75,000 BTU Modine style forced air heater off propane, and a wood stove. Heater gets my shop up to 60 in about 10 minutes even when its 5 degrees outside. Don't keep it much warmer, using 40lb tanks and don't want to refill too much.
I have a wood stove in mine. Last weekend was brutally cold. About 7 below Zero. The wood stove got it up to around 65. I have the shop heavily insulated but there are three garage doors that leak like a sieve. Only problem with the wood stove is you can't paint when you are using it and you really need to dedicate yourself to finding fuel if you don't live in a wooded area.
A really big wood stove......keeps it about 65 degrees...... I paint in my shop, so I put the stove outside.......no worries
In my attached and well insulated two car garage (with tall cathedral ceiling), I have found I can run two of the electric oil filled radiators (one on either side of the shop) on low power most of the winter. It is warmer in there than in the house. 5F outside right now. Both heaters set on 600 watt setting each (600/900/1500 watt heaters). Thermostats on "3" each (1-10 settings). 70F in shop. These things are about $39 a piece and are rated as safe to leave during the day per consumer reports and others. Would love to have a small gas furnace, but this works for me and is pretty cheap to buy and cheap to run...
I use an 10 Kw (220v) electric mobile home furnace. It was free and it came with it's own ductwork that I reconfigured to better spread the heat in my 20'x20' insulated garage. I work for an electric utility company up here in Canada and we get our electricity for free.
when I bought my house it had a square style natural gas heater in it that has the bricks that heat up and the natural flames , I took it out and installed it in my garage now all winter long here in ohio it stays 68 degrees all winter if I open up the big garage for any time I but it up a bit to catch back up but then turn it back down best heater I've ever had I can law on my concrete floor and never get cold then in the summer turn on my window 220 volt A/C and keep it about 55 to 60 degrees .
I have a forced air wood furnace in mine. But in the floor I have all the tubing installed for radiant heat all setup with the manifold and everything. I just don't have the $ for a boiler at this time. So I filled the whole thing with antifreeze and tried to heat it with a hot-water heater. Doesn't even get it warm enough. So, question for all of you. What about putting inline one of those pool heaters and get it to temp and then use the water heater to maintain it? -Mark
As you can see in the picture my house sits above my garages. Well my oil furnace is in my garage and all the pipes running to the cast iron radiators run back and forth near my garage ceiling before going up throw the floor to my house. Well I must be lucky cause if the furnace has run its like 80 degrees in my garage. Its 15 degrees outside and I was in a tshirt and shorts in the garage.
I use a couple of 240V heaters just to keep it above freezing during the time I'm not in the shop. Got a woodstove for actual working temps. I can generally keep it around 70 with a small load a wood. Works good for keeping the coffee pot warm too.
In the northern part of Wisconsin the gas companys have laid alot of gas main and are offering their gas service to many new customers who previously used oil or propane. Many propane furnaces are being replaced with new natural gas models. I got a 6 year old 60,000 btu propane furnace for my garage for free a couple of years ago. It's 8 degrees outside but in my garage it's 65. It's vented outside so I don't worry about gassing myself to death. The only worry I have is keeping the beer cold.
My shop is 40 x40 concrete block with 12 foot walls and no insulation. I use a 125,000 btu torpedo fired by kerosene and here in Oklahoma kerosene is 4.69 a gallon, I dress very warmly and try to only heat the shop to 50 degrees.
Got a "dual fuel" furnace, runs a heat pump until it gets to about 15 degrees, then switches to propane. Electric company gives you the electric at about 4 cents a kwh for it. But, they put a switch in it to block the heat pump at 15 degrees, forcing it to propane. They sell me electric cheap when nobody really needs it, cuts me off when the all-electric guys start sucking it down. But - ha! - got around that high dollar propane, I put in a wood furnace which will keep it at 55 when it's zero out, and stays out of the propane. Bad thing, though, at 63, I finally retired the splitting maul and bought a gas powered wood splitter yesterday. Guess I'm now a weinie. But - it's below zero outside now, and 55 in the shop!
we have a hot dog,,, real nice unit,,,hags from the roof and runs on natural gass,,,, keeps the garage at 55 but the floor stays very cold
Overhead natural gas furnace. 150,000BTU keeps my 40'X80'x14' at whatever temp I set the thermostat. I turn it down to 55 at night and 65-70 while I'm out there working in the winter. Turning it lower than 55 is false economy as I've got so many large pieces of equipment it takes too long for them to heat back up in the morning. three overhead fans keep the heat pushed down toward the floor. Frank
Give the friends beer, then light farts..... My uncle used to have a contraption made from 2 55 gal drums and burnt all the used motor oil. It would get so hot in the shop that the drums were glowing red and we would have to open the doors. All the cars in the junkyard had these neat little black soot filiments all over them.
i built a celing hot water heater with a pump , fan, and thermoustat, runs of the hot water heater in my house, without mixing water and glycol! just uses a 120 outlet 60 in my garage and its -10 out side
I have a two-burner radiant propane heater, garage is somewhat insulated except for the doors. It's pretty okay 90% of the time, but takes a while to warm the place up if it's below 30-ish outside. Keep in mind it usually don't get that cold here. If you live in some almost uninhabitable part of the country like Minnesota or Wisconsin I don't wanna hear it.
I have a thermopride oil furnace I got from a house...like new, and well maintained, the 275 gallon tank...I got both for 400 bucks....bought the exhaust pipe and a freind helped me install it......less than 600 bucks.....I froze my ass off for years using propane electric etc.this was the best investment I ve made aside from insulatin my shop.....wish I had done it sooner....you can get 'em cheap just watch craigslist when people remodel they upgrade....mines a 85000 btu and it keeps my 30x30 nice and toasty