Shop Heat Question

[Grant Stevens]

Question for those of with detached, heated shops...

My family will be moving this summer due to a job transfer. Two houses that we are interested in have space attached to the detached garages that could be used for a workshop. The spaces are heated by natural gas wall units. My question is - how safe would it be to have this in a shop (DC would be running normally, but still expect some non-zero amount of [combustible] wood dust in the air)? Could you do anything to make it safer (i.e. boxing off at a safe? distance with air filters)? Am I just being overly cautious?

This is in SE Wisconsin, so the heater would be used regularly in the winter (seems like August - May sometimes!).

Thanks in advance,
Grant

[Jim Becker]

Need more information about the specific heaters...sealed combustion vented, room air/vented or unvented?

[John Miliunas]

Grant, if it's a vented (to the outside) unit, you'll find very few restrictions in what you can do. If it's a non-vented unit, you'll want to keep combustibles away from it, particularly, the ones giving off strong fumes. As far as minute dust in the air, I wouldn't particularly worry too much about that, as long as you're picking up the bulk of the small stuff with a DC.