Shopsmith Forums

We are just going through this now as well. We insulated the ceiling above the entire garage, as it was dry-walled (but not insulated) when the house was built 12 years ago. So we blew in 12-13" of AttiCat fiberglass insulation, and also installed R-13 fiberglass insulation in the walls of the shop (3rd garage stall). We walled-off the shop with a 2x4" stud wall, and hung dry-wall on each side after insulating it with R-13.

Our initial thought was to simply use a 1500-watt oscillating heater and a 1500 "milk-house" heater. Both are electric. It's been somewhat cold here in Green Bay lately, with temps down in the mid-20s a couple times. While working on the shop with both heaters going, it will get to about 59 degrees. So it's fairly comfortable, but the heaters must run constantly. In fact, we already burnt out the milk-house heater...so it's toast. We purchased the Owens-Corning garage door insulation kit and still have to install it over the "insulation" in the existing door--but the big problem is around the edges and at the bottom. Therefore we bought some new weatherstripping for the edges, and an extra rubber seal for the base of the door. But even though we have yet to finalize the sealing around the garage door, it has become very apparent that the electric heaters are marginal at best...at least at these latitudes. They have to run all the time, are noisy, and the recovery time of the shop is quite long anytime you have to open an outside door.

Therefore we ordered a Hot Dawg heater from Modine, and this will get hung next week. We ended up getting a 36,000 BTU unit, because of a promotion they had going--and we got it cheaper than the 24,000 BTU that I originally intended to buy. So I guess we'll be leaving the door open to the other part of the garage, because it's certainly more heater than we need for a 12x22' shop! And obviously it was much more expensive than just using the two electric heaters, but it will also add to the value of our home should we ever decide to sell. So we bit the bullet...

Here is Kansas I use a overhead radiant heater like pictured above. When it gets really cold I can suppliment with a kerosene heater. The kerosene heaters get a bad rap but if you follow directions the only smell is briefly at start up and then at shut down. It is much cheaper than propane and the heat output is better. The control is less but I get things warmed up and then shut it down. Then I let the infrared take over and keep things toasty.

If you are using a kerosene wick heater and the fumes or smell is bad then something is wrong. I recommend you do a bit of reading at this web site;

http://www.milesstair.com/

I try to change my wick every other year and follow the advise on how to clean intermittently. I went from the wife ready to kill me to no complaints. My heater is over 30 years old and working just fine. When the power was out three days a couple of years ago I was able to keep the house about 60 degrees just running it in the day time. It is a great backup.

In the new basement woodshop (and now also the boot shop) the only heat problem I have had so far is it getting too warm in the winter. I have blocked all heat outlets from the furnace (wood) and still have a little trouble keeping it under 70 degrees. Once I get the new chimney up and relocate the furnace outside of the shop it will be a lot easier to control. It is super nice when it gets down below zero with the screaming wind blowing the snow drifts around to walk down there in a short sleeved shirt and be as comfortable as in the living room.
Summer temps are also near ideal... The AC keeps the humuggity very low.
I don't know if I can get the new chimney up this winter or not. A lot depends on how open this winter stays. I also just have a lot of irons in the fire right now. I keep trying to get things adapted for what I see our needs likely to become in the next decade.

Now... The farm shop (in a former livestock barn typical of this area) is a whole other matter. The heaviest working part of that shop is a driveway area about 20' wide by 36' long with a big overhead door at each end. Many days when I go out there in the winter I have to raise one of the big doors to let the cold air out.
Now that I have all of the wood shop out of there much of the rest of the building (total size 36' X 50') is more storage than work area and I need to wall part of it off so I can heat the work area better. I plan to do a LOT of closing off and insulating in there. I intend to heat it to about 35 to 40 degrees full time then install a 100,000 BTU LP furnace I already have. Heating to 35 degrees is really surprisingly cheap. Almost all of the cost is from there on up... I want to install a long switch line into the house where I can switch between 2 thermostats in the shop by flipping a switch. That way if I want to be working out there I can get up and flip the switch and it can heat up while I eat breakfast.

Someone here advised a while back (and I really agree) to spend your money on insulation etc. instead of expensive heating equipment. Then you save much much more in the long run.


.

Thanks for the offer MrHart...I'm going to do some research on that unit. I've shied away from anything electric and wondered if these units were made up of tubes and a blower?

Oh... so I am spoiled... I don't need to worry about heating my garage shop. Living in phoenix heats my shop for me. In the winters, if it gets too chilly a tiny electric space heater fits the bill.

The problem is that phoenix does a little too well at heating my shop in the summertime. I have a 5000 BTU window AC unit mounted in the wall... and since my shop is about 12 x 18, that gets it down to around 100. Although, to be honest I don't keep a thermometer out there because at those temps I prefer to not know!:eek:

I recently upgraded my overhead garage door to one with 2" of encapsulated insulation and no windows...I'm hoping that helps keep it cooler.

Just thought I would cheer someone up by sharing the "other" side of the spectrum!

Take care,
Geo