HEATING OPTIONS:

[junderwood]

Art,

Don's furnace is more commonly called a tankless water heater on this side of the border. Basically, you don't heat the water unless you need hot water so you have minimal loss. 100% efficient is a bit much, but the are close. There would be some new physics invented to get 100%. I know a couple people around me that have used those style of heaters, both gas and electric, with infloor heat and are very satisfied.

You are correct that Don is loosing the heat from the heater to the air in his shop so technically he is not loosing any of the heat. I would think he will still see some energy savings. Water heater elements loose efficincy as they age and get covered in deposits. I am not sure if the tankless units suffer from this or not.

 

[aaytay]

Don/John-
It looks interesting. I've heard of the "tankless" heaters before, and have also heard that they are very efficient.

I guess my 'common sense' just got in the way of what little brain-sense I may have. Maybe too much of this..

fried a brain cell or three... LOL!

I wish I would have put 'pipes' in the floor of my shop. Keep us posted on how it works out for ya!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Not exactly space heating... but I have a tank-less "on demand" water heater at my cabin. I only heat the hot water that I use. Not sure if this one could be used for in floor heat or not. This model has a pilot light but they do have models that use a battery igniter system. Main reason we have this at the cabin is we drain the water during the winter months. Hate to have to drain a big tank and/or wait for a big tank of water to heat up when we go up for a weekend in the winter.

 

[digger]

I out one of those in when we moved up north.
I needed something fast and easy to replace the 3 gallon water heater that was here, LOL

And yes Kraig, they work great for in floor heat. Especially if you put in a solar style storage tank.

 

[dtanner]

Home of the Plow Special (Aaytay)

Art
If you don`t mind loosing about 2.5" of floor height you can now add in floor heat to your shop. They make a mix that is applied over the pipes and concrete that will allow you to have in floor if it was not plumbed into the floor.

I plan to have tank less heater in stalled in my hose next year and save some more $$ on power .My hot water tank must be 23 years old and will soon leak anyway ,so when it does tank less will be what I will put in its place.

 

[sblunier]

And remember that any gas fired appliance is losing 8-20% of the input rated heat right out the flue pipe (power vented or natural draft).

A 100,000 btu (input) furnace will only provide (at best) 93,000 btu's of usable heat for the home, by new efficiency stds, 80,000 btu's at worst.....but you still lose some as John U. mentioned.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Off-topic post for Charlie's benefit. Something I came across while looking for the photo of my cabin water heater...

Charlie, recognize anything in this photo?

 

[dtanner]

Krag
I brought home the electric furnace today.The guy tells me that he was offered $500.00 and said IF I did not show he would sell it to this other guy. He is Milatary and stands by his offer to me he said,And if it don`t do what you need. You can sell it to this guy.(for more) A great man to talk to much younger than me lol. But worth a moment that I will remember.

I have to STOP bringing stuf home the wife says, Where you gona put that lol.

 

[tcbusch]

I am currently in the same situation. I just built a 24x36 shop. I have insulated 2x6 walls and ceilings. I am currently using a torpedo heater that is removing the oxygen from the shop. Obviously dangerous. I was at Menard's and noticed they are selling 75,000 BTU ceiling mount units like the one Greg has in his shop. The unit, according to the box, comes with a propane conversion kit. My plan is to install the furnace above the bench area. Vent it through the roof and run it off my RV propane tanks. The RV uses those 30, or 40 lb tanks. Then next summer run a natural gas line and convert it to natural gas.

Is this a good plan?

 

[dfrisk]

TERRY I have the same sized shop only with 2x4 insulated walls, sidewalls are 8 ft, the attic drywalled off and insulated with 6" of fiberglass. Heat has always been a 100,000 RTU torpedo heater, which as you know doesn't make the shop a real nice place to spend time even if it IS warm.
75,000 BTU hanging furnace would be fine in that size shop, maybe almost too big in fact, furnace in my 2200 sq ft 2-story house is only 100,000 BTU. If you have access to natural gas that will always be cheaper to run but more $ to install. My Dad had a little 24x24x8 ft garage built as a shop, and he could easily get a year out of a 250 gal LP tank with his ceiling mounted heater and he kept it warm ALL winter, 50-55 deg, whatever the lowest setting on the thermostat was.

