How to heat

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I agree with insulating.
My brother in law spent a great deal of time insulating his 3 car garage / woodshop.
More details than i care to mention, but framed where walls met the roof to keep minimum 6” of insulation throughout the whole building. the one door he hardly used was secured so it wouldnt leak air.

2 750 watt oil filled heaters kept it at 60 above on all but the coldest days.

main source in my shop is a pellet stove. Idle at night,cranked up when im in there. 7 days/week. Its pretty well insulated, but means nothing when the 10x10 door is opened. Recovery on minus 40 days is pointless. I will be adding a 10kw electric furnace for makeup when door is opened and when its real cold.

Im out there 7 days a week,i keep it warm.

Limited space,go electric and keep temp to a minimum.
 
I agree with insulating.
My brother in law spent a great deal of time insulating his 3 car garage / woodshop.
More details than i care to mention, but framed where walls met the roof to keep minimum 6” of insulation throughout the whole building. the one door he hardly used was secured so it wouldnt leak air.

2 750 watt oil filled heaters kept it at 60 above on all but the coldest days.

main source in my shop is a pellet stove. Idle at night,cranked up when im in there. 7 days/week. Its pretty well insulated, but means nothing when the 10x10 door is opened. Recovery on minus 40 days is pointless. I will be adding a 10kw electric furnace for makeup when door is opened and when its real cold.

Im out there 7 days a week,i keep it warm.

Limited space,go electric and keep temp to a minimum.
How much do you spend on pellets heating your shop?
 
A couple inches of spray foam will seal and insulate.
Less leaks in the envelope makes it easier to maintain temp. with less energy.
With your climate a small heat pump might do the job and give the benefit of summer cooling.
 
I would have said radiant floor, but the pad is already in. :(


I wish more would "get this" but it's always "the floor is poured" LOL. And you can use a floor coil with wood, as well. Friend of mine, now dead, had a floor coil, thorugh a coil in the wood heater, and then through a gas/ LPG water heater for backup. Worked REALLY well, and he rarely fired the gas heater. Thing is you don't need the shop "all that warm" with in floor heat.
 
You must not get snow there? That appears to be VERY light, minimal construction. No diagonal bracing?
It snows at least once a year. Not much maybe a few inches. The building is “certified” to N.C. spec (whatever it may be I’m not sure)
 
That’s a nice looking workshop garage, but every tall tree around it is to be viewed as a potential enemy and really needed to be put on the ground before it was constructed, IMHO

That can't be said enough. Even small ones need to be gone from around structures. They either turn into big enemy trees quicker than you expect, or their roots wreck your concrete work and any drainage, or all of the above.

Over the past 5 years I've brought in a tree crew three times to take down oaks that slowly got out of control under the prior home owner. By the time we came along, the things were 75 feet tall.
 
How much do you spend on pellets heating your shop?
$6.00/bag and less than a bag /day.
Lets call it 150/month. Heating to 60 or 70 degrees. Home business, so i write it off 100 %
This year i bought extra pellets, put 60 bags in the house. I supplement the electric heat in house as well.
Days like we have in the past week, furnace doesent run.
 
A couple inches of spray foam will seal and insulate.
Less leaks in the envelope makes it easier to maintain temp. with less energy.
With your climate a small heat pump might do the job and give the benefit of summer cooling.

Should I put another over the spray foam to cover it afterwards? Or will it be ok to leave as is?
 
If you don't spray foam or something similar then your chances are real high that water will condense on the roof and drop on you. A wall mount " plaque heater" would work fine for something that size. Around $200 at farm supply stores \ northern tool. A 100 lb propane tank lasts well over a week depending on how high you run it.
 
If you don't spray foam or something similar then your chances are real high that water will condense on the roof and drop on you. A wall mount " plaque heater" would work fine for something that size. Around $200 at farm supply stores \ northern tool. A 100 lb propane tank lasts well over a week depending on how high you run it.
Plus the don't take any electric and are vent free.I've used them for years
 
Your weather is probably similar to middle TN. I agree with the insulation and plywood. I went to a salvage supplier and bought enough 5/16 (I think) plywood to cover the walls and celling. It was cheaper than drywall and durable. My building is 24x24 and is always 10-20 degrees warmer than outside. I can easily warm it up to working temperature with a Pro Fusion celling heater from Northern Tool. FYI They are on sale right now. I was concerned about an open flame and went with electric. Unless you're out there every other day, electric isn't that expensive. Aren't you in TVA territory? Part of your challenge is the high roof line. My 2 cents. Good luck Craig.
 
