# Help, Im Freezing My A$$ Off!



## Northerner (Sep 30, 2009)

hi everyone, im hoping there are some members here that are in the same boat as me and live in the northern states (South Dakota here) and have a solution to my problem of freezing my ass off since in the past month it has been getting colder and colder.

i have a small shop (12×22x8) and i started with a small 220v wall heater out of a mobile home (no fan) and a small sears 110v heater that swivels and has a fan.

but now for many weeks i have to turn the heaters on for about 3 hours before heading back out but i want something that works faster and it needs to be 110v. i was wondering about a quartz heater, maybe one at each end of the shop?
or maybe an oil filled radiator heater

does anyone have any experience with either of these or do you recommend something totally different?? i would like to keep the cost down under a hundred for one or fifty or sixty if i need two.

space is limited so i like the quartz since it can mount on wall or ceiling and the radiator will just have to be put someplace and hopefully i wont trip over it.

any help is much appreciated!

thanks


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Souther Oregon up to 58 degrees today.


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## MarkwithaK (Sep 12, 2009)

There are a lot of variables that effect your situation. Amount of insulation, number of windows, and doors, type of floor (concrete slap, wood subfloor etc.) I work in in the HVAC/R field and I can tell you that any 110VAC electric heater is not going to heat any faster or any better than what you are using. Best bang for your buck is going to be a small propane torpedo heater or kerosene space heater.


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## BlankMan (Mar 21, 2009)

Wood stove. Destroys any evidence of your mistakes.  But really, I've always had one in the shop but all the heat went up the chimney so a few years back I looked for one that would really work as a heater. I had limited space and couldn't fit a wide one so I found a narrow one from Vermont Castings and still takes full length logs. It's thermostatically controlled for consistent burn and temperature. I love it. It's efficiency is just over 80%, the same as a lot of furnaces and boilers so it really does heat. It's rated at 18,000 btu and heats my ~850 sq-ft basement very well. It can easily get the temperature up in the 80's if I want it too. it's 76°F down there right now.

And no electric/gas energy costs and my fuel has been free and I'm in the city. Just my sweat splitting it in the summer but you can always find someone cutting down a tree who is glad to have you haul it away for free.

Here's a link to the model I have.

http://www.vermontcastings.com/aspen.asp


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## beckerswoodworks (Dec 26, 2009)

I've got an oil filled radiator almost exactly like the one in your link. It's a cheap and efficient heater but it's slow. It takes a few hours to warm my shop up and I don't have to deal with sub zero temperatures very much where I live. The primary advantage of it in my opionion is that it never gets so hot it could burn anything and there are no exhaust fumes. To me that's worth the wait for it to heat up.


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## hddecker (Dec 18, 2009)

I am in the same boat here in southern Ontario. My shop is 20X24X10 (pics coming) and is not technically finished yet, but I do heat it while I am working out there. I have been using a 25000btu propane heater to get it warm ( about 15 min.) but need something to keep it up. A buddy of mine has a fan blowing through an oil filled heater. It is one of the larger one's that you can buy most places. It works well for him. His shop is 18X24X10 just for reference. Good luck 
Steve


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## TheHarr (Sep 16, 2008)

It's @ 22-27 degrees and the wind is kickin' here in Philadelphia. My shop is a 2 car garage with a cheap fiberglass door. I heat my shop with a propane torpedo. It's rated at 35,000 BTU. It does a good job, but it burns up the fuel. My advise, before you think about a heater, you need to check your building codes and consult your home insurance company. That may not be what you want to hear, but better to know you're covered than find out after the fact.


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## ChunkyC (Jun 28, 2009)

Here's how cold is: I went into the utility room tonight to get some spare light bulbs when I saw water on the floor. I quickly determine that the water was coming from ice on the heating ductwork at the furnace!

It's so cold that I'm having trouble getting the dog to go outside.


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## Northerner (Sep 30, 2009)

my shop is finished/insulated and has concrete floor. 
i want the heater to be electric so no wood or propane or lp

thanks


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## BlankMan (Mar 21, 2009)

Northerner, I hear what you're saying, just want to mention that electric is the most expensive way to heat out of all the fuels.


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## Northerner (Sep 30, 2009)

well, i dont really have any room for a big propane tank, or a wood stove. and with the ground frozen and two
feet of snow on top leaves out laying down pipe for LP. so electric has to be it


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

Assuming you have a decent amount of insulation, I would say Oil Filled Radiator, and keep the thing on. I have one in my 18×20 leaky, drafty, uninsulated garage, and it has been keeping the space warm (mid 60's) if I leave it on…

It WILL take a LONG time to heat up though…

For propane, you can use something like a Mr. Heater Big Buddy (or whatever the updated model is called). and a #20 tank. We use one in our West Texas hunting lease to heat the bunkhouse, it will run us out of the uninsulated bunkhouse (20×24) on high in 15 degree weather….

I have a Portable Buddy (the smaller version) that will hook up to a 1 lb cylinder, and it will heat my shop up in 15 minutes on high in 35 degree weather.


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## MarkwithaK (Sep 12, 2009)

A "large" LP tank is not needed. There are a many units on the market that operate off of a 20 lb. LP cylinder that you might use on a gas grill. You simply will not find any electric heat units, at 115VAC, that will heat your shop as you want it to….especially with a slab. There is a huge heat lose through that floor.


