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Joe D'Attilio
02-19-2008, 12:03 PM
In the midst of jsut starting out; I have a perfectly usable 1 car garage (18' X 9')

I'm planning on tackling woodworking the neander way so obviously I don't have to worry bout a HUGE Dust collection, or table placement.

BAckground: the garage is unfinished, off of a finished basement; however we are a little tight right now$$ to go at the planned framing and insulation project.
It doesn't have to be "tropical", once i get going, I'm sure it will be warm enough - just soemthing to that I can turn on 10-15 mins prior and take the dampness out..maybe keep the temp around 50-60.

2 questions:

Once insulated; can some recommend a nice heating solution that will not add $100s to the already high gas bill(our gas bill for a 50+ yr old home during these cold months is $200+ - gas heat)

The other, what range should the BTU rating be around?
Do I need more than 1000? 10000??

Some options I was considering was a wood stove for 2 reasons
I can get rid of those fast piling-up woodchips and shavings and heat the garage. - Kind alike recycling.

An electric unit mounted to the ceiling - again not sure on the BTU rating needed for efficiency.

Possibly tap the existing gas heating unit and add some baseboard (Problem as with the Wood stove idea is the heater and chimney are at the opposite end of the house)

Keep in mind I won't be down there every day. Maybe 2-3 nights a week and some weekend use.

Any insight would be great! Thanks Everyone in advance

Matt Meiser
02-19-2008, 12:17 PM
Some options I was considering was a wood stove for 2 reasons
I can get rid of those fast piling-up woodchips and shavings and heat the garage. - Kind alike recycling.[ /quote]

Talk to your insurance agent first. Your insurance could skyrocket. Or they could refuse to insure you at all.

[quote=Joe D'Attilio;779517]An electric unit mounted to the ceiling - again not sure on the BTU rating needed for efficiency.

Electric can be expensive to run, but its easy to install, and if you are only going to run it for a few hours a week it might be a good way to go.


Possibly tap the existing gas heating unit and add some baseboard (Problem as with the Wood stove idea is the heater and chimney are at the opposite end of the house)

Are you going to heat it all the time? If you put it on its own zone and shut if off, how do you keep it from freezing?

Take a look at the Modine Hot Dawg heaters. They are gas, work great, and can vent through a sidewall in many situations.

Ben Cadotte
02-19-2008, 1:51 PM
I would suggest against any floor level type heating. You will want the space / be putting stuff in front of it. That also means no wood burner, as that will require at least a couple feet of clear area around it.

Not sure which is more friendly nat gas or electric price wise for you. A good rule of thumb is 3.5 times the wattage of an electric heater = BTU's for comparison.

Next would be do you have some extra circuits for adding electric heat? The bigger ones will need a 240v circuit (2 spaces). I have seen 240v 18-20000 btu electric heaters between $100 and $150. If you don't have alot of spcae in your panel best bet would be to add a small sub panel right in the workshop / garage area. Can get a 12 space apartment panel for $30 at a borg. I think electric is probably best for you since its tempoary heat (just when your in there). And if you have a couple extra circuits and its really cold can use a cheap portable 110v electric to bump temp up. But I am thinking 18-20k btu electric should suit you fine (4800 to 5600 watt electric). And they take very little room!

Jason Morgan
02-19-2008, 10:46 PM
I have a 24x36 3 car garage that I insulated and can now heat with 2 5000W electric heaters. I go turn them on about 30min before I want to go out there and I can get it from 32F to 63F (where I work) in about that much time. The other day it was -10F out and the heaters had a hard time keeping it 60F, but if its above zero, then they have no trouble at all. I would eventually like to put in gas heat, but this was easy and had not added that much to the electric bill from what I can see. maybe $30/month and I run it a couple nights a week and most of the weekend. I figure Dec, Jan, Feb, March I'll need it, then Ill be fine for the rest of the year. I went with that over a portable or no vent unit because of moisture concerns of which I have had none. Humidity is never above 50%, even with snow melt from the car that is parked in there with it. I have seen no hint of rust anywhere. I put R15 in the walls and had them blow R38 in the ceiling. If you have living space on two sides of your garage (top? and side?) you should be all the better. I must say, I love the space and for now its all that I could hpe for. Oh sure, I would like to have a 30x50 dedicated outbuilding with all the trimmings, but for now, I can build anything and everything year round without too much hassle. My past shop was in the basement of our old house and that was nice from a heating/cooling standpoint, but not from a dust/materials in-out standpoint. 5000 W heaters will require 240V circuit. I put in a 60A sub panel and can run both heaters (one circuit) table saw (another circuit) and dust collector (another circuit) all at the same time without any problems.