Your weather is probably similar to middle TN. I agree with the insulation and plywood. I went to a salvage supplier and bought enough 5/16 (I think) plywood to cover the walls and celling. It was cheaper than drywall and durable. My building is 24x24 and is always 10-20 degrees warmer than outside. I can easily warm it up to working temperature with a Pro Fusion celling heater from Northern Tool. FYI They are on sale right now. I was concerned about an open flame and went with electric. Unless you're out there every other day, electric isn't that expensive. Aren't you in TVA territory? Part of your challenge is the high roof line. My 2 cents. Good luck Craig.

Not quite TVA territory. I’m southeast of Charlotte the coldest it gets is Down in the upper single digits but that’s rare.
 
If you don't spray foam or something similar then your chances are real high that water will condense on the roof and drop on you. A wall mount " plaque heater" would work fine for something that size. Around $200 at farm supply stores \ northern tool. A 100 lb propane tank lasts well over a week depending on how high you run it.
What does it cost you to refill that 100lb propane tank in your area?
 
Your weather is probably similar to middle TN. I agree with the insulation and plywood. I went to a salvage supplier and bought enough 5/16 (I think) plywood to cover the walls and celling. It was cheaper than drywall and durable. My building is 24x24 and is always 10-20 degrees warmer than outside. I can easily warm it up to working temperature with a Pro Fusion celling heater from Northern Tool. FYI They are on sale right now. I was concerned about an open flame and went with electric. Unless you're out there every other day, electric isn't that expensive. Aren't you in TVA territory? Part of your challenge is the high roof line. My 2 cents. Good luck Craig.


There are plenty of cumbustion heaters of various kinds that are / can be made safe in chemical environments. So called "sealed combustion" which use piped fresh air from outdoors into a sealed combustion chamber
 
There are plenty of cumbustion heaters of various kinds that are / can be made safe in chemical environments. So called "sealed combustion" which use piped fresh air from outdoors into a sealed combustion chamber

that sounds interesting, can you give me an example?
 
that sounds interesting, can you give me an example?
Many unit heaters use "outside air for combustion." I can't provide specific models, I have not been in HVAC for over 20 years. "Back then" some of the home heating high efficiency furnaces were sealed/ outside air. A very quick search gave this example

Hot Dawg Separated Combustion Heater

This from Modine

Commercial Gas Fired Unit Heaters | HVAC

Look for terms like "separated combustion chamber", "outside combustion air" or "sealed combustion."
 
Outdoor wood burner ?
That would be a great solution as long as you have all that wood available to you. I like barrel stoves myself. Very inexpensive and super fast heat up capabilities. As long as you have enough space around them they're very safe. In your case I'd run stove pipe straight up through the roof. It Should go to two feet above the peak so you don't get down drafts. With your ceiling height this would work well to keep it warmer down at floor level. Oh yeah, I wouldn't do any painting when you got the stove cooking. I remember going out in the garage one Sunday morning in my tee shirt with a bunch of newspapers in my hand, the temp was 0 degrees. I crumpled up the papers and stuffed them in the stove, lit a match and didn't come back inside for four hours. Instant heat!
 
That would be a great solution as long as you have all that wood available to you. I like barrel stoves myself. Very inexpensive and super fast heat up capabilities. As long as you have enough space around them they're very safe. In your case I'd run stove pipe straight up through the roof. It Should go to two feet above the peak so you don't get down drafts. With your ceiling height this would work well to keep it warmer down at floor level. Oh yeah, I wouldn't do any painting when you got the stove cooking. I remember going out in the garage one Sunday morning in my tee shirt with a bunch of newspapers in my hand, the temp was 0 degrees. I crumpled up the papers and stuffed them in the stove, lit a match and didn't come back inside for four hours. Instant heat!

oh man that wouldn’t be good
 
I’ll most likely place the heat source (whatever it may be) along the center of the back wall. I’ll be putting a lift in the bay on the left so I won’t be putting much of anything over there

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