Shopsmith Forums

Yesterday I plugged in my ceiling mount Comfort Zone dual quarts heater for the first time.

As some of you may remember I have an attached two car garage that has not parked a car since the 1980's. Mostly storage and woodworking has it pretty full. I did for a while heat it with a kerosene space heater but even that hasn't happened in while.

I got tired of not having any shop time all winter so something had to happen. Since $$ play a pretty significant part of the decision making along with where I could mount a heater etc etc it seem my best choice would be going this way.

In the afternoon the temperature outside was 15 degrees, then dropping to 11 by the time I went out for my second outing. The heater has three settings, one for the lamp and then 750/1500 watts. Using the 750 setting only I was able to raise the temperature from 42 degrees into the mid 50's where I was working (limited area). I can work at 50 or above so I was actually able to work on a few projects.

I will need to reposition some of my lighting as I'm pretty much set up to work with the garage door open and that will not be working so well now. A few other minor changes will get me to a situation where while limited I will be able to do a good deal of work.

I'll have to see how much this will be costing me when I see the electrical bill. Right now it is really feeling good being able have shop time again.

Ed

I operate a 1500 watt reflective heater along with a 500 watt work lamp. The lamp is like a little stove. Usually start the heaters at 8:00 AM - Temps around 20 plus or minus 5. Have had low of 17 but usually 20ish. The Sun is so low during Dec. there's very little solar warming.

Shop gets to 55 or so at 2:00 PM if there is one of those 20 MPH desert winds - sooner if no wind. Can make glue ups in afternoons and remove clamps next morning.

Best guess monthly cost is around $50. For me it's worth the shop time and football games on TV.

WoW! Supposed to go down to 10 tonight.

reible wrote:Yesterday I plugged in my ceiling mount Comfort Zone dual quarts heater for the first time.

As some of you may remember I have an attached two car garage that has not parked a car since the 1980's. Mostly storage and woodworking has it pretty full. I did for a while heat it with a kerosene space heater but even that hasn't happened in while.

I got tired of not having any shop time all winter so something had to happen. Since $$ play a pretty significant part of the decision making along with where I could mount a heater etc etc it seem my best choice would be going this way.

In the afternoon the temperature outside was 15 degrees, then dropping to 11 by the time I went out for my second outing. The heater has three settings, one for the lamp and then 750/1500 watts. Using the 750 setting only I was able to raise the temperature from 42 degrees into the mid 50's where I was working (limited area). I can work at 50 or above so I was actually able to work on a few projects.

I will need to reposition some of my lighting as I'm pretty much set up to work with the garage door open and that will not be working so well now. A few other minor changes will get me to a situation where while limited I will be able to do a good deal of work.

I'll have to see how much this will be costing me when I see the electrical bill. Right now it is really feeling good being able have shop time again.

Ed

Ed,
I am very interested in getting something like this for a 10 x 20 three season porch where I am building my canoe this winter. I'd be interested in what kind of temperature gain you are seeing at the higher setting. Also, is this unit hardwired or does it simply plug into a wall outlet?

Al

I was able to put a few tools away and puttered a while in the basement wood-shop today. The only problem I had was getting too hot...
I have the ducting bought to pipe the heat from the wood furnace second outlet over into another part of the basement where it can move on upstairs but I can't work with my arms overhead that much yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks if I take it slow, it only needs to go about 16' to get it out of the wood-shop. The first duct carries its air to the old gas furnace that serves as an air handler.
My farm / mechanical shop (remodeled barn) on the other hand would still be cold an hour after setting it on fire...


.

I was able to work in my shop today. Had the doors open the breeze was blowing the sun was shining and the temp was about 80 F. Ok so I like to gloat.
Bill V

wa2crk wrote:I was able to work in my shop today. Had the doors open the breeze was blowing the sun was shining and the temp was about 80 F. Ok so I like to gloat.
Bill V

I'd like to make a motion that Bill can only talk about his shop temperature in August.

I needed a sweatshirt today....... but only because it was a little windy in my semi enclosed carport. .... around 60 today in Green Valley. It's supposed to warm up again next week. Funny thing is that here in the high desert it gets colder at night than back home in B.C. but here it gets 30 or so degrees warmer in the daytime and at home it gets about 5 degrees warmer. I guess that's why I'm here. Oh yes, and the sunshine.

algale wrote:Ed,
I am very interested in getting something like this for a 10 x 20 three season porch where I am building my canoe this winter. I'd be interested in what kind of temperature gain you are seeing at the higher setting. Also, is this unit hardwired or does it simply plug into a wall outlet?

Al

Thus far I'm only using the low setting. Today I went out about 2:30 and started working as the shop warmed up. With the outside temperatures where they have been the last few days the shop stays at about 42 degrees. I came in for a short while at 4:00 and to take off my heavier clothes and hat. At that point it was 56 degrees. By the time I finished tonight at 7:30 it was 60 degrees and when I last looked the outdoors temperature was 6 degrees.

Keep in mind the whole garage is not 60 degrees. The heat is confined to the area near the heater and in the direction of heat flow. The rest of the space does get warmer but I'm not checking those temperatures. It does feel warmer in those areas so I might try getting readings at various places to see how they are doing.


The heater is a plug in, ceiling outlet.

Ed

reible wrote:Thus far I'm only using the low setting. Today I went out about 2:30 and started working as the shop warmed up. With the outside temperatures where they have been the last few days the shop stays at about 42 degrees. I came in for a short while at 4:00 and to take off my heavier clothes and hat. At that point it was 56 degrees. By the time I finished tonight at 7:30 it was 60 degrees and when I last looked the outdoors temperature was 6 degrees.

Keep in mind the whole garage is not 60 degrees. The heat is confined to the area near the heater and in the direction of heat flow. The rest of the space does get warmer but I'm not checking those temperatures. It does feel warmer in those areas so I might try getting readings at various places to see how they are doing.


The heater is a plug in, ceiling outlet.

Ed

Thanks for the info.

Yesterday I knew I wanted to work in the garage/shop for a longer period so I turned the heater up to 1500 watts. It was about 38 degrees in the shop and around 30 outside.

By the time I finished it was 78 degrees and that is warmer then we keep our house in the winter. I was still wearing a sweatshirt but it was nice and warm.

It was warm enough that I decided to turn an owl call. The powerpro has been off for a while now but it fired up just fine, nice and quiet compared to the days of trying to wake the old belt drive system.

If things work out I'd like to get a new garage door this summer. With that done and a few other adjustments to my layout I could be come a full winter wood worker. The last time I did that was back in the 80's.

I'm working on an idea to warm the tools I plan to use so they are a reasonable temperature before I have to handle them. One idea was an electric heating pad, haven't priced that yet. The other is to find a place near the heater where the tools could set and take advantage of the radiant heat already there.

Ed