 

[glippert]

Terry - That sounds like a good plan to me. My garage is attached to the house, so it was easy to just extend the natural gas from the basement. Temporary use of propane is a good way to go - and you'll appreciate the lower cost of natural gas when you get it connected next summer.

If you put it over the workbench, be sure you leave enough headroom for "tall" projects. Also, the directional louvers will move the air mostly outward, not so much downward, so "aiming" it at your primary target zone is a good idea. I put mine in the corner, mounted diagonally, and I'm happy with that. (Not coincidentally, it was also the location that allowed the shortest run for the gas line!)

Let us know how it works out.

 

[dtanner]

Well my electrician was over tonight and we hashed out the install for the electric furnace. We will remove the tank I use now and mount the furnace to the wall and plum it in and wire it.He said it will take about three hrs to get it done. I said the wife is concerned about power usage( I blamed her lol), So he will install a meter so I can keep an eye on how much power the shop uses and can tell from that how much the house costs.That way she can`t blame me for all the high bill every two months. I will have the prob thermostat drilled and place in the slab for an accurate temp. That way I can make a fire in the stove and not affect the temp of the slab.This is a problem now when I make a fire the slab does not get any water to maintain its temperature and gets colder . I will post a picture of the installed unit when finished.

 

[lhinds]

Don; It might save you some money to close all drafts on the stove unless you have a fire in it.It acts like a fireplace with a open draft, and will pull an unbelieveable amount of heat out. My neighbors roof was melting snow or frost off around her chimney aand i checked it to find it was open all time. I closed it for her and her bill went down a lot. Just my 2c

 

[dtanner]

Luther Ray Hinds

You know I never gave that a thought.My shop has a Wood Chief air tight wood stove and I did not add a key. The pipe is 6" and goes straight up from the back of the stove and out. I bet the vacuum of the stove pipe would create a draft around the seal on my garage door. I get a good draft from the flue so it does make sense that I do lose a lot of heat when the stove has no fire in it. Thanks I will install a damper now. the stove has an automatic damper that works when the stove has a fire , but remains open when not in use.

 

[lhinds]

Don Tanner i was wondering how your new water heater is working out. Also is your heat more consistent than before?
Luther

 

[dtanner]

Luther Ray Hinds

The contractor did not show up to install the electric furnace yet. If I could wire the thing in it would have been done weeks ago. I find it cost so much to hire anyone and they do take there time for what they charge these days. I will post when he shows to install it and its completed. He will also install a meter so I know how much power the shop takes from the house. That should help with the wife and her ideas on what I use out here.

 

[fcurrier]

This can't be a good option:
Miller hot air furnace:
My next door neighbor went to Florida and left me the key/use of his 3 bay garage. Maybe 40' x 28' with a 10' ceiling. I started with a full 55 gal tank of fuel at noon, the furnace ran for 4 1/2 hours and it took 4 gallons to refill the tank!! Does it make sense that that old furnace can suck up a gallon of fuel an hour? I guess I'm just going to have to work faster when I'm over there!! Oh, the temp was 24*, chest level, when I started and 56* when I left.

 

[dtanner]

Well yesterday I had some help and we removed the 40 gal hot water tank after draining it of glycol.We put some plywood fast to the wall and put the new heater in place . Today I will plum it and test for leaks. it will have to be wired in to the panel tomorrow (i hope). I`am told this will cut my bill in half this winter. I will not have to heat 40 gallons of water to have heat for the floor when the thermostat calls for heat. This little electric furnace makes hot water on demand ,so cold water in and hot out in a second . I will be installing a prob thermostat in the cement floor to keep the room at one temp. I have to add the expansion tank also with a vent form my old set up. Off to Town for some fittings and geterdone.

 

[dtisdale]

I have a heater at home as well and everything is working just fine. I thought of plugging a solar panel solution before but there seems to be having some problem as they tend to fire excessively hot during the day time but tend not to be that working well at night.

 

[digger]

Don T. will get a real heater one of these days, I know he will. LOL