Shop heater

[JD Miller]

What do you have for a shop heater?

I might do a electric shop heater, thought about a pellet stove, put just want "easy peesy" push button heat. I have a wood burning stove in the house that is plenty of work with firewood, stoken stokin a fire every morning

Anyone got a recommendation for a electric shop heater?

 

[legopnuematic]

How big is the space you want to heat and what do you have for insulation?

 

[Grit dog]

If well insulated and the ceiling isn’t 100’ tall, Infrared gas heater on the ceiling. Game set match done…

 

[idahovette]

^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^ exactly what I have in my shop. Only 32x36 with 12 foot high ceilings, set on 60 and all is good. Good old Intermountain Gas Company is not very expensive.....coldest 8 degrees highest bill $90....works for me

 

[Frankenchevy]

Pellet stoves aren’t that bad maintenance-wise either…We vacuum out the stove every bag and have never had an issue.

All depends on what you pay for electricity, gas, etc. We pay $0.32-0.56/kWh, so electricity would be way too expensive. Propane is ~$2/gallon when we fill our tank in July, but if we used it for heat we’d be filling in the winter too at $5/gallon. Pellets cost $6/bag and a bag will last about 2 days. Not as cheap as wood, but as you mentioned, much more convenient.

 

[Hunter79764]

I use Texas for my shop heater...
Jk, sort of. Not a huge need for it here, but I'm interested in adding a portable propane heater for mine next winter.

Gas heat is usually more cost efficient to run, electric heat is usually more install friendly, but both of those depend on your utility availability and cost. Radiant heat is a winner for intermittent heating needs (vs keeping it at a warm temperature constantly) since you are using the radiant heat to heat objects vs using typical heaters to heat air that then heats objects. Are you on Natural Gas service, or LPG tanks? Any idea your electric rates?

 

[JD Miller]

Need Electric heater

No Natural gas here. House has 250 gal propane tank, and to far from shop. Propane is expensive. Summer $2.40 per gal summer, $2.70-2.80 winter price. $$$$

Electricity is cheapest . Either electric or pellet stove or wood stove for the shop. 30x40 ft insulated, 12ft- 16 ft high ceiling.

 

[Hunter79764]

I vote infrared electric if you use it intermittently. If you want to maintain a temperature for the entire day etc, you might actually look into a heat pump (you don't have to duct it, just have the "furnace" with a filter inlet and some sheetmetal scrap to direct the airflow where you are working). Bonus is that you'll have AC in the summer as well, and in mild weather, you can just run it as a fan.
Get creative with plastic sheeting and you can make a paint booth, using this as your air supply and exhausting out a controlled point on the other side. Find someone in the HVAC field and see if you can snag a used unit for cheap. Some infrared heater units might still be nice, especially at a workbench etc. Anyway, just some thoughts.

 

[Bextreme04]

I put a heat pump in mine after just using a portable propane one for years. It was kind of a fathers day gift to myself. ~$600 and it keeps the shop ~64 degrees in the winter and 75-ish in the summer to conserve the energy usage. I installed it myself and most of them come precharged, so you just run the power feed, run the piping, pull a vacuum in the system using a standard vacuum pump you can rent from autozone for free, then open the valves and voila.