Chris Stolicky
02-21-2008, 7:33 PM
I have an insulated 12' x 16' shop with a rather low ceiling. However, it is detached from the house and is in upstate NY, so it does get cold outside!

I have a propane heater that attaches to the top of a 20# propane cylinder. I believe it goes up to 15k btu. I only use it to warm up the shop qickly at the beginning. 2 reasons - it burns the oxygen in the air (& potentially emits CO), and a flame with saw dust is never a good combination. I don't even go through a whole tank over the course of the winter.

Beyond that, I simply use one of the portable oil filled (radiator-style) electric space heaters with a variable control on it. I did get the one that is programmable so I can have it come on automatically at any time of the day - to either preheat or maintain temp above freezing. I think it was in the $50-$60 range, the non-programmable ones are like $35-$40. It never gets hot enough to burn anything, but puts out a steady nice heat.

The best thing of all - each one is portable and I do not commit any permanent valuable small-shop space to them.

Ken Fitzgerald
02-21-2008, 8:30 PM
Joe,

I have a stick built 24x30 stand alone shop. The walls are insulated to R-19 and the ceiling to R-40. The shop has a 10' insulated garage door, a 36" insulated walk in door and 3 4'x3' thermopane windows.

My gas bill adds about $30 per month. I typically set the thermostat to 58º F when I'm not in there and 63º F when I am. My wife had a 75,000 btu Lennox hanging natural gas furnace installed. It takes about 30 minutes for it to warm up. I often will go to the shop, turn the thermostat up and return to the house for 1 more cup of coffee. Go to the shop and it's comfortable.

Joe D'Attilio
02-21-2008, 8:54 PM
Thanks for all your help - I can now shop for a heater with a better perspective to the size of the room and the BTU's I need

Forgive me -but how many BTU's is a normal home furnace for roughly 1500 sq ft?

John Fricke
02-21-2008, 9:33 PM
My new well insu;ated house has 80000 btu propane forced air furnace 1700 sq ft

Matt Meiser
02-22-2008, 8:37 AM
Our 1900 sqft house has a 60K BTU furnace.

But furnace sizing should be much more than square footage. Insulation, doors and windows are all figured in and probably a lot more I don't know about. When I installed the heat in my shop one of the mechanical engineers at work used a spreadsheet he had to figure out what I needed.

Rob Russell
02-22-2008, 9:15 AM
Thanks for all your help - I can now shop for a heater with a better perspective to the size of the room and the BTU's I need

Forgive me -but how many BTU's is a normal home furnace for roughly 1500 sq ft?

Something to consider is that propane will put moisture into the air and cold Nander tool blades could attract that moisture. If you go the propane/gas furnace route, I'd make sure it has an external air feed and vent.

I also wouldn't discount the wood stove. You can get a sleeved flue that would go through your shop wall. One nice thing about wood stoves is that they dry things out instead of putting moisture into the air. There's also something really nice about the radiant heat a wood stove puts out.

Chris Stolicky
02-22-2008, 9:27 AM
Oh yeah, moisture. I forget to mention that. I do have an old dehumidifer that I run every once in a while to pull moisture out of the shop. It does a pretty good job.

Don Middleton
02-25-2008, 2:48 AM
Taking into consideration my fairly small space and intermittent use - not to mention the unavailability of a natural gas feed - I went with electric. I has turned out to be a very workable choice for my situation. More details in an earlier thread:

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=63194

don