How do you guys heat your shops in the winter time?

[OldPaint]

and living in SARASOTA for 19 years..........when the temps hit 35 degrees NOBODY WORKS)))))) except for people who fish for SNOOK!!! cold water moves em int to creeks.......

 

[BobCap]

Northern Minnesota

We heat my shop and home with natural gas. I live upstairs of the shop.

The bill gets up to the 600-700 per month range as we get towards February.

Although this year we've had quite a bit of subzero temps so far. I'm sure the bill will be up there.

I used to heat with solar but in this climate the panels turn to crap in a few years. Doesn't pay.

Bob Cap
AAI
Gilbert, MN

 

[SIGNTIME]

2,000sqft with a block wall in the middle we have 2 propane heaters one on each side... turn them down to 50* on nights and weekends and 70* durning the day they take about 10-15 to warm up the shop average propane bill in winter months is around $300-$350 the tanks get filled once a month

 

[Joe Diaz]

Like most of you, (I'm assuming) we are constantly opening and closing the garage doors, so in the winter a bunch of heat escapes every time we do. So we have two huge industrial hanging heaters pointed at where vehicles are normally parked. It's just as important for us to heat up the surface of those vehicles we are working on as the work space. So those bad boys blast heat down and as a result actually do a nice job heating the entire building. Then we have a second office building to heat as well. So, our gas bill is pretty high this time of year.

 

[gabagoo]

We run natural gas with one of those indoor gas heaters that blows dust and crap everywhere and sucks $$$$$$

Last winter I decided to put in a 20' tube heater and it has been great. I am pretty sure the gas bills have gone down, but better than that it is a lot more comfortable in the back shop as it heats the objects and not just the air. Still have the blower heater hooked up just in case. The front shop runs off a rooftop furnace heat and ac unit.

 

[gabagoo]

I got tired of spending $500 a month on propane so I went out and bought a few of those oil filled space heaters and they work great. only increased my elecric $100 a month. We had a week this winter where it got down below 0 and the shop didn't get below 65.

one thing you may consider as well is increasing the installation you have at your shop.

I had to use 2 of these units a few years ago when we had issues with our rooftop unit going on and off. never knew when I might come in with absolutely no heat, so we kept those on low when we were not around, but the electricity bill skyrocketed..so we bit the bullet and had someone come in and fix whatever the issue was with the rooftop unit.

 

[Billct2]

Anybody ever try one of those segemented curtains for the overhead door? Seems a lot of heat could be saved.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Natural gas dust blowers.About a thousand a month for dec,jan & feb

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

Interesting turn of events. The tech came to fix the heat pump and the first thing that he asked for was the manual. Turns out they don't install too many of these. So when he was thumbing through the manual he found that the guy from his company who installed it, installed it wrong. Instead of the unit sitting outside on the ground it is supposed to be raised off the ground 5 inches to allow the water to drain when it goes through it's defrost cycle.

Called the sales rep to yell at him and he made the mistake of telling me that he told my wife before we bought it that once it got to 20 degrees outside the unit wouldn't work. My wife is one smart cookie, smarter than me I would have to say -- and he never said that to her. I lived in Wisconsin for 37 years and I can tell you that it is below 20 degrees for most of the winter. Why in the heck would I install a unit that doesn't work when it gets cold outside. I think he started to squirm when I resent him an email from when we bought the unit and I questioned him if it would work in our shop and he said it would.

I think it's time to rip out the unit and get my $ back and have a different company come and install a furnace.

 

[jmcnicoll]

How much insulation in walls and ceiling? How well was insulation installed? Sky lights? If its insulated well it should hold temp pretty well, even in the weather we've been having lately.

 

[The Big Squeegee]

I have a 10,000 square foot building.

I only use about half of it to do the squeegee manufacturing. In the other half, I store 22 metric tons of coconut coir and maintain a 45 ton worm farm. When it looks like a bit of cold weather is coming in, I'll put an extra amount of organic material into the worm bin and water it in. The extra worm food goes into an anaerobic state and heats up to about 120°. The worms don't consume the food until it cools back down so it heats for several days. I alternate the hot spots to keep a steady flow of heat coming out of the worm bins. The 47 tons of mass in the shop also maintains a steady heat source as a heat sink. I have to water the worms often because of evaporation. The humidity is maintained at about 33-60%.

No big heating bill here. The down side is that I will have to do a lot of fishing this summer! The worms total about 2500 pounds. I do have a heat pump for summer cooling.

 

[Speedsterbeast]

Never thought this thread would get into worm farms when i started reading.
My new shop has in floor in the slab. Just got it up to temperature and man its nice. Want to build a couple of soda can heaters - see youtube

 

[FireSprint.com]

Russian Masonry Stove

This guy talks a little slow, but I really want to build one of these.

