heating workshop in barn

[Thomas O Jones Jr]

I have an uninsulated 40X60 barn and my workshop is in one half of the barn. I'm thinking of a heating system. Does anyone have advice or experience with radiant heat? What about gas fired forced air. There is natural gas available. Ceilings are open rafters. All exterior doors/windows are closed.

[Frank Pratt]

You really need to close & insulate in the area you want to heat. Radiant heat is probably best choice if you have an open, uninsulated space, but you will never be comfortable & you'll spend a fortune in fuel. You really only feel the heat where it can directly 'shine' on you. The air will never heat up & you'll always be uncomfortable (I speak from experience in this matter). If you insulate & close it in then radiant heat will warm the air.

[Lee Schierer]

If you add your geographical location to your profile, it will help get you a more certain answer.

I agree with enclosing and insulating your shop space. High ceilings also cost a lot more to heat.

Be careful if you chose a non-vented heater. A non-vented gas burner of any kind will add considerable moisture to the air in your shop and increase your rusting problems.

[roger wiegand]

Insulate, insulate, insulate!

I heat my barn shop with an 80k btu Modine Hot Dawg heater with sealed combustion. I didn't want to worry about what kind of dust etc I was pulling into the heater. Works fine, relatively small, hangs near the ceiling.

[Jim Andrew]

I finished a pole barn for my shop. Wish I had insulated the floor, but did not. First I poured a concrete floor, it was dirt before, then framed up walls inside the horizontal nailers on the walls. Put styrofoam between the nailers against the metal siding. Wired and insulated between studs, then used drywall for the walls. Hung a used suspended ceiling I got when my bank was doing a remodel. Put r30 batt insulation above the suspended ceiling. Still have a ceiling height of 9'. I have a forced air furnace I got used, it is an older high efficiency model, and it warms up the shop fast, even though it is only 50,000 btu. I have a 2 ton AC unit, that was 15 years old when I put a new one on the house. Cools it fine. I only heat or cool when working. I have a thermostat that goes down to 45 and that is where it is set in winter. My shop is 26 x 66.

[Bill Adamsen]

Thomas: I too have a barn, two story, about 40% your square footage heated. Using forced air propane (outside air combustion 75k btu Hot Dawg). Insulated with R10 walls and R40 ceiling, lots of window heat loss. I considered radiant, but I just couldn't figure out a good "aesthetic" way to install. I thought the radiant would protect machinery from "cool down" condensation (and rust). Like Jim, I set non-working temp at 45°, working of 62°, and have not had issues with condensation. It heats up quickly. As other's have mentioned, I too wish I had more insulation, especially the windows.

[Chris Damm]

You only pay to insulate once! You pay a heating bill almost every month.

[Thomas O Jones Jr]

Thanks for your thoughts. My barn is in Greensboro, NC It is open, would have to build walls and put in a ceiling to insulate. That's why I thought about radiant heat to use just when I'm working.

[Andrew Joiner]

Hi Thomas,
Your winter temperatures are similar to mine. Yes, insulation would help hold in the heat created by radiant but you may not need it. I don't.
Google brooder heat lamp fixtures. You can use them and get light and warmth for the same power expense.
For years I've used 250 watt incandescent heat lamps for heating and lighting. I have some fluorescents too for warm days. I'm about an hour east of Portland Oregon so it's usually 40F outside all winter but occasionally we see 10F.

I use 8 heat lamps above my benches. My shop is 20x30 with 11' ceilings and uninsulated. When it's 40F outside,it gets 70F to 80F around the bench area's in less than an hour. Then I turn off every other lamp and it stays around 65F.

At 10F outside I have had up to 20 heatlamps on and it gets above 60F in the whole shop and it's bright!

The corners of the shop stay cooler but that's where I'm most active and need less heat. The heat is mostly for glue drying and comfort at the benches. You will want to wear a cap if you stand directly under a lamp to long, the 250's get real hot if your close.

An added plus is the heat lamps last much longer than standard incandescents and you get light and heat for the same dollar. Another thing I like is all the cast iron tops are warm. It's a nice color light too, I like it more than fluorescents alone.

Lately I use 250 watt heat lamps only for initial warm up. A mix of 150 watt heat lamps,plain 90 watt incandescents and CFLs provide's more even heat and light, but not the intense quick heat of the 250's.

[Aleks Hunter]

No matter what approach you use you have to insulate and tighten that building up. Get a Great stuff pro gun, not the cans with the plastic tubes -- different animal altogether -- and as much great stuff pro as it takes to seal up every crack in the barn's outer shell. Leave a space between insulation and the roof and make sure you have working ridge vents!. Insulation is by far the best long term bang/buck. Fuel is going to go back up. To pick a technology and a system you have to consider, cost of insulation, costs of fuels (the real biggie that can bite hard) and the efficiency of the system, not just the burner. Here is an excellent little app to compare fuels apples to apples. IF you want to consider anthracite, put in 25,000,000 in the btu/unit slot for coal My shop is a little smaller, 65 x 32 foot English barn I have a sawmill so I burn slab wood in a Vt Castings stove while I'm working and a gas furnace to keep things at 40 overnight. my day fuel cost is the sweat to schlep. This summer putting in outside boiler and hydronic system to heat the barns and the house. It can get down to -32F here in Vermont and the last thing you want is to try to work with frozen wood or tools.

[Edward Oleen]

You say your barn is "open". By that do you mean no walls? If that is the case how come your tools haven't just uped and walked off?????

[Thomas O Jones Jr]

Don't know what I was thinking when I said I would have to build walls. I meant insulate the exterior walls and put in a ceiling and insulate. There are big sliding barn doors at each end that will create an insulation problem; lots of space under and around those doors and to limit the heated space to 1/2 the floor space I would need to build an interior wall. Aleks your idea of the great stuff pro gun makes a lot of sense for the existing exterior walls. I guess some kind for sheet rock or plywood to make the interior of the wall presentable would be necessary. Probably use plywood for ceilings and use insulation bats up there. This is starting to look like a real project.
Andrew, I like your brooder heat lamp idea, that might work on all but the coldest days here, although we are looking at a wind chill below zero this coming Monday night. That is RARE for these parts!
I really appreciate all of your comments Tom Jones

[Andrew Joiner]

Andrew, I like your brooder heat lamp idea, that might work on all but the coldest days here, although we are looking at a wind chill below zero this coming Monday night. That is RARE for these parts!

I tried the heat lamps as a temporary solution. It works so well that it would never be cost efficient for me to insulate. My shop is sealed and airtight. I think heat lamps would work in a slightly drafty shop to keep things and humans warm. In a real open drafty shop a heat lamps would help glue to dry, but a human may need a thicker jacket.