tube heater, radiant heater. questions

[cody michael]

I have a 16 by 24 semi insulated woodshop, I only heat it when I am in it. I have a propane garage heater that is 100k btu that heats it up fast but even on low it gets to hot, then it starts to get cold. I have a 30k wall hanging propane heater that doesn't seem to do much, what I have been doing is turn both heaters on, when it gets hot turn off big heater, it then gets cold in about 30 minutes. I have seen the tube style radiant heaters at businesses and I thought they would work great for the woodshop. has anyone used them? looking on ebay you can get around a 50k unit about 800$. thats a lot of money but there have been alot of times when I didn't go to the shop because of the cold. also the ceiling mount heater wouldn't take up floor or wall space.

something like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SunStar-SIS-...item58bd61e5b0

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Cody,

One thing to take into consideration is the minimum height between the heater and combustible materials below....and other things.

A few years ago I didn't have a clue my hair was getting thin on top until I went outside a hospital to a heated covered area to smoke a cigarette. A couple minutes and the top of my head felt warm. Later looking in a mirror I realized I was beginning to suffer male pattern baldness.

But the point is....there are minimum requirements in the spec sheet for clearance above the heater and below. These work well where ceiling height is high enough to allow them the necessary clearance. I worked on a loading dock once where they worked well.

[cody michael]

or possibly something like this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Propane-Heat...item1c4ef21229

or if there is a better option please let me know, I need something that works good, price is very important

[cody michael]

Cody,

One thing to take into consideration is the minimum height between the heater and combustible materials below....and other things.

A few years ago I didn't have a clue my hair was getting thin on top until I went outside a hospital to a heated covered area to smoke a cigarette. A couple minutes and the top of my head felt warm. Later looking in a mirror I realized I was beginning to suffer male pattern baldness.

But the point is....there are minimum requirements in the spec sheet for clearance above the heater and below. These work well where ceiling height is high enough to allow them the necessary clearance. I worked on a loading dock once where they worked well.

I have something like 11-12ft ceilings, a lot of the ones I looked at were minimum 8ft. are there any better options?

[Jim Andrew]

Do you have a ceiling over the whole shop? I have been adding batt insulation I bought on sale at Menards to mine. I have a suspended ceiling so can't blow it, or I would. Blow in is easy, just buy the insulation where they will deliver the insulation and a blower to put it in with. I can do a huge building in half a day. Batts are much slower.

[cody michael]

No ceiling. I have a sheet of plastic/foam staple to the roof, at some point I want to add sheets of styrofoam.

[Jim Andrew]

I have found that when remodeling occurs in commercial buildings, the suspended ceiling gets sent to the landfill. If you are near a city or there is some remodeling going on at your local bank, check to see if you can get the ceiling. A friend does construction and remodeling, asked him if he was doing any jobs where they will be removing a ceiling, he said yes he was doing work on a church, and would call when they are taking it down. So I showed up with my car trailer and helped take it down. For it. And they gave me all the lights as well. Had to buy new wall angle, can't save that.

[cody michael]

I don't really have the option of doing something like that, my building is an old barn, and the walls are only like 6ft tall. thanks for the idea though

[Larry Edgerton]

Tube heaters in a woodshop suck! Been there, done that.

You can not put wood under them, they will cup a board in about twenty minutes. My shop had 12' ceilings, and yes it was cheap to heat but there was a huge area in the shop under the heaters that could not be utilized because of the cupping.

Also a caution on the cheap heaters on ebay. They are not dependable, and I would look into a reputable brand. I had a Reverb-a-ray or something like that, and it was dependable. They work out well in say an automotive shop. I sold mine to a guy with an auto repair shop and he loved it, it melted the snow off the cars in a hurry.

Insulation, insulation, insulation...........