what do you about your cold shop?

Now you're talkin'!!

 

I have a smallish shop at 18X28. Its well insulated. I have one of those rectangular heaters you see set into a wall in homes. I got this from a neighbor that built a stand alone frame that it sits in. Its probably 3 times as big as the ones you see in homes and it runs off 220. When I had the garage wired I had a circuit installed just for this heater. Works great, heats the place up quickly, but...........

I really like this one you posted. Can you give me an idea on what this costs? They dont list prices on their website. It would be kind of nice to hang this and just run our gas line to it.


Mark

 

I have a 32X40 shop with in floor radiant heat, sometime I'll go to work on the car, lay on the floor and start to fall asleep it's so warm.

 

I built my first "real" shop this summer. It's 20x22 with 9' walls. It's not insulated yet, but with a little 5kw 220 volt construction heater I can raise the temp from 0*F to 30*F in a couple of hours. That's still chilly, but I can work in it. Sure beats 0* or colder. I hope to have the shop insulated within a few weeks before it gets really cold.

 

not go into mine!!!

 

I am at the computer IN THE SHOP! Temp is now in the mid teens outside and supposed to be -20 tomorrow night.

Shop temp is a balmy 68 deg and both of my vehicles are sitting here nice and warm so I do not have to scrape windows..

I do turn the temp down for the night to about 63deg. It takes less than 10 minutes to get it back to 68. Forecast is calling for a blizzard here tonight but with a 68deg shop who cares? LOL

By the way I have Natural Gas for heat.

 

I got rid of mine, and moved to California. I put on a sweatshirt when I get done surfing in the winter.

 

At our british car resto shop , we have a good-sized oil furnace to keep things from freezing at night & take the chill off first thing in the mornings , till our double-barrell woodstove starts kickin' ... then it's jeans & a t-shirt all day , even in the dead of winter . We've been using this method for a long time . By using the woodstove , we don't use much oil in a season , thank god .

I'm a soft-shelled crab , I hate the cold .

Forgot to add - at my home shop , I use a stinky kerosene turbo heater to take the chill off & I just dress a bit warmer ... it sucks !

 

I don't have a shop. I wear layers and a good hat. Last year I was welding on one of my cars when it was 10 below zero.

 

I'd rather have a nice warm shop than a bunch of cars to work on. A shop that is comfortable and well suited to working on cars will come long before the cars themselves. Its a matter of priorities.
I live in Montana, and it can get damn cold and windy.
The shop has 6" (R-19) of insulation in the walls and 17 inches(R-49) in the ceiling.
There is ONE insulated overhead door and ONE man door. No windows.
There are 18 four tube light fixtures and it's as bright as a sunny day in there.
Heat averages about 100.00 per month. I use a 93% efficient home furnace. There are about 2,500 sq ft enclosed.
I can't stand working on cars when I'm suffering from the cold. It makes no sense to me. Its not fun. For my first shop I bought one roll of insulation each payday until it was fully insulated.
Take care of the shop first- Then take care of the cars.

 

my shop has a tin roof without insulation. i just feed my big ass wood stove until it gets hot enough to melt a wheel weight. then it's just right!

 

I could learn to hate you!!!

 

Doesn't get real cold her in southern Missouri (lived in Michigan for 30 yrs). My shop is 30X40 with a vaulted ceiling about 11' in center, is insulated very good. I have an older propane heater at 85,000 btu, heats the shop real good. Only need heat from about early December to late March, so cost isn't that bad.

 

I'm getting too old and lazy to cut wood to heat the house and the shop but the waste oil thing is an option. I have an old Coleman fuel oil heater that could be converted to used oil and I just came on 5 barrels of old oil in a friends back yard. That should do the winter. Or I could forget about heating the house.

 

What cold???

 

i'm pretty lucky, all my friends say... i've got two shops, one 28'x43', well insulated and heated, and a 45'x60' that's not heated. my lift is in the big shop and it gets pretty cold in there in the winter. if i don't need the lift i can put my project into the heated shop and be comfortable in there...

 

Damn wise info! I have worked in snowboots in a bare steel pole parn below zero..................no fun!

