Garage heat.

[donbryce]

I use a 10KW electric furnace mounted with the outlet on the floor. The shop is only 18' X 24', so even on those chilly Canadian winter nights (-20 Celcius not uncommon), I can get up to a reasonable temperature in about 2 hours.

To make things even more pleasant, I use the 2 wires in the phone line that aren't needed for the phone to connect the thermostat from a wall switch in the house. That way, I come home from work, turn it on, and by the time I'm ready to go out, it's started to heat up.

[Ralph]

One more vote for Infloor Radiant Heat! Couper - with radiant you don't play with the thermostat at all.In the fall you turn it on, set it to 65, and forget it till spring. The shop's always ready to go. Your feet stay warm too. Once your floor slab warms up it doesn't take much power to keep it there. The following is a reprint from a post I did on this subject a while back:
I built a 24x26 shop out back of our existing garage. It has R20 walls, R40 in the roof, two inches of Styrofoam under the slab, and radiant hot water (glycol really) heat in the floor. Love that radiant heat! The whole thing runs off a 10-gallon hot water tank with a 3000-watt electric element. Runs about 30% of the time and costs maybe $30 a month to heat. And the floor's WARM.

Compared to the cost of a construction heater ($75 Cdn/5000 watts), it does seem pricey, until you add in the cost of running that construction heater. When you compare it to the cost of the whole garage, and the difference in comfort it doesn't look too bad at all. I think I might have had $1500 Canadian pesos in parts in the heating system, including tubing, insulation and everything. The parts list is pretty easy to price out:
10 Gallon water heater, 3000 watt element, little pump, 600feet of special hose, about 8 ball valves, and some copper pipe. Oh, yeah, and about 10 gallons of glycol to mix 50/50 with water. Your plumbing wholesaler will tell you 3000 watts isn't enough power. Maybe not, but mine maintains my set 62F at -20C outside just fine, without having to run all the time. I think good insulation is key, and the best-insulated overhead door you can find.


My shop feels toasty at quite a low temp setting (62F). My floor has 3 "zones", about 200 feet each. From the back corner of the garage, one zone goes up the side and across the front in two loops, another across the back and up the other side in two loops, and the third fills up the middle. The outer loop is on 6" centers, the rest on 12". My heat source is quite simple. It's an electric water heater, but instead of being pressurized, it's an open vented system with an expansion stack at the top. It avoids having to use all the air and pressure handling tanks and valves. I used the Rehau all plastic tubing. Wirsbo makes it too. My pipe was stapled right to the insulation, at the bottom of the slab. Centered halfway through the slab might be better from a "heat recovery time" point of view, but I don't notice a problem. The upside to my way is less chance of hitting water if you drill into the floor for a lag bolt or something.

If you are considering building a shop, I would recommend looking in to radiant heat.
After going through the last couple of winters with this setup, I don't think I'd build a shop any other way. I'm a big fan of radiant heat now.

[Mikej]

One more vote for Infloor Radiant Heat! Couper - with radiant you don't play with the thermostat at all.In the fall you turn it on, set it to 65, and forget it till spring. The shop's always ready to go. Your feet stay warm too. Once your floor slab warms up it doesn't take much power to keep it there. The following is a reprint from a post I did on this subject a while back:
I built a 24x26 shop out back of our existing garage. It has R20 walls, R40 in the roof, two inches of Styrofoam under the slab, and radiant hot water (glycol really) heat in the floor. Love that radiant heat! The whole thing runs off a 10-gallon hot water tank with a 3000-watt electric element. Runs about 30% of the time and costs maybe $30 a month to heat. And the floor's WARM.

Compared to the cost of a construction heater ($75 Cdn/5000 watts), it does seem pricey, until you add in the cost of running that construction heater. When you compare it to the cost of the whole garage, and the difference in comfort it doesn't look too bad at all. I think I might have had $1500 Canadian pesos in parts in the heating system, including tubing, insulation and everything. The parts list is pretty easy to price out:
10 Gallon water heater, 3000 watt element, little pump, 600feet of special hose, about 8 ball valves, and some copper pipe. Oh, yeah, and about 10 gallons of glycol to mix 50/50 with water. Your plumbing wholesaler will tell you 3000 watts isn't enough power. Maybe not, but mine maintains my set 62F at -20C outside just fine, without having to run all the time. I think good insulation is key, and the best-insulated overhead door you can find.


My shop feels toasty at quite a low temp setting (62F). My floor has 3 "zones", about 200 feet each. From the back corner of the garage, one zone goes up the side and across the front in two loops, another across the back and up the other side in two loops, and the third fills up the middle. The outer loop is on 6" centers, the rest on 12". My heat source is quite simple. It's an electric water heater, but instead of being pressurized, it's an open vented system with an expansion stack at the top. It avoids having to use all the air and pressure handling tanks and valves. I used the Rehau all plastic tubing. Wirsbo makes it too. My pipe was stapled right to the insulation, at the bottom of the slab. Centered halfway through the slab might be better from a "heat recovery time" point of view, but I don't notice a problem. The upside to my way is less chance of hitting water if you drill into the floor for a lag bolt or something.

If you are considering building a shop, I would recommend looking in to radiant heat.
After going through the last couple of winters with this setup, I don't think I'd build a shop any other way. I'm a big fan of radiant heat now.

Are you pulling the hot water from the bottom of the tank and returning to the top? One pump or one for each loop?

[Ralph]

Are you pulling the hot water from the bottom of the tank and returning to the top? One pump or one for each loop?[/quote]

Only one pump. It pushes the glycol in to the bottom fitting of the tank, then out the top, through the loops in the floor, and back to the pump.
Ralph

[couper]

Manitoba (heh?) No wonder you have radiant heat. I won't be turning on the furnace for a couple weeks. I'm not gloating though, The heat savings I have now will eat me alive come spring when I have the A/C on combating the humidity and high temps and you don't! lol!! To each his own my friend.
Lance

[EMSjunkie]

To each his own my friend.
Lance[/quote]


A famous man once said, " the key to success is location, location, location"  here in the Texas panhandle, we need both heat and a/c,
sometimes on the same day!


Vance
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