flameless heat for 2 car garage?

[Michael Leb]

i have 21x25 slab floor garage which is my shop. need a way to heat it cheaply without a flame as i'm going to make a small 4ft. by 8ft. section a setup -teardown spray booth. i'll be spraying all solvent based laquers. any help would be app.

[Bryan Cramer]

I have a small inexpensive ceiling hung heater like this. My shop is about the same size. It has worked for eight years with no problem. (I live in North Dakota so it gets quite a workout) I have never sprayed laquer with a spray gun, but I do use rattle cans for small items in front of an open door. I would be very cautious, the fine spray is very flamable, one spark = flash fire. Can you spray out side and then bring it inside to dry? Some people shut the heat off and then exhaust the spray and fumes (along with thier heat) outside with a fan, then warm the shop back up to dry the finish. I would be nervous spraying large amounts of laquer around even an electric heater, all it takes is one spark. The heater I mentioned works great for a wood shop, just make sure to blow out the fine dust often. As for the spraying part maybe some more expert sprayers could give some advice. You could try doing a search or posting a different thread in the finishing section about spray booths and heating them. Where you live makes a difference as well.

[Greg Portland]

i have 21x25 slab floor garage which is my shop. need a way to heat it cheaply without a flame as i'm going to make a small 4ft. by 8ft. section a setup -teardown spray booth. i'll be spraying all solvent based laquers. any help would be app.

I think the easiest way to go here is to make your spray booth so it filters out all the fumes. There are explosion proof heaters but they are $$$. Some alternative but still expensive options would be minisplit heat pumps or radiators + a boiler/water heater that's not in the shop. I think a unit like the Modine Hawtdog that uses external air for combustion should be fine if you're filtering the air from your booth.

[Don Jarvie]

+1 on the electric heater. If you insulate well enough and put in a wood floor you can heat up the shop and turn it off then spray. If its insulated it will hold the heat until the finish dries. My shop holds the heat for about 6 hours - 60 to 40.

[Bryan Cramer]

+1 on insulation! Right now it is -5*F and my shop is 58*F. Upgrade the grage doors and thier weather stripping, they are a big heat sink.

[Richard Mellor]

Hi, we have used heated ceiling panels for many years and have sprayed solvents without any problems.I don't know if this is recommended, but I cannot see why it would cause any problems.
I forget who we bought them from, but a quick Google search highlighted several companies.
http://www.infraredheaters.com/ceiling.html

[Joe A Faulkner]

I heat a two car detached cinder block garage with two 1500 watt electric oil-filled, radiator-style heaters. The shop is reasonably well insulated which is the key.
I set both heaters on lowest setting - keeps shop over 40 degrees and warms to 60 within an hour or so which is plenty warm for me when working in the winter. I calculate my operational costs to about $3 per day on average - December through March.

I use something similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-MG730...adiator+heater. I have a concrete floor. Our winters are bit colder in Indiana than what you experience in Oregon. Down side to these units is that they take up a small amount of floor space. Upside is that in the summer, you can store them out of the way, and they are inexpensive, and have a thermostat.

[Carl Beckett]

Insulation is everything

If you start creeping up the budget ladder, you could go with a small split mini heat pump and have AC/dehumidification as well

[Jeremy Brant]

I'm using a heater similar to Bryan for my 400 sq ft garage. I have almost no insulation and mostly open 10 ft ceilings and the 5000 watt unit makes it comfortable in an hour. Granted I live in Virginia and it doesn't get too terribly cold and I don't typically work in the morning so the garage has picked up whatever temperature it could have gained from that day. I would go with something like that for the main shop. For finishing I would use one of the oil filled radiators in the finishing room. Shut off the main heater when finishing and you will still be able to maintain heat in your finishing room with the smaller heater.

[Brad Cambell]

I am using an overhead infra red tube heater hung from the ceiling. My shop is 42 by 37 and the tube is 30 ft long. I also belong to the insulate to the max camp. My walls are R 25 and the ceiling is R 35. I keep my shop at 60 deg F and it might kick on once in an 8 hour period. The heater draws from outside and is vented outside and the burner is sealed so it is pretty much vapor resistant. It costs $$$$ though but it is the closest thing to floor heat that you can get after your concrete is poured.