alternate ways of heating workshops

[brad kellner]

i was talking to an electrician on one of the jobsites i was working on about lighting my new workshop. and he recamended using hid lighting with vented reflectors with inline fans pulling the heat from the reflector and blowing it out at the floor. he really sold me on the idea. he was telling me as for lighting the shop it isnt the most cost efficent but in the cold months it could help warm the shop quite efficenctly. i knew these lights produced alot of heat but how well? i was greatly surprised.

i went out and bought 4-400w hps ballast, sockets, and bulbs. wired it up in the shop temporarily and hung the lamps from the cieling rafters with tie wire. and after having everything wired and the lights suspended from the cieling i waited for night time, when temps would drop to around 40 degrees and i turned them on and left the shop and went into the house for an hour and came back and the temp was at 48 degrees. another hour it was up to 56 degrees and topped off at 65 degrees. witch temp wise was comfortable. this was over a 3 hour span which i would assume would not take as long if the shop was insulated.

so i am debating following through with using this method of heating the shop. becuase i did notice some downfalls with it also. one down fall is that it is only heating the shop while the lights are on and you are in there using the lighting. and when you are not in there with the lights on it gets cold and then you have some supplies like glue freezing and going bad. another downfall i realized is the yellow-orange light. that would make color matching pointless and unless you had high ceilings you would have alot of dark corner (this could be fixed by painting the ceiling white and hanging the lights about 2-3 feet below the ceiling and aiming the lights at the ceiling to difuse the light and spread it out over the shop.

another way of heating the shop i have been thinking about is using electric radiant heat panel mounted to the ceiling. i read that they are cheap to operate and that they heat the objects in the room and not the air. so then your not running a flame while making a bunch of flamable dust. plus i figure i could use these and set the temp at 50-55 degrees to keep everything above freezing and then heat the shop with the hid lights to heat the shop while im in there working. granted i would need some flouro lights with cool white bulbs to counteract the yellow-orange lighting from the high pressure sodium bulbs.

can anyone working in this field or that has more knowledge in the area chime in and give me some guidence or correct any mis-information i have been given. and if possible tell me were i could locate some liturature on the heat panels and about their effiency. i googled heat panels and couldnt find any useful info.

thanks

[Rollie Meyers]

I have 3- 400W Metal Halide high bay fixtures that do provide heat in the winter but they use 480 watts per fixure (120V X 4.0 amperes = 480 watts) nearly 1500 watts will add up though.

[Jim Becker]

Interesting, Brad. But what about the effect on your work environment in the summer? That's a pretty big heat rise based on your description. The other question would be relative to the efficiency you bring up. If so much of the power is going to heat, how much is actually providing light?

[Ed Breen]

Brad I've got an overhead propane heating system that heats the objects below it and gives me good heat. the intake is on the north wall and the exhaust is on the south wall which gives me about 20 feet of tubes. You need at least 10 foot ceils
Ed

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Brad, you have the worlds most expensive 1.6Kw electric heater.

The 1,600 watts of electricity won't heat your shop any better, or for any less money than a 1,600 watt baseboard heater.

In addition, the colour rendition is very poor on these lights, making it very difficult to apply finish to a project under that lighting.

If you are working in the summer, you will still have the 1,600 watt heaters running whenever you turn on the lights.

Regards, Rod.

[Rollie Meyers]

Hi Brad, you have the worlds most expensive 1.6Kw electric heater.

The 1,600 watts of electricity won't heat your shop any better, or for any less money than a 1,600 watt baseboard heater.

In addition, the colour rendition is very poor on these lights, making it very difficult to apply finish to a project under that lighting.

If you are working in the summer, you will still have the 1,600 watt heaters running whenever you turn on the lights.

Regards, Rod.

High Pressure Sodium, (HPS) for indoor lighting is terrible even worse is Low Pressure Sodium, (LPS) since LPS is mono chromatic (yellow color) Metal Halide, (MH) is the best HID light source for indoor lighting.
I live in a fairly mild climate so in winter my lights are fine & are normally used when a extra amount of light is wanted / needed.

[Peter Quadarella]

I was considering a wood burning stove for my imaginary shop.

[Rollie Meyers]

I was considering a wood burning stove for my imaginary shop.

Wish there was room for one...

[Peter Quadarella]

In my imaginary dream shop, there is room for everything .

[Jim Becker]

I was considering a wood burning stove for my imaginary shop.

I hear that the imaginary splitting and stacking of wood is pretty easy, too...

[Jim Eller]

I solved that problem by moving from Michigan to Tennessee

[brad kellner]

you would be surprised on the amount of heat these lights put out. i bought electronic ballast instead of magnetic coil ballast so i can switch to metal halide with the switch of a bulb. the color rendoring for hps bulbs is horrible. but i can switch to metal halide. but the heat from these bulbs is surprizing. they do put out alot of heat. and redirecting it to the floor to get the most out of the heat i think is going to help out alot. but metal halide or high pressure sodium they both give bad color rendering.

but i have been looking into electric radiant heat panels. i like the idea of being able to turn them off in the summer. i wish i could find a good site on info for the electric radiant heat panels.

this shop i have doesnt have a high ceiling which is what is discouraging about hps lighting. when i build a new shop later on down the road im definetly going with 12ft ceilings and running a couple hid lights with flourecent lights to suppliment the dark corners.

[Steve Clardy]

I hear that the imaginary splitting and stacking of wood is pretty easy, too...

Yep....but it gets harder as you age

Oops. That doesn't sound right.

[AL Ursich]

I went with a direct vent propane heater.

AL

[jim oakes]

I've been using 250 watt heat lamp bulbs for heat and light in my shop. They are cheap and last longer than plain 250 watt incandescent bulbs.