How do you Heat your Shop?

[John Zeitner]

I use an EPA wood stove to heat my 2000 square foot shop. Lately the outside temps have been from -15C to -25C. It takes a while to get the shop up to 20C but once it's there it doesn't take a lot to keep it warm. Usually load the stove twice a day in these temps.

[Tom Bain]

I use a Mitsubishi Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pump in my garage workshop. It heats and cools. It was a bit of an upfront investment, but it is really nice to have and super-efficient.

[Greg McClurg]

I use the same thing that Myk Ryan uses in my 450 sf shop with 10' ceilings. It doesn't take long to warm the space up, and I usually wear a light jacket in the winter. I don't want any form of gas or open flame in my shop so the electric heat meets my needs from a safety and comfort perspective.

[gary Zimmel]

We get pretty cold winters. It was -40 here a couple of days ago.
My shop has in floor heating that keeps it toasty warm.... In winter I keep it at 16C - 17C which is a real comfortable temp for me to work in.

[Ralph Butts]

I use a EPA certified wood pellet stove to "warm" my 1750 square foot shop. With our normal western WA temps being 30-55 in the winter it takes the chill off. Lately we have been unseasonably cold. While the stove puts out quite a bit of heat the concrete floor is a wick for the cold ground to suck the warmth right out of the structure. That is an issue for next years budget.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I used a Lennox hanging natural gas heater.

[Jim Andrew]

I use a wood burning furnace which I installed in a small steel building 4' from my shop. I installed a supply duct as well as a return, insulated the duct with fiberglass and wrapped with a bigger duct. My furnace is a Daka, sold at menards, which I bought on sale. The furnace works great, wish I could have it inside the shop as it heats the tiny building very well. My big concern was having a fire in a woodshop, so I separated the furnace from the shop. Was not a weekend project.

[Ken Platt]

I have a basement shop, so it doesn't get too cold down there, waste heat from the oil burner in the next room helps. I use one of the inexpensive burners atop a propane tank, but I don't use it for very long at a time. It's an older house (1950's) and even though I've tried to seal it up, I'm sure there are still a lot of little leaks. You would want to be very careful about CO buildup. I've never had the CO detector in the house go off, but I am putting a new CO detector in the basement just because. I also have one the Lee Valley radiant heaters mounted on the ceiling right over the bench, so if I'm just doing bench work I can tun that on the low setting and it's all I need.

The propane tank burner things also produce water vapor as a side product of the burning. I have never had a problem in the shop with rust, but I'm not sure whether that would be an issue if I ran it more. Of course, in winter the air is usually too dry anyhow.

Ken

[Clint Baxter]

I have a hanging natural gas heater as well. draws in outside air for combustion and exhausts to the outside as well. I have it set up with a programmable thermostat with all settings programmed at 53. When I go out to work, will bump up the temp to what's comfortable and if I forget to lower the temp when I leave, it automatically drops when it hits it's next programmed setting. We've been below zero for about a week now and shop stays very comfortable

Use a window air conditioner during the summer. Makes it bearable to where I'm not sweating all over my workpieces.

Clint

[Rick Potter]

Love that picture Clint. Which way do I go??

Rick Potter

[Mike Cozad]

I use a propane torpedo heater. Will make the move to a NG Hot Dawg by next winter.

[William C Rogers]

My shop is 30 X 50 with 12 foot ceilings, new and I have insulated the walls to R19. I have R12 in the ceiling and was installing R13 on top of that, but didn't get finished before winter. Right now I am using a 1500 watt radiant quarts heater and surprising it is keeping the temp between 45-47 degrees when 20 degrees outside. I think some of that is because I insulated around the footer and the floor has insulation under the concrete. For backup I have a Mister Heater 200,000 btu propane. I have only had that on a couple of times as it sucks propane. I now have access to a furnace from a trailer that has 2 10,000kw elements. I will hook that up (should only need one element) as soon as I get some 2 gauge service entrance wire as I am still on a saw post for electric. Long term (next winter) I have the hot water in floor heat. And yes it is expensive up front, however hate cold feet. I probably could have installed geothermal for the same price. I am anxious to see how the hot water in floor heat work out. The trailer heater should be able to heat to 55 degrees and I have been able to work with just quarts heater. Knowing what I know now I would not have bought the propane heater.

[eugene thomas]

In Wisconsin. Cold out today, use in floor heat with 70,000 btu boiler to heat my 34' x 50' shop. Walls r19 ceiling think r38. Was going to use on demand hot water heater that one company suggested but contractors heating guy suggested the boiler.

[Curtis Horswill]

In Wisconsin also, -5 F out this morning. I heat my 3 car garage shop with in floor radiant heat as well. I am using a natural gas on demand water heater. The garage is 28'x32' 10 foot walls and keep it at 55 degrees all winter long. By far the best heat I have experienced, no noise, no blower fan, and everything in the building stays warm. If I build again I will definitely be installing in floor heat.

[jeffrey bailey]

Through-the-wall Pteck units for heating and cooling. They are similar to the heater/AC units used in motels. They are mounted about 5 ft up the wall.