.

Dave

[David G Baker]

Dave,

I have a gas water heater. I would not even think about using an electric
one. An electric water heater would just run to often.

Dave
Dave,
Thanks.
I have a gas line that is about 15 feet from the building and already has an elbow and valve in anticipation of running an underground line to the wood shop building. Looks like I will have to build a hot water heater closet that uses outdoor air for air make up.
No promise but I will try to shoot lots of photos when the project begins and post them here and on the tractorbynet project site.
David B

[Dave Shively]

Dave,

I don't think you will need make up air for the water heater. I don't have any
per se. I also have my DC in this room along with the air compressor so I
added a vent through the wall that inters the main part of the shop. This
has done the job and I don't have any problems.

Dave