Heating shop/garage

What is everyone doing for heat?
I am in the middle of building a waste oil heater and was curious what everyone else is doing.

 

My shop has central ac/heat. The heat is electric. The HVAC is the unit that was on the house. The previous owner upgraded the house hvac and had the old system installed in the shop.

 

All types of heat methods I can go Wood waste oil propane and oil hot air.

The waste oil to just get some benefit from the used oil

Just depends if I am bringing Cold vehicles in or out..

Being well insulated helps then it does not really get cold here seldom below zero for days on end

 

Im in the middle of building a waste oil heater but i was hoping to not have to use forced air and get a good clean burn. I have a 8" sched 40 pipe for the burn chamber. Small but i didn't want to have a giant water heater type. I rent my house and it has a 30x22 garage. No insulation. So i don't want to spend the money on insulating it as my land lord won't reimburse. I did insulate the tin garage door as that was the biggest offender. Gotta figure out how to exhaust the heater too.

Just looking for ideas.

 

When I lived in the midwest I used a wood stove- a 50 gallon drum with stove kit. That thing would keep my uninsulated garage plenty warm. But I had unlimited free wood, just had to go cut and split it. Nothing like a wood stove in my opinion.

 

radiant. very warm water through the slab.

 

I've tried to insulate as well as I good, and heat to the mid 40's with electric baseboard. Perfect for working in a sweatshirt and not that expensive. It's a shop, so not used as a garage, the overhead door stays closed.

 

I'm going to be doing hydronic radiant slab heat with a woodstove for back up

 

Is this a garage or workshop? Just asking because when I built a 22x24 barn at my last house the building inspector told me they frown upon wood stoves in spaces where fuel/vehicles will be stored and told me to make sure it is installed on a raised platform. Not sure if that is because volatile gasses are heavy and sink to the ground? Probably isn't an issue.

 

WOOD

 

Next year I plan on putting an electric heater in my garage.

 

workshop / storage building , not for vehicles

 

Building Inspector... Lol

 

When you live on a small lot and have nosey neighbors its either that or move. Eventually I moved.

 

building to minimum code requirement is a pretty low bar to get over

 

I have a 1200 sq ft garage with 13ft ceilings. Use hydronic in floor heating it’s very efficient. IF you decide to use a solid fuel stove in a garage be 1000% sure your insurance will cover you. Actual fire in a garage (with gasoline) is a pretty dangerous combo. You want to at least be sure your covered.

 

You're

 

Thank you all for the info!

It's a Rental so my options are limited.
It is a garage so we are in and out every day. It would be just for heating when working on projects.

Radiant heat would be the only way to go if I were building a shop. We had radiant heat in the shop on the farm and it was the best ever! no cold concrete when working on implements in the winter. the tractors were always easy to start and everything that would lay on the floor never got cold or gelled up.

my waste oil heater will have wood option. I am thinking of putting it outside in the yard and water lines through the sophet to a radiator and fan. that might be the least impactful to the garage. I wouldn't have to cut a hole in the roof and if there was a spill or something happened, it would be outside. I don't have a chord of wood to burn though. so that would be another expense.

 

I have a Pro Fusion EH-4604 mounted on the ceiling in my 1.75 car garage. It runs on 240V.

It worked for around 5 years, until this past weekend. I took it apart this evening and fixed it. One of the connections came loose. It's back like new.

I think I gave $150+ for it. They are dirt cheap now. Northern Tool has them for $90.

 

Rental changes things.

If you have natural gas, the math for NG works out to just about the same for burning wood if the wood is "free".

After figuring out time, chain saws, hauling, stacking, fireplace maintenance and other things, a natural gas unit heater will win. Even with unit heaters not being remotely efficient, gas is only slightly behind in $ spent for heat.

I have a wood burning fireplace in my shop. It hasn't been lit in 3 years. The gas is much more user friendly.

My insurance company didn't care that I had a solid fuel heat source, they only checked to if it was Underwriter listed. My insurance cost didn't increase after the inspection, they actually decreased.