Barn workshop heating question

[Steve Goetz]

Hello All,

I'm in the planning stages of heating my barn workshop. I'm needing to run natural gas to the barn, but was unsure if the distance I have to go is suitable for my application.
I was given about 300' of 1-1/4" yellow gas line, so what my thoughts were was to run this from my outside meter to my house, around and to the barn. This is a distance of approx. 170'. Plus once inside I will be traveling inside to the back of the barn which is an additional 40+ feet.
My barn is 24' x 32' with 12' sidewalls. It will be insulated before I turn the heat on, but that's a project for next summer.
My question is this....how big of heater do I need to do the job and will I have enough volume for the distance I will be traveling?
Also, what kind of heater do you all recommend? radiant, force-air, etc.
Does anyone have an electric heater in a barn this size? Wondering if that may be a possibility.

Thanks for the input,


Steve

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve,

My shop is 24'x30' with 10' ceilings. The walls are insulated to R-19 and the ceiling is insulated to R-40. I use an Lennox 75,000 btu furnace (natural gas) and it works well.

It is tied to our house gas line and we saw little increase in the utility bill when we added the shop.

[David G Baker]

I have a well insulated 30x40x10 pole building that I heat with 75,000 BTU natural gas furnace. The building is approximately 200 feet from the gas meter and the gas runs through 3/4" yellow plastic. It works fine. I have to clear the lines in the Fall prior to using the furnace.

[Matt Meiser]

My shop is about 6' wider but same height and length. I use a 75K BTU Hot Dawg-style heater which has served me well. Walls are R-19 and ceiling has about 18" of cellulose. I've got a 12x12 insulated overhead door which is probably a bit of a heat loss monster. Over the past 6 winters I had a 125gal propane tank. The house had a 330gal and both needed fills around the same time. That was keeping the shop about 40 all the time, then turning it up to 62 when I wanted to work out there. Probably about 4-5 fills per season but I didn't really keep track since we only looked at our annual usage for both combined.

Line sizing depends on pressure, distance, and BTUs required. The line I had run to my shop this summer is 1" for a 75K BTU furnace. Its tied to the 7" WC system in the house a little over 150'. The gas company ran, I believe, 1/2" from the road to the house, also around 150', but that's at 60PSI. That's enough capacity for a 60K BTU furnace, 75K BTU furnace, water heater, stove, dryer, fireplace and 20KW generator.

From what I understand, the risers required for the yellow plastic pipe are EX-PEN-SIVE (didn't see the actual price of mine, but that's what I was told.) You might price risers and pipe in the size you actually need in addition to risers for the pipe you have. Also, that yellow pipe comes in CTS (copper tube size) and IPS (iron pipe size) so make sure you know what you have when buying risers. The only reason I know that is because there was a couple day delay in my project when the contractor received the wrong pipe. Took 3 of us looking at it to finally realize the difference.

Normally they would have put a T at the outlet of the meter and ran the line to the shop from there but the way everything is laid out it was a lot less pipe and trenching to have the line run through the house--and most of that was existing or required as part of the conversion anyway. They were even able to reuse what was the propane inlet to the house as the NG outlet to the shop because it was iron pipe of the proper size.

[Nick Lazz]

Steve,

If I follow you correctly, you are planning on running underground pipe to your barn from you house meter. If this is correct, the psi for most homes is around .5psi. I think the distance you are travelling may be too far unless you run 1" pipe. Your gas company should be able to answer that question for you.
Also, you might be able to change your meter out from .5 psi to 2 psi meter which may be enough to solve your friction loss / volume problem. This is another question for your gas company.

Edited to add: If you are not venting your gas heater you may have a humidity problem in your workshop, which can be a problem for woodworking and your tools. For unit heaters, an electric heater may be better in a wood shop. I'm sure others will chime in that are more smarter than me....just a thought.
Nick

[Matt Meiser]

All the unit heaters I'be seen are vented?

Running at 2 PSI will mean adding a regulator at the house inlet or each appliance according to what I was told by our gas company. Be sure to figure that into any cost comparisons.