[video=youtube;fbRi8XROncM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbRi8XROncM[/video]

The EPA even recommends them. They burn so hot, they give off very few pollutants.

 

[James Burke]

This guy talks a little slow, but I really want to build one of these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbRi8XROncM

That was an interesting video and the examples are stunning, but he doesn't mention how he cleans out the creosote. From the looks of it, it would be impossible to do so. Regardless of the efficiency, it will still have creosote along with soot and flyash that will accumulate in the hardest to reach places.


JB

 

[OldPaint]

james.....the guy kept saying it burns HOTTER then a regular fireplace/stove. keeping that in mind it will not allow collection of creosote(only get this if you burn PINE) or fly ash. hotter burning =less residue know as ashes.... as for the heating of masonry....look at the pic of my wood stove, ceramic material behind it and below it...heats up allows more heat to stay in room..its been a long known fact...that this material hold and stores heat. long before bricks, most fire places were made of stone. high heat, the stones get hot, hold heat and release it slowly. i do pottery, with kilns. to reach bisque temp 1700 degrees............takes a good 8 hours. THEN IT TAKES THAT and 4-5 hours more to come back to room temp. when doing a glaze firing double the time as now your heating to 2200 degrees. when my shop is cold i plug in a KILN put the ceiling fan on low)))))

 

[wunder]

i hear that different user needs only the HP-LATEX Printer......best Heating System :ROFLMAO: and VERY cheap too

best regards
wunder

 

[FireSprint.com]

That was an interesting video and the examples are stunning, but he doesn't mention how he cleans out the creosote. From the looks of it, it would be impossible to do so. Regardless of the efficiency, it will still have creosote along with soot and flyash that will accumulate in the hardest to reach places.


JB

I don't have one of these so I don't know, but word on the street says they don't need to be cleaned. The EPA website I linked to stated "The relatively small but intense fire also results in very little air pollution and very little creosote buildup in the chimney."

 

[phototec]

Interesting turn of events. The tech came to fix the heat pump and the first thing that he asked for was the manual. Turns out they don't install too many of these. So when he was thumbing through the manual he found that the guy from his company who installed it, installed it wrong. Instead of the unit sitting outside on the ground it is supposed to be raised off the ground 5 inches to allow the water to drain when it goes through it's defrost cycle.

Called the sales rep to yell at him and he made the mistake of telling me that he told my wife before we bought it that once it got to 20 degrees outside the unit wouldn't work. My wife is one smart cookie, smarter than me I would have to say -- and he never said that to her. I lived in Wisconsin for 37 years and I can tell you that it is below 20 degrees for most of the winter. Why in the heck would I install a unit that doesn't work when it gets cold outside. I think he started to squirm when I resent him an email from when we bought the unit and I questioned him if it would work in our shop and he said it would.

I think it's time to rip out the unit and get my $ back and have a different company come and install a furnace.

Here in central Texas heat pumps are very popular, and you are correct, they DON'T work when the temp gets below 30° (very rare here), and the heat pump units have an auxiliary electric heat strip that only comes on when either the temp is below the point at which the unit can squeeze heat from the cold air (about 35°), or it can be turned on for emergency heat if the compressor fails (has happened once in 16 years).

Heat pumps recover heat from the outside air, but when the temp drops below freezing, there is no heat to recover. ​

I heat 3200 s/f with two Lennox scroll heat pump/AC units (I'm in a rural location with no natural gas and Propane is very costly and a hassle to always have to fill the tanks), I am all electric. I keep the temp at 68° during the day, and cooler at night.


My last electric bill was $166 and because it has been very cold here the last few weeks, I expect the next bill to be near $200. Typically it will remain cold her thru February, last night it was 30°, today it's suppose to get to 50° and up to 61° tomorrow.


For us with only electricity, the Lennox Scroll heat pump is the most efficient source of heat, I do however use a small ceramic electric heater located in the printer room to keep the printer nice and cozy as I use a setback thermostat to drop the overall temp to 60° over night.


Here is a short video to show how a heat pump works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14MmsNPtn6U

 

[James Burke]

He mentions the differences between “black oven” and “white oven” masonry heaters. The former routes the flue gasses through the monolith of masonry, whereas the latter is indirectly warmed by the flue gasses and radiant heat.

My setup would be considered a white oven. The attached photo shows the (blue) interior 8” x 8” path of the rising heat. Since this photo was taken, I’ve added another three course of block so the heat takes one more turn before exiting into the shop. A 12” diameter duct next to the opening at the very top allows the rising heat to feed into the main trunk of the upstairs heat runs.

 

[Oneoffgrafx]

friend has a shop the fire can go out all nite and most of the day, still is 60 or better inside. They put in about 2 feet of the cotton blow in in the ceiling.