The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Shop Heat?

Well here in Upstate NY we already have snow falling and the issue of heating my garage has come around again.
I currently have a propane blueflame heater and a kerosene heater with which I heat my garage and this works OK for some type of projects. The problem with this type of heat is that it adds a lot of moisture to the shop and I feel that it may cause me problems when I paint. I still need to paint my firewall, frame, and cab interior and I am worried about having paint defects from the high humidity and uneven heat. Anythought on this issue?

What do you folks recommend for a good dry heat source for a garage?

I have been toying with the idea of running a dehumidifier with my current heating to dry the air. Has anyone tried this? Thanks.

I would think that the heat itself would dehumidify the air somewhat but with all the moisture on the ground up that way maybe not. I heat my shop, 12' x 24' with one of those dual panel jobs from Coleman that fastens to the top of a propane cylinder. Will heat the place to over 90 degrees if necessary as the shop is insulated with R11. If your firewall is stripped you may want to warm it up before painting with one of your heat sources. Just remember not to spray with a source of ignition anywhere in the room.

I use a ceiling mount LP unit, and I run a dehumidifier year round. Actually
I have two dehumidifier's running, keeps it nice and cool in the summer.

If you have gas cans around or spill any gasoline, you want that pilot light
at least six feet off the ground. (check local laws)

-RT1

I have a LP infrared Dayton hanging heater, heats fast, warms metal, etc in shop,, was not cheap but no pilot, & its up out of the way. I notice no moisture. Brian

I'm a huge fan of pellet stoves.. and when my shop is finished, that's what i'll use.

All the advantages of a wood stove, but no smoke, no soot, no exposed flame.. and it's inexpensive to run. (about $3 for 24 hours of heat)

The reason that propane/natural gas heaters add so much water to the air is that the result of combustion is carbon dioxide and water. You need to go to an externally vented heater or electric if you want to lower the moisture in your shop.

I was considering ceiling-mounted gas radiant heat, but with the price of gas going stupid here, I also have been considering a pellet stove. Will it cover 2,700 square feet of space, though?

I run a 60K BTU house furnace in my shop. As short as my time has been lately, I don't want to wait for the shop and it's contents to warm up and I don't want to tend to keeping a fire stoked. I insulated and sealed my shop up tight and the sealed furnace drips it's condensation into a bucket, not the air. I also put a loft over half of it to lower the area needed to heat.
Scott

One word of caution - this may be something you know already, but a lot of guys don't (including some painters who used to work for me in a manufacturing facility). If you are going to heat that shop for painting, don't get cheap and turn it off when you're done working - keep the heat at the minimum temp recommended by the manufacturer for the minimum cure time. We had steel tanks shot at too low a temp and it caused us no end of headaches.

Good luck!

Pellet stoves come in a wide variety of sizes for different applications, from stoves big enough to heat a single room, to stoves that you tie into a forced air duct system and heat 50,000 sq ft warehouses with.. all priced accordingly, of course.

Most residential units you find at the big warehouse stores are built to heat anywhere from 800 to 2,500 square feet.. the price tends to fluctuate wildly contingent on how fancy the stove is.. and when I say fancy, I don't mean features.. I mean strictly cosmetics.

I picked up this one from Lowes for just under $1,000 and it's supposed to handle up to 2,200 square feet.

Any wood/pellet burning stove, or heater with a standing pilot would worry me in my shop. I would always have to remind myself to check these items before I used a can of brake/kleen, mixed some paint, or did any other task that involved a flammable item. A ceiling mounted gas heater with electronic ignition and fan would be the ticket in my shop.

Stuart

the problem with pelet stoves is smoke damage keep the chimny clean door gaskets good and never leave unatended unless you want to come home to a shop full of smoke ive had 2 and will never have another i now have forced air electric for the shop i have a 2000. pellet stove setting in the corner it holds 3 bags havent used it in 5 years just my 32 cents

I've been thinking about a one of the keroseen heaters I see at the home centers.

Might be a stupid question but I had carb/fuel line problems over the summer and though all is well and the garage has aired out I still have the smell of gas.

Is the lingering smell of gas enough for there to be a fire danger? Don't plan on doing alot this winter, just some light tinkering and the ability to get out of the house, but its damm cold in Ohio(for an old west coast boy).


Bob

Do not like Keroseen heaters they plain scare me. I have a Red Dawg ceiling natural gas heater that heats my 768 sq. ft shop when I added a ceiling fan it really helped.

