How Do You Heat Your Shop?

[capncarl]

Mark, what is the stove size? How big is the footprint of the stove and surround? I/ e, how much of your shop does it take up? I've always thought about a wood stove in the shop but never could justify the floor space. In South Georgia heat is not as necessary as cooling, and floor space is at a premium. My window air conditioner with heat pump heater is probably the best for the climate.
capncarl

[Black wallnut]

Mark, what is the stove size? How big is the footprint of the stove and surround? I/ e, how much of your shop does it take up? I've always thought about a wood stove in the shop but never could justify the floor space. In South Georgia heat is not as necessary as cooling, and floor space is at a premium. My window air conditioner with heat pump heater is probably the best for the climate.
capncarl

Honestly I have no idea. It was in the shop when we bought the property and the shop plus it was huge in our decision to buy this place. At the time wood working was my main hobby although I had a few others as well. Having a shop, just a 36" wide door and some windows was extra detached living space for me. There have been times when I've spent most of my non working or sleep time out there. The wood stove take up a fair amount of real estate in my shop however I don't know any different as my shop space has grown with each move since I became serious about woodworking. I have been able to make do with the room I have so far and that has included building a full kitchen worth of cabinets at once. having a heated shop has made working in the cold months down right cozy. I installed a window ac unit for summer work although I've not used it in a couple years.

To more directly help the OP when I had a smallish 2 car garage I knocked the chill off with a 5 gallon propane tank and radiant heater. The building was drafty enough that fumes was not an issue.

[JoeyGee]

I am leaning toward a kerosene heater with that non-smelly fuel. Should I be concerned with dust and a kerosene heater? It's been years, but my parents used one and I remember an open flame on the top.

[lrr]

This is the only time of year I'm glad to have my shop in the basement. I have not left the house in days with the brutal cold and snow ... I just step out of my slippers at the shop door, and slide on some workshoes.

[capncarl]

At Home Depot their kerosene for the heaters is $10.98. The ad does not give a volume but it weighs 7 lbs, that should be a gallon. For that price you could run your car in the yard and duct the heat out of the passenger compartment cheaper than that! My kerosene heater uses about a gallon every 16 hours.

[dbhost]

I know I am not a northerner, but I DO use my original shop heater in some quite cold places, like the deer lease where it gets into the single digits more often than I care to admit.

I used to use in my shop, and still use at the deer camp a Mr. Heater portable buddy heater.

Produces 9K BTU/hr, sufficient to heat a small uninsulated garage workshop from 29 deg to 65 deg in about 20 minutes.

No matter the make / model you get, if you go with a fuel burning heater of any sort, make sure you have an ample fresh air supply, and / or a low oxygen shut off. You don't want Carbon Monoxide poisoning!

[JoeyGee]

Believe me, my garage is plenty breezy, so air flow won't be an issue.

[mpc]

My shop is the back 14 feet or so of a really deep 2-car garage. The previous homeowners built this detached garage extra-deep to store a speedboat and a dune buggy both on trailers. So I have 2 cars in the front section and the shop in the back. If it's too cool in SoCal for shop work, I just take one of those cars for a run to Rockler, or Woodcraft, or Austin Hardwoods, or to a Thai restaurant, etc. and then park it back in the garage/shop. Less than an hour later the temp has risen quite a bit.

I need air conditioning more often than I need heating in the shop... don't have A/C out there. Yet.

mpc

[twistsol]

I used a propane torpedo heater with a grill tank on it. It would heat up the garage really quickly and then I'd turn it off. Not much smell, but a lot of humidity was added to the air. I wouldn't use any type of combustible heat source without adequate ventilation though.

Once I cleaned up and insulated the garages, I installed a 17,000 BTU electric heater in each garage.

[Carpenter96]

My shop is a two car garage under the house i9t is 18 x 20 with an 8 foot ceiling. There are two interior walls an insulated garage door with a great air seal and one exposed poured concrete wall. We regularly get minus 20 C and into the minus 30 degree C area. I heat with one of the electric dual wattage ceiling mount radiant heater (750W/1500W). I have it going to an outlet with an inline 120V thermostat set for 5 degrees C so that my tools do not rust. I used to have just one outlet but now have a sub-panel and all the outlets that I need. I have never used the 1500W setting in the 11 years I have been here. The nice thing about this type of heat is that it heats up the items in the shop so even at 5 degrees C when you pick up a wrench or rest your hand on one of the cast iron tables it does not fell cold bur yet you can see your breath.

Regards Bob

[capncarl]

This cold snap we are in now in S. Georgia will get you to thinking about a shop heater for sure if it is comparable up north! We saw 19f last night, it killed everything in my garden, even stuff that is suppose to be cold hardy. I guess cold hardy stuff raised in the south where the average nighttime lows are in the 40s for weeks on end kinda makes whimps out of them. I hate loosing my mustard greens though!
capncarl