Heating a garage workshop

[Bob Weisner]

Hi:

I am planning on building a new garage and putting my woodworking tools in it. I need some suggestions for heating the garage. The garage would be a detached garage and would not be used for the car. I was thinking of putting a woodstove in it to heat the garage. The sawdust from the dust collector would be blown outside the garage into a metal or wood storage bin. The garage itself would be a 1 1/2 car garage. The workshop would have all the standard woodworking tools plus room for lumber storage. I looked at many different woodstoves and thought that the Wondercoal stove would provide enough heat for the workshop. It produces 40-50,000 BTU's per hour.

Thanks,

Bob

[Chris Padilla]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?threadid=6439

Bob,

Read the thread above posted in the OT section...I think you'll find it very enlightening...I sure did.

[Jim Becker]

A agree with Chris...Bobby's thread is most informative and if your building is going to be a dedicated shop, in-floor radient should be at the top of your short-list. If I were building a shop from the ground up today...that's what I'd use, for sure.

A wood stove might be a bad idea, especially if you are going to blow the DC outside...that can cause a reversal of the flue gasses and cause a very dangerous situation in your shop. If you have to use a heating method that involves combustion, you need to keep the air your DC is pushing "in" the shop. (Or open a window which doesn't help the heating situation...)

[John Christiansen]

Hi:

I am planning on building a new garage and putting my woodworking tools in it. I need some suggestions for heating the garage. The garage would be a detached garage and would not be used for the car. I was thinking of putting a woodstove in it to heat the garage. The sawdust from the dust collector would be blown outside the garage into a metal or wood storage bin. The garage itself would be a 1 1/2 car garage. The workshop would have all the standard woodworking tools plus room for lumber storage. I looked at many different woodstoves and thought that the Wondercoal stove would provide enough heat for the workshop. It produces 40-50,000 BTU's per hour.

Thanks,

Bob


As long as you are going to continue exhausting your dust collector to the outside, you will have problems. The least of which will be trying to create more heat than you are throwing outside. But the real danger will be a negative pressure situation if your shop is tight, drawing combustion fumes/smoke back into your space.

[Wolf Kiessling]

Hi:

I am planning on building a new garage and putting my woodworking tools in it. I need some suggestions for heating the garage. The garage would be a detached garage and would not be used for the car. I was thinking of putting a woodstove in it to heat the garage. The sawdust from the dust collector would be blown outside the garage into a metal or wood storage bin. The garage itself would be a 1 1/2 car garage. The workshop would have all the standard woodworking tools plus room for lumber storage. I looked at many different woodstoves and thought that the Wondercoal stove would provide enough heat for the workshop. It produces 40-50,000 BTU's per hour.

Thanks,

Bob

My current shop is, as was my last shop, a detached garage. I have tried woodstove, tube type propane heater and a variety of electric space heaters. Since air conditioning is also important to me, I decided to finally bite the bullet and have an HVAC system installed. Barring the initial cost, I believe it is the most efficient and economical to operate plus I have the added benefit of not having had to purchase the ambient air cleaner I was getting ready to install. The Penn State DC doesn't do a very good job of keeping the dust down but the air return filter in the HVAC system sure does a good job of trapping it. I kicked the idea around for about a year since I really didn't want to spend that much money but SWMBO supported me in the decision and I'm really happy that I did it. I got three estimates, they ranged in price from 2850 to 3600 dollars; I called the guy with the lowest estimate and did a little extra negotiation and got the whole thing installed for 2650.

Wolf

[David Miller]

Bob,

I completed my garage/shop this past summer and installed tubing in the floor for radiant heating. I completed the heating system in October. You should definitely consider using radiant floor heat for your shop. It is very comfortable (no drafts). I am using an electric tankless water heat for the hot water. Once I got the flow rate issues worked out, the system works like a charm. I used the radiant floor company for the parts and a seisco water heater. You may want to consider other hot water sources (gas, oil, propane, etc..) if you have the option.

I'd also recommend that you spend the extra $$$ to insulate the shop well. I used 2x6's for the walls for the extra insulation and I have 9 inches of insulation overhead. Definetly lessens the demand on the heater and it helps keep it cool in the summer (I use a window A/C unit).

-Dave

[John Miliunas]

I guess this is just a reiteration of what the other guys said. Do NOT exhaust your DC to the outside, unless you want to create a negative draft. In the case of radiant heat, chances are you'd have the hot water source in there, as well and, unless it's electric, same goes for gaseous fumes. And even if you heat source is non-volitile, you'd still be blowing your conditioned air into the great outdoors. It wouldn't take much for even a smaller DC to evacuate a LOT of your heat. So, in any event, configure your DC to flow the return air back into your shop. As for the heat source itself, if $$ is an issue (when isn't it?!), I'd consider doing what I did and get yourself into a nice Hot Dawg or similar. For a 1-1/2 car garage and decent insulation, you could easily get by with their 30K BTU unit. I have found it to be exceptionally convenient and efficient. An added benefit is that you hang it from above, thus retaining valuable floor real estate. Don't need to mess with hauling burning material in or hauling ash out. I also added a setback thermostat and programmed it to start kicking out to a comfy temp about an hour before I get home from work. It's been great. I do agree, though, that the in-floor or ceiling mounted radiant heat is by far the most efficient, albeit also quite expensive on the initial outlay. :cool:

[Stan Smith]

I had been using a propane tank topper for a few years. I was reluctant to do much while it was on though because of the open flame. Even worse were the fumes. I have very good insulation in my detached garage shop so I didn't have to leave it on very long to heat the place up. Then, on the forum, I found out about a Dimplex Heater (Nothern Tool Co.) for $150. It can be portable or suspended from the ceiling and runs on 220. It also has a thermostat and cycles on and off once the desired temp is reached. It actually has a heating element, similar to a hot plate, but it doesn't get red hot like a hot plate. The fan is behind the element and I can feel the hot air from the far corner. Since my shop was already constructed, this was a good solution for my heat problem. I also got a little panasonic ac unit from Costco for $120 and stuck it in half of a small side window. Also a wonderful thing

Stan

[Matt Meiser]

I also just installed a unit heater similar to John's Hot Dawg heater, but made by Beacon-Morris and am very happy with it. Installation was pretty straight forward too. Around here, Home Depot and Carter Lumber both stock the smaller units.

[jerry cousins]

i did similar to john & matt - in a 3+ car sized, detached shop - this year put in a reznor - ceiling mount - propane unit (very similar to the hot dawg) -
this was after years of using kerosene torpedo heaters and propanes. cost for the unit was about $500 - installation is pretty easy (xcept for converting the unit from natural gas to propane - had someone take care of that).

a great source of heat -

jerry