I am like most tho when I build my new shop I am using wood, its free all I got to do is cut it! The gas prices scare me and winter is the only time I can spend any amount of time in it.

Curious! Do you put up triple wall stove pipe for Pellet as you do wood?

popcorn The Truth is Out There (Good post)

I had one of those torpedo-looking kerosene heaters when I was building my shop, heated great but was smelly & noisy. Would set fire to anything put near the front. One day I came home to find the wife trying to re-light it after filling it up(with the RED CAN!!!!) I got rid of it soon after. Brian

my pellet has a double wall w/ abestos looking "liner" i suppose that would be the equilivant of triple wall. still it's a great heater if you buddy up w/ someone (we get two pallets) and buy pallet quantity you can get the pellets for less than 2.50 bag. get quotes a lot of places around here sell pellets

This is the second season i've had my pellet stove, and i've not had any problem with smoke, smell, or a cloged chimney/exhaust.

Mine sits in the corner of my living room, the exhaust sticks right out the back and thru the wall.. there's a 'T' on the outside so every once and awhile you just open the bottom of the T to clean the stack.. but it rarley has much of anything to clean out.

The only possible way smoke could get into the room with my stoves design is if the door were left open, or the "seal" for the door were to go bad.

The fire is inside the stove, and it sucks the air from outside.. so the only way any flamable fumes could get to the flame would be if they got sucked in from the outside air, or if the door seal went bad. No way i'd buy a unit that didn't use outside air for the intake.

The stove pipe I used with my stove was bought in a kit at the same time I bought the stove.. it's this twist and lock stuff.. I don't know about triple wall, but it's definately double wall.. even when the stove has been running for days, the outside of the stovepipe is not hot to the touch.

The wood pellets burn far more efficiently than seasoned firewood, and even when burned in a traditional fireplace produce far less smoke.. mainly because the moisture content is way lower.

Thanks guys my old garage had wood heat before "pops new place" back then we used triple wall been a few years. Double Wall with insulation wood be as good. Back in the late 70's had alot of house fires I fought because poor stack design.

popcorn The Truth is Out There (Are they making wood and or pellet combination designed fire boxes yet) Guess I need to do some searching. Ben

I've seen stoves that will burn wood, pellets, AND corn.. a "three way" stove.

The cost of LP in my area was thru the roof last year, and when they let my tank go empty TWICE that's when I told them to ram that tank where the sun don't shine. I put in an electric water heater and use the pellet stove as my sole heat source and haven't looked back.. my electric bill actually went DOWN not having to power the ancient squirl cage blower in the old LP furnace.

I'm not really sure how the corn burners work, or how efficiently they convert corn to heat pound for pound as compared to pellets.. but I know, at least around here, corn is actually cheaper than dirt.

I have been told, that radiant heat in the floor is the way to go. But unless you are building a new shop, it would be quite costly to replace the floor. I know overhead radiant (tube type) works well, although it requires a high ceiling. I would think that the pellet stove idea would be worth pursuing. The only real downfall I imagine wood be the floor space it may require. I would think that they get as hot as a wood stove, so you would probably need to keep anything that will burn away (like your wall). Although, I do remember seeing wood stoves with some kind of shield on the wall behind.

Cujo,I'm your NY neighbor,just moved from Webster to Ontario NY,got a 1000 square foot insulated garage.Give me a call on my cell,585-315-9678,come on over and check out my garage heat.
After considering all types of heating,we do heat the house with wood only,I bought a ceiling hung natural gas fired unit heater.I even had to pay around 1200 bucks to have the gas line run 500 foot from the road for the garage,no gas at the house.So the total cost was 1700 bucks with me doing the heater and interior gas pipe.Less than the price of a corn stove anyways
In a garage used for storing vehicles,the combustion part of any furnace should be a minimum of 18 inches above the floor,and ceiling hung is best.Potentially explosive gas fumes will accumulate at floor level,and old trucks with atmosphere vented fuel tanks do give off gas fumes.In fact,all spark producing devices,such as electricial outlets also need to meet the code.
If for some reason you have a garage fire,your insurance company may try to reduce the claim if for any reason of non complience with building codes,such as non approved heaters,faulty wiring etc.Even if the non complience had nothing to do with the cause of the fire.The label on the Dayton heater I installed says it meets all current building codes for residential and commercial garages if installed according to directions.If you don't have insurance,ya gotta be extra careful of course.
All those less expensive means of heating a shop mean nothing if you lose your truck or tools cause of a fire and the insurance company refuses to pay.