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## REK (Aug 30, 2009)

AThey make small wood burning stoves, a wood burner would bring the heat up in about a half hour.


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## Northerner (Sep 30, 2009)

i suppose i could get rid of the 220v heater i have now, it really doesnt work great and maybe just spend the
extra money and get a dayton heater or something like that?

i wish i didnt have all my machines in the shop already, some foam board and plywood on the floor would probably
help with the heat? but since that isnt the case i will have to do with what i got.

if i did get a oil filled radiator type and leave it run on low all the time but what would that do to my electric bill??


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## thedudeabides (Oct 20, 2009)

I'm in New Hampshire where it's sub-zero most of the winter and went through all the heating options. Pound for pound, electricity is the worst way to heat anything, and a fossil fuel like propane or kerosene is your better bet. I bought this humble 23k BTU kerosene from Home Depot for $129, and can buy kerosene at the local gas station for $3.50 per gallon. At maximum capacity I burn about 1 gallon every six hours and this heater is rated for 1000 sq ft. The same amount of heat from electric would cost double or triple the $3.50. Propane has similar energy density as kerosene.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xn8/R-100045793/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

Here is what I use in a 26X36 shop. Keeps it toasty.


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## dusty2 (Jan 4, 2009)

This is one of the reasons I did not return home (Montana) when I retired. I now have taken up residence in southern Arizona. On most (not all) days, I just open the shop and wait a while for the morning sun to warm the shop.

Now then, in the summer there is a different story to tell but we need not go into that.


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## Julian (Sep 30, 2008)

I use a potbelly stove from sears that was made in the 1920's. It was $200 off of craigslist and was the best $200 ever spent. I put an oscillating fan behind it and it will heat the garage from 0 to 60 in about 30 minutes. I can get the shop over 80 if I am not careful with it. Only my roof is insulated, so I believe that if I insulated the walls it might even heat up my 2 car garage even faster. I used to use a cieling mounted forced air heater that ran off of propane but it was WAY too expensive for my blood. I get my firewood for free, plus I can burn my scraps, so it's the perfect heat source imo.


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## ND2ELK (Jan 25, 2008)

I have a 220V heater with a fan and a 110V quartz heater. I also turn my ceiling fan on low. With in a half hour I am turning the 220 heater off and just using the quartz heater. Yesterday morning it was -7 outside when I went out in the shop. Within an hour my shop was some where between 60 & 70 degrees. Alot has to do with insullation, windows and doors. My shop is about the same size as yours and it does not take that long to heat up and hold the heat. I put 25 bags of blown insullation in the walls and ceiling. I closed up the two windows by covering them with rolled insullation and put plywood on both sides. I bought a 1 3/4" thick insullated garage door with weather stripping. I put weather stripping all around my other two doors. You might want to look at your building some as will. I got my quarts heater from Valley Tools. Good Luck.

God Bless
tom


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

Tom,
+1 on the insulation. My shop is built with 2X6 studs and 8" high "Truss Joists" under the roof. One window about 24"X36". 
During shop construction, I happened on a demo project where they were tossing the old insulation. 6" thick and plastic backed batts. I scrounged enough to do one layer in the walls and ceiling. Then, the inside walls and ceiling are covered with 1/2" ply. 
Before I bought the gas heater, referenced above, I used a great old wood burner. Firewood is expensive here, even if you cut it yourself, it's messy, varmints and bugs like the stacked cords and the old stove just took up too much valuable shop floor space. The stove took up some space, but I had to keep stuff a good distance from it, also.


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## NH_Hermit (Dec 3, 2009)

One of my few smarter ideas when I built my workshop was to lay foam insulation between the concrete slab floor and the sub floor of plywood and luan. This, and good insulation in the walls, makes heating with an old propane vented heater that was here already very easy. I also keep a 23k btu kerosene heater I got from Amazon close by in case we loose power. I had just spent a winter of -40 temps in northern New Hampshire, so insulation and heating was upmost on my mind. My next workshop will be someplace south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Where in NH are you thedudeabides? I'm up near Colebrook and Dixville.


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## BlankMan (Mar 21, 2009)

Actually, yeah, I should have thought of this yesterday, you don't need a big propane tank. A buddy recently installed a Modine type gas heater in his 2 car garage shop. He jetted it for propane and has two 100lbs tanks outside the garage which he alternates. The heater hangs from the ceiling so doesn't take up any floor space. It's rated at 75,000 btu's and bring the temp up in the garage nicely, his garage is insulated. He paid around $550 for the heater (you can get it for around $500 he didn't shop), you can get a 45,000 btu for around $300. Put it on a thermostat, keep it around 50, have the shop warm in no time.


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## reggiek (Jun 12, 2009)

Another idea is a forced air kerosene/diesel heater for construction…..if you have a drafty shop….I used one in mine until I installed the wood burner I use now. It works extra good for the "quick" heat ups - less then 15 minutes for a 30×30 shop…..some of them have a setting for just heat without the forced air so that you can use them for continuous heat. The better ones burn efficiently enough to remove the smell….or you can buy the unscented kerosene (a bit more expensive). This is certainly much less expensive then electric…..I shudder to think how much that would cost me…even in this area where it is not as cold as where you are.


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