It's cold out there!!!!!!

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rsulli16

rsulli16

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Jun 9, 2010
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Hi gang
I'm in northern NJ. and yes it is cold out now. My shop is in a two car detached garage, not insulated. About 25 by 20, 2 standard overhead type doors.

Can anyone fill me in on heaters? I see electric and propane types.

I got 120v,20a out there, but that has to run my lathe, shop-vac, drill press too.

Is propane safe to use in a garage with the doors down? How about around the usual chemicals we use, the CA, BLO,DNA,acetone?
Salamader type or tank top type?

Once I started looking, I realized I didn't know anything about them. Got confused real quick( at least that part is normal enough) :)
Thanks
Sulli
 
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Sulli,
I am not to far down the road from you here in VA, and i can tell you from experience that the best thing you can do is 'insulate' your shop...after i insulated my shop (close to same size as yours) all i run for most all of the winter is a little oil filled electric heater(runs at 110v so not much expense for the winter months) you buy at one of the big box stores...before i unsulated no matter what i did it was cold ;(
 
I use a woodstove for heat in my shop. I get the wood for free so it's cheap heat for me...Plus I build the stove myself too.. :)
Brian
 
Sulli, I am from Northern NJ, but moved to Nashville in '94. I had a seperate garage/shop in Boonton. I bought some foam insulation for my garage doors and it helped out big time. I also used a kerosene heater. Worked great, but keep a window cracked. Here, the winters here are not as cold, but still cold, nonetheless, and wet. I did the same down here with the garage doors and heater. Gets pretty toasty.
 
If you don't have some kind of a vent, then you could be looking at an instant barbecue (you) or a sub-thermonuclear explosion (BOOM!) with all those fumes and an open flame.:wink: .....its 82 degrees today with a light breeze flowing in off the ocean!:biggrin:
 
Barry is always trying to get us all to move to Florida, but I'm not sure which is worse - cold and dry or hot and humid. At least in the cold, I can put more on!
 
The cold is totally blasting it's way back here too. I remember those days of the garage with no insulation or heat. None of your heat sources are that great for in there. Propane is excellent, but should be vented and now you are talking about spending money. For a grand, you can get a show dawg, mounts to the ceiling and vents out the wall. That's an excellent source of heat, meant for wood shops, safe and efficient.

My guess is you need heat now, and have a tight budget.

I'd go electric, an electric heater that has a fan and no exposed elements.
I'd buy some rolls of plastic. Staple the plastic around the entire inside. Clamp down the door and run the plastic right over that too. Tape the seams. It's not attractive, but it's real cheap and will make a huge improvement even without the heater plugged in.
 
I would put up some insullation and then use the oil filled electric heaters. It can be below zero outside and I can comfortable work in our shop in shorts and sandles. We also used the blue foam on the garage doors. I think it was around $10 a sheet. Cut them to size and popped them into the panel.
 
I'm afraid we missed that little bit of info, he only has one circuit of 120 volt 20 amp service in the shop. Running anything other than the heater will overload that circuit.
If you are going to go electric(the safest one) then you will need more power. Are you comfortable working with electricity? If not, do you know anyone that can help you with adding more circuits? You are going to need that before you try heating and running the shop on the same circuit. My $0.02 today.
Charles
 
I'm in the same boat, with nearly same dimension shop. What worked well for me was an old 180K btu propane torpedo heater. It could be 30 degrees in there and 5 minutes with that on it was mid 70's. I would leave the door cracked or a small window I have cracked for ventilation. I also had a kerosene but I would NEVER use one of those again. With in 20 minutes of that running I would have a horrible headache. (we are talking a model from the 80's though) With each however, the heat would not last a 'long' time. I would have to turn the heater back on about once an hour. Which Is really not that bad considering it only took a 5 minute burn to heat it up. Next step is insulate, well after I put a new roof on.
 
I'm in the same boat. Cold here in MN!

I have plenty of power for electric, but would prefer Kerosene or LP for cost reasons (electric is $$ here).

So if you have a gas heater, you CAN use it in a closed garage, but you just want to make sure you crack the door or a window open for some ventilation?
 
yeah, I'm tryin to sweet talk the boss into letting me move the lathe into the spare room. I just get "the look" :frown: when I mention it. Meanwhile, I just use a sweat shirt and keep the shop lights on...
 
I would buy some heavy electrical cord and make an extension cord to run into the shop from in the house. Now you have more power in a jiffy, you can unplug it when not needed, no need for an electrician.
 
workinforwood said:
I would buy some heavy electrical cord and make an extension cord to run into the shop from in the house. Now you have more power in a jiffy, you can unplug it when not needed, no need for an electrician.
Click to expand...
Dog gone it Jeff, Work is slow and I was trying to drum up some.:wink: Now why didn;t I think of that?
Charles
 
I bought some 10 or 12 guage outdoor wire, the hard stuff just like what goes in the walls, comes in a roll. I drilled a hole beside the back entry door in the garage, ran the wire out the hole, along the bottom of the deck against the house then back through another hole into the basement. Installed a regular plug on each end, plugged into basement. This way the "extension cord" was not in the regular part of the house, nor was it blocking a door from closing, and because it was not a flexible cord, it was pretty cheap to buy. I'm not using the garage as a workshop anymore, but when I was, I was in your shoes..only 2 plugs in the garage and both on same circuit.
 
thanks all.
thinking of a propane salamander type, but i could run a line out there, i rewired the whole house, new 200amp panel, got plenty of empty slots. i am comfortable working with electric. I was going to do it anyway in the spring as i just got a generator. i wanted to run a gen cord to the house then a power-in box in the wall of the house, then run extention cords inside to whatever i needed (mostly for the sump pump) Maybe i'll run the power- in line right out to the garage instead, also run a 220 line out to the garage while i am digging anyway. I thought of running the generator for this winter only and getting an electric heater(30amp generator-could work), but the neighbors wont like that, too noisey, neither will I come to think of it :):):)
sorry i let this thread go awhile, i was away, had to go take the pledge as we used to say, now i have to drink seltzer or coffee while i work,
hmmmmmmmmmmmm that means a refridgerator and or another line for coffee to anyway, start digging i suppose, that kid of mine looks way too comfortable on the couch anyway :):):):):)
Thanks again
Sulli
 
Insulation is your friend! Your uninsulated walls are probably around R2, adding R19 fiberglass insulation means that it will take around 10% of the energy to maintain a given temperature compared to uninsulated.

One thing that helps a lot is heated floor mats. The ones I use are 2'x4', draw 1 amp and are around 135F when on. Stand on that to keep feet warm and the rest of you does not need to be quite so warm to stay comfortable.
 
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