I live in Alberta, Canada and have a workshop in my unheated garage. In order to be able to work in the winter I have to heat the garage and am wondering what system you would suggest that is cost effective and inexpensive and will be safe to operate around the sawdust generated by wood working tools.
Sincerely,
Raul Carsolio
Replies
No matter what heater you get, the sawdust isn't going to be great for it. If you start out planning to control that as much as possible, you gain more options. The two types I see heating shops here are the radiant overhead type in large commercial sturctures, most garage/workshop heaters are ceiling hung gas burners. They are not terribly expensive, they make a lot of hot. Just keep it cleaned up.
I think were I building new, in floor heating sounds like the cats meow, but since your structure is existing, that likely isn't in your game plan. You could also consider constructing a separate area for the heater, enclosed, where the intake vents are all screened with filters as well. I did that with the AC unit in my old shop, and sized them so I could buy furnace filters right off the shelf. Surprisingly effective. Not perfect, but not bad. Every month I'd take the cover off and give the unit a good once over with an air hose to knock anything loose that had gotten through the prefilters and the units filters themselves.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
Radiators with the water heater/boiler located in another room/building separate from the shop.
Or radiant floor heat, but it's very expensive to install, and expensive to operate if you have a cold slab and heat it up. Not expensive to operate if you keep it at temperature all the time.
Ruso,
I've been using a 280,000 BTU (max) wood (and coal if you want) fired forced air furnace in my modest 600sq. ft. workshop (Complete overkill, but it came with the house). Cost to operate, almost zero. It'll take the shop from -10F to 100F in ~15 minutes.
I can pack it with wood, and it'll run for up to 18 hours with no attention. ( It has automatic dampers and thermostat) I think you can buy one new for less than a grand.
Jon