Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Looking for ideas on how to heat & possibly cool our shop...what'd y'all go with? Any regrets, or pleasant surprises??

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Im doing the same thing. Checked around and the best is radiant heat with hot water tubes in the slab .Higher initial cost to instaLL but better overall heat and warm cement floors.Cheaper over the long haul. The down side is in a forced hot air system you can use the same ducts for the AC system if you want it,but i dont think ac is as important as heat[at least not where i am!]..Can always run the AC separate.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

We've already missed the boat on that option, if ya get my drift! LOL!!

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

I use a hotdawg forced air natural gas heater in my insulated 24x30 shop w/o any problems. I believe that it's 45,000 btu.I keep the shop at 60 degrees when I am not out there and can get it to 75 in about 15 to 20 minutes if I want.I used r-19 in the ceiling and r-13 in the walls and sheetrocked over it all so it's really pretty tight. Heater comes in many different sizes,mounts on the ceiling and cost me avout 450.00 with shipping.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

I had a very similar set up in my old gargage...it`s a vertical wall unit at is only 17" wide and 5 feet tall...made to fit between the the standard wall studs...vents out the rear. 45,000 btu... worked great. I bought mine from Grainger Supply.

Dan.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

I put a home furnace in my barn and its only 24x25...one thing you must keep in mind rob....if you are going to be working with fuel in there in the winter...you must double vent that sucker...intake air has to come from outside or you can make a nice kaboom.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I put a home furnace in my barn and its only 24x25...one thing you must keep in mind rob....if you are going to be working with fuel in there in the winter...you must double vent that sucker...intake air has to come from outside or you can make a nice kaboom.

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Good Tip...............

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

We went with tube/radiant system. I'm very happy with it. No dust blowing around, very even from floor to celling, and you loose very little heat even if you open the overhead door. I think the in floor, hot water is probably the best, but this