shop heat fuel costs

Charlie, I use a big 220V electric radiant heater hung over the workbench and tool chests. Within an hour the temp on the thermometer moves from 32 to about 60. That’s not air temp, but the result of radiant heat striking the nearby surfaces. This quickly makes the tools easy on the hands, helps with condensation that would otherwise develop with air heaters. I LOVE it.
I paid $4 for it at an auction where they thought it was a fluorescent light fixture. Got another one for $1 later same auction. Don’t run out and try to buy one like these 5’ twin tube deals because they list for about $1500 each! But you can get reasonable cost ones, even if you have to use more than one. The old chicken house heat lamps worked well before I got these super ones.

DanK

-- Dan Krager, Olney IL http://www.kragerwoodworking.weebly.com

Electric heat is 100% efficient, if you can keep it in the building, and is dry, to boot. If electricity costs are that low for you, I wouldn’t even bother with propane. Then again, I live in sunny southern California. I use natural gas for cooking and the clothes dryer. It’s WAY cheaper than electricity. I bought a gas dryer and stove not long after I moved in here, and they paid for themselves within a year. One thing to try is radiant barrier insulation in the roof/rafters of your workspace. It makes a huge difference in both hot and cold weather.

Hmmmm, something wrong with those figures, but I’m not sure what.

We manage an RV park and our rates are 13¢/Kwh. Temps over this winter have been dipping to lower 20’s F.

Depending on the preference of the site, normal cost is around $55-$75 per month for electric heat.

If they use their standard 20KBTu RV furnace, they will go through a tank or maybe a tank and a half per month.

These are 30 pound tanks, 5 gallons, cost is $27 to fill from empty.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

When you are comparing fuel costs, you must take into consideration more than just the unit cost of
each fuel. That is,
oil costs many times more per unit than electricy, but each unit of oil produces much more heat.

I looked up a chart that demonstrates what I’m trying to explain.

The chart shows that for furnaces, the propane @ 78% efficiency costs less than a 98% eff.
electric furnace. For space heaters, the electric 100% efficient baseboard or room heater was about 5 dollars cheaper per million BTU.
than 65% efficient vented propane space heater.

So cost will be determined to large extent on the efficiency of your particular propane heater.

If the chart below is too difficult to see you can tap the control key and ”+” key to enlarge or
you can download it here—>Fuel Cost Comparision Excel File

For me, being a boater and always worried about condensation, I have to tell you that, unless a propane heater is vented through an outside vent, it will produce more aitch-2-oh than you can imagine. Not a good thing in my shop. So, torpedo-type propane heaters can be a liability as far as I am concerned. Just saying.

-- Captain Bruce, Washington State

If you can find a propane vented space heater that is ~75% or better efficient. It will likely
cost less to heat with than a 100% efficient electric baseboard.

@Charlie Your numbers don’t add up .

A unit of electricity (kilo-watt-hour) typically only has around 3400 btu
(fuel heat content per unit)

Propane has 90,000 btu per unit.

So if I’m not mistaken, that translates to electricity costing 1/20 less for a unit than propane,
but only having ~1/30th the btu per unit than that of propane.

typical cost per unit of electricity is ~ 12 cents per KWH
typical cost per unit of propane is ~ 2.40 dollars per gallon

Propane is expensive. I switched it out for a heat pump and the slight bump in my electric bill is about 1/4 what I used to pay for propane.

-- -- Rick M.

I purchased a Sterling ceiling hung vented 45,000 btu propane heater. I did most of the installation myself but hired a gas tech to run the line and pressure test it. Total cost for the heater, concentric vent kit, and installation came out just under $1000. I am very happy with this unit it does not make a lot of noise,and it is 82% efficient . Electric was not an option for me without upgrading the electric system in the shop.
Prices tend to be all over the place on propane. I could have paid as much as $3.50/gallon but as a member of the local chamber of commerce I am able to buy it for .35 over cost which was $1.55/gal on my last delivery. I could get it a few cents cheaper if I owned my tank but not enough to make it worth doing.
If you are going to burn propane SHOP AROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- A tube of calk and a gallon of paint will make a carpenter what he ain't

Price per gallon on propane around here is about $2.78 and the calculator I used….. RonInOhio, you’re right… something doesn’t look quite right about the numbers.

I worked in my old garage at the previous house with a natural gas heater mounted up near teh ceiling. Commercial type. And I have worked in a shop with radiant electric and I have to say I prefer how the radiant electric feels, but this is going to come down to a cost issue as well.
And I might not solve it before spring at the rate I’m going. At which point I’ll be looking for an air conditioner.
:)

I can’t buy into those numbers. Electric gives you ~3400 BTU per KWH, LP about 94K BTU per gallon. In my case, electric is 9.75¢ per KWH, and LP about $2.00/gallon. LP is only 80% (+/-) efficient, so for me electric heat is about $2.90 per 100,000 BTUs while LP is about $2.75 per 100,000 BTUs. My electric cost is close to Charlie’s number, but LP must be really expensive to get that $7+ number, and that’s at 90% efficiency. I can tell you this, to heat my 24×32x8 shop so far this winter I’ve burned 74 gallons of LP. I have a meter to keep track of it. Last winter when it so warm, I burned 100 gallons the entire year.

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

I wish I could bring a gas line from the street to my shop bu the cost would be around $5000.00
This winter, for the first time I tried to keep my space electric heater on t to keep the shop at around 45/50 F.
My cost just for that is around $80.00/month
I turned the heater off.
I use a wood stove when I am in the shop.

-- Bert

I have a 26×30 well insulated detached garage.. I heat it with a side kick(wood). If I load it once in the morning it will hold 55 for 24 hours. if I want it 80 for finishing I only have to load it 3 times in a 24 hours.

My shop is 24×30x10and also very well insulated but I have to load m,y wood stove all the time, I burn scrap wood.

-- Bert

Charlie, from an up-front investment standpoint, you’re generally going to be better off going electric resistance. An electric baseboard or quartz (or other) radiant heat setup can be had (for what I assume your requirements would be) for probably $100. And electric is quiet and should be able to boost your 40-45 degree maintenance level up to a working temperature pretty quickly (and quietly). Ongoing fuel costs, however, are going to be high – just about as high as a propane or kerosene vented heater.

Systems that cost less to operate generally cost more to purchase or require much more “hands-on” maintenance (refueling), or both.

Something I’m considering for my shop is a high-efficiency ductless heat pump. I have (personally) installed two of them in my house and love them. The up-front investment is around $1,000 but they can produce heat at 1/3 the cost of electric resistance (which is what I’m replacing in my house). And they produce a/c in the summer. My concern, since they circulate/blow heated or cooled air in the room, is air filtering. I’m considering mounting the indoor unit inside a ceiling-mounted air filtration box, as I don’t think the heater’s standard filters would be able to handle a woodworking shop’s un-pre-filtered air.

Here’s where I bought mine: http://www.goductless.com/

Edit: For anything 12,000 btu and under (not sure what your 16X24 shop will require), you can use a single 110 circuit. That might be helpful.

-- From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward. - Prov 12:14

@Dan,

What brand are those heaters?

-- Friends don't let friends use right tilt contractor saws......