Blank canvas, steel sided 40x60 pole barn. Thoughts on insulating, electrical, heating???

I had a 30x40x8 garage in Ohio that was fully finished with blow in insulation in the attic, bat in the walls and fully drywalled. I used a wood pellet stove, and one night when it was 10 below zero, out of curiosity I cranked up the stove, and had the thermometer well over 85 degrees within an hour.

l've also heated with anthracite coal, which is the most energy dense heating option available, followed by fuel oil, then I believe hardwood, and propane are very close.

When I lived in Ohio 2 friends had radiant floor heat, which is incredibly comfortable. Set frozen boots, dripping cars etc on the heated door and within 15 minutes dry and toasty warm, which is the same effect you will get with radiant tube heaters-all the objects in the shop will become warm and kind of........radiate heat.One of the shops used a wood fired outdoor boiler to heat the floor, and another one used natural gas. They both consumed a lot of fuel to heat the floor, but were extremely comfortable with the thermostat set in the mid 60's as for recovery, if you don't leave an overhead door open for long periods it would not be a problem.

If you are going to be in the shop everyday and don't mind a little labor, maybe consider a wood or anthracite stove would probably work well, and my anthracite stove would burn 20 hours on about 20lbs, and from what I've read a modern air tight wood stove will have about the same burn time.

A forced air fuel oil furnace is another cheap option. I was never a fan of propane. Too expensive.

If you are running a business out of it I would consider fuel oil forced air with a supplemental back up of wood, or anthracite.

Regardless of heat source, with 14' ceilings, I would insulate the **** out of it with blow in up top, and bat in the walls, along with insulated sectional overhead doors, NO roll doors!! Do your best to seal it all up, and eliminate drafts.

Spend money once up front on a good insulation strategy, and it will pay itself off in comfort and savings after that.

I don't miss those long cold dreary northeast Ohio winters, although they are good for drinking beer in the shop with buddies, and there's plenty of time to get projects done while there's salt on the road !