11:20:54am, Saturday, May 18, 2024
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Shop Heating
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This is not pulling related but I am curious on what alot of people are using for shop heat.
We have just aquired a property that has two buildings on it that are both steel buildings . One is 30' x 45' and the other is 30' x 60' They are close together in location and I was wondering if one system could be routed into both. We don't make alot of used oil so that kind of system I think isn't practical for us. I have been looking at ads for corn/wood pellet bin hopper type heaters and was wondering if anybody has used them? We also have another building in a different location on the property that is 60' x 135' that we will also do in the next cpl of years. We have done Geothermal in another shop and a house but it is extremely expensive and uses alot of land for the loops. If anyone has any idea's what might work good and companies that I could talk to it would be appreciated. Thanks in advance 
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Re: Shop Heating
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binder.
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Ouside wood/coal stoves work great. we have are's in the corner of are shop with a coal bin beside it. It heats the house the shop 50by60 and the dairy parlor. burn about 12 ton of coal a year at 60 ton |
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Re: Shop Heating
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HP
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Hydronic! (hot water in the floor).
I have an LP boiler, but the outside wood/pellet boilers are economical. If you could handle the geothermal, that would be an economical way to cool the shops in the summer, as well as take some of the heating load off the system you use to heat the areas with. |
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Re: Shop Heating
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I agree Geothermal is really nice . You can set it at 70 +/- 1 all year long . It was $35,000 in the 45' x 60' shop we have. The same amount as well for the 2000 sq ft house.
The disadvantage is it takes up the same area in the ground beside the shop and the house as far as it's footprint. I am just looking in getting something more feasable for the two buildings now. And hopefully something similar for the larger building down the road. Just curious and thanks for the advice so far.
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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I use waste oil in my shop. 40 by 120 burns about 1500 gals. the out door wood furnances are great if you have the wood. If your buying wood I'd rather buy oil. It's too much investment. |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Wondering
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Where do you get coal for 60.00/ton? We use coal and the heat is great but we pay a lot more than that. I am always looking for a cheaper source! |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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If you already have a cement floor that limits your options as far as in floor hydronic heating. I work on Commercial Industrial Heating and Cooling for a living, I would prefer the in floor tubes with a condensing boiler. The Condensing Boilers run 95 to 98 % efficient, the colder the water coming to the boiler the better the efficiency . I see a lot of systems that people use mixing loops on an old cast iron boiler and run at 80 % letting 20 % keep the birds on the roof warm. The average price for the in floor tubing and manifolds (no heat source) is about 1.25/ft2.
If you already have a floor then you have a few options. - Radiant Tube Heater (CoRayVac) - Unit Heater (Reznor) - High Efficiency Forced air system. It really depends on what you plan to do with the space - Hours of Use / Day - Desired Occupied / Un Occupied Temperature The only downside to the in floor is if you are a after work and weekend shop user than you have to keep the building warm all the time you cannot setback to 55 deg F and expect to be 70 deg F in an hour or so. Hope this gives you a little insight. If you have a business look into the rebates avaliable from the Federal Government and your energy provider (Natural Gas & Electric) Doug |
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Re: Shop Heating
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heat me
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When we converted a pole shed to a shop area, we went with the radiant heat. We are not in the building every day, so the in floor was not cost effective. We really like the radiant heaters. |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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I, too, am in the heating business like Doug,and I agree with him, in-floor heat is awesome if you're in there every day, if not, I would suggest a nat gas, or L.P. unit heater, I really like the ones that Reznor make,they seem very reliable, throw a lot of heat, and for my customers, have been very dependable. |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Dave Lennox
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My argument against the floor heat has always been when the building is 15 yrs old and there becomes a problem in the floor, are you going to jack hammer it all up and fix it??? I'll bet you just hang something from the ceiling....so why not just do it that way to begin with?? |
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Re: Shop Heating
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HP
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Most likely I'll be dead by then.
Shouldn't have floor issues in 15 years anyway. (now my floor will probably be leaking when I walk out there) |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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We have have 40 by 60 18 ft side walls heated with a corn stove use about two and half buckets a day. We keep it around 60 degrees. |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Thanks for all the replys so far I really apprciate it.
Randy what corn stove are you using? I am reading a little on the Maxim stoves and they seem like they may work good.