 

It doesn't get too cold down here in Central Texas, but I hate it when it's below 50 degrees, 20's & 30's and I'm not doing a damn thing outside. Give me a break, I grew up in deep South Texas! I have a 1200sqft metal skinned shop. Not very insulated (couple sheets of styrofoam on the walls). I have a propane tank with the dual heater thingamajig on it. Works pretty good and I usually end up peeling out of my layers after a while. I've always wanted some sort of wood fired heater, but guess I don't really need it and don't want to invest in anything since this is just a rental and our winters are very short.

 

Wood stove with a blower unit, but it was 75 degrees today.

 

well its really cold outside down to 40 or so,but yeah I never need heat just turn up the tunes and lights and away I go...mostly here its about a/c in the summer.........

 

Woodstove and layer-up.

 

Arizona can get plenty cold, been here since '62. Az has many climates and it depends on where you live in Az but, even in the phx area right now it is chilly and I have the heaters on. Temps can vary considerably
Got pretty sick of the extreme heat after close to a half a hundred 9 month summers. Bought an acreage in the eastern Arizona high country and looking forward to living in cooler, milder climate. It averages only 12" snow per year but, does get chilly.
Want to build a 50' by 100' shop to start and eventually lengthen it further as needed.
Realizing it is not practical to heat such a large area, my idea is you build a smaller, climate controlled framed and insulated building within the larger main metal building. Perhaps enough for 3-4 cars and use the smaller area as my primary working area.
The idea is to save heating costs, be comforatble and be able to work on stuff year around in comfort.
Been learning the best ways to do this and still not completely decided.
Want to be comfy but, also need to keep heating costs low.
I'll keep following this post but, please continue to share ideas on what may be best.
Do not know much about the heated floors some mentioned but, sounds interesting.

 

I just fire up my cars and crank the heaters on in the cars with the car doors open.

Actually my 24 X36 Shop is insulated and has a nice reznor heater. Its about 20 degrees outside and it was 65 in there tonight. The Heater comes on for about 5 minutes and then stays off for 30 minutes. I'd say its pretty well insulated. My Barn which is insulated but really high ceilings has a 375,000 Propane heater that will heat its 40X42x30 ft high barn totally toasty in about 10 minutes.

 

TWO Dayton electric ceiling hung heaters(12" x 18" x 10" approx). Like you I waited a long time before I did anything about heating the garage with some kind of "Permanaent" heater. I don't like flames in my shop ! So the oil heater and a wood stove were out for me. The shop is 1550 sq ft and these two heaters get it up to 70 degrees when its in the 20's outside. The key was to insulate everything first...............

 

I too hate the cold. I installed a Modine heater in my shop. Does a good job for me.

 

Two years ago I built my own outside wood fired boiler. I also built the heat exchanger inside the shop. It is a home made outfit made from this and that. Some parts were bought, some stuff from out back of the shop, and some from friends. It paid for itself the first winter. I burn slab wood at $20 a bundle. 3 bundles should heat the shop for the winter.

John

 

My garage is 18X30 with the last 9' being an addition with a double door sized entry. The addition hold my tools, drill presses, band saw, computer, etc. I'm planning to add clear plastic door curtains and heat that section with a small propane heater. The main area gets warmed up with a kerosene torpedo heater. If I let the torpedo heater run for an hour I can warm the shop up to 70-75 degrees. I go inside while that noisy smelly POS is running. We have natural gas for the house and I plan to one day have a line run to the garage and buy a heater. I keep spending heater money on parts though.

I've worked outside for a living (UPS) the last 24 years so the cold we get around here doesn't bother me too much. I admire you folks that handle single digits all winter.

 

I had my shop spray foamed. After 20 years of a unheated shop I was WTF am I doing?
Snow on the ground and 60F in the shop from the fire in the wood stove last night.

 

torpedo keroscene heater and pod type keroscene heater.....

 

2-burner radiant heater with an 80 gallon tank.

Walls are insulated reasonably well, and I staple plastic over the windows in the winter. Tried putting styrofoam insulation board on the garage doors but the openers didn't like it.

It doesn't get real cold here too often, but I have arthritis in my knees pretty bad so having a nice warm workspace makes garage time a lot more enjoyable.