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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It is a St. Croix. The type you would put in a house basement. |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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Your burning 6.00$ corn potentially ouch anybody know anything about a corn cob furnace seems like the green alternative but then again if i burn up all the corn cobs wont have anything to use in the outhouse since their are no more sears catalogs
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Re: Shop Heating
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corn burner
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How much corn do you want to buy for $6 bu.?? I have about 30,000 ready to go now. Even at that price, corn is still a cheap heat. That figures to about $150 per month for a large shop. We will burn that easy in a 60x90 shop that is not used everyday and kept at about 45-50 degrees. |
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coal with radiant floor heat
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Registered: 11/04/2008 Posts: 270 |
I have a shop around 4200 square ft. we use an Axeman Anderson self feeding coal boiler. With a oil boiler we used approx. 200-250 gal.per mo. at 70 degrees and out side in teens. When we went to the coal boiler it uses about 1 to 1 1/2 ton of coal per mo. at same temp. cost of coal here is around $120 per ton. A local company about 60 mi from shop builds these boiler and have since the 50's. Also with radiant heat system I would recommend a tech mar 386 system with controls the mixing demand for water added to the floor. The system has probes that read outside temp,boiler temp and floor water temp. The wall thermostat sets first demand for heat, then considering all temp. it adds water from boiler loop to floor loop. Much better control than just mixing valves.
This system has a 1 1/4 inch line with a pump that circulates water out of boiler around a loop and back to boiler. A the highest point in the loop there is a pressure tank and air relief valve. The floor has a 1 inch line , a floor circulation pump that pumps through all floor zone valves on top line which reaches the end and head back to the return lines that feed back toward the pump. Between the return and the pump are two 1/2 inch T's, they are piped to two T's installed in main boiler loop. One line has a circulate pump that is controlled by tech mar system that controls the speed which the pump adds water to the floor and the other return a portion of the return floor water back to the boiler. Great heat and for what it cost not bad to keep heat going all the time. One big thing I learned is that under the floor you should have two inch insulation board, and in the floor keep loops between 200 and 300 ft in length. On floor with ten foot or less ceiling height space lines 12" apart and 12' and above space 9" with 1/2" pecks tubing. good luck whatever way you go. Floyd Isbell (570) 637-1311 also there is a 1/2 in copper line that go |
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Re: coal with radiant floor heat
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HP
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I used 2" rigid insulation, and 1/2" PEX/AL/PEX.
That is PEX outer liner, a middle layer of aluminum, and an inner core of PEX. Similar to running soft copper, and you can find the lines with metal detector, like if a feller was wanting to add an above ground hoist, to make sure you miss the PEX with the anchors, even though you left an open area for that. But you may have lost your drawing of how you laid it out. (memory isn't what it used to be). |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Anonymous User
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We have 2 shops, one 60 x 100 (18 years old) and another 60 x 60 (2 years old)
We have radiant heat in both of them. Add a commercial ceiling fan or 2 running on the slowest speed and it helps distribute the heat well. I don't have any problems crawling around under tractors, combines, etc at all in the winter and staying warm. Ours are CoRayVac and if we hadn't been completely satisfied with them in the first shop, there is no way we would have installed them in the new one we built a couple years ago. Plus the dairy loves being able to pull the manure spreaders in directly under one of the radiant tubes and having the frozen spreader thawed out in a matter of hours. Ours were purchased through our local co-op. The only problem we have ever had in all these years is asian beetles getting into the ingitor portion and then they don't ignite for the first time they are ran in the late fall/early winter. I've been in customer's shops that have other types of furnaces, forced air, wood stoves, etc and from my experince they just don't seem to have the even heat distribution our radiant heat tubes have. Just my take on them anyway. Good Luck! |
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Re: Shop Heating
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Have both
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Have both and there is no comparison GO WITH FLOOR HEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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finding lines in floor
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Registered: 11/04/2008 Posts: 270 |
Local Chevy dealer just installed alignment lift and used a machine like x ray screen. They turned off the head over night,then the next day they turned it on and as the lines started to get hot you could see every line in the floor.Local fire department have it to find fires in the walls. Just another option if you only have plastic tubing. |
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Re: finding lines in floor
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Registered: 11/22/2008 Posts: 181 |
the ol' man uses a waste oil furnace to heat his shop (60x90) for 20 years now and it works great. In his one car wash we use waste oil to heat the floor in the winter and make hot water with it all year long with the same boiler, the other two washes have infloor heat but use nat. gas boilers to heat the floor and water. they both work, waste oil is cheaper but more work, kinda like burning wood. |
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Re: finding lines in floor
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Doug M
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If you need to find the lines hidden in the concrete there is a quick and easy way... Wet the floor down with water and where the tubes are located the water will evaporate first and show you the location of the tubes. You can then mark the tubes with a paint stick and do what you need to do. I teach hydronics (heating and cooling with water) to apprentices, this is a common question. If you are interested in learning more there is a man on the East Coast named Dan Holahan. His website is heatinghelp.com, All of his info is in plain english, very easy to understand.
Thanks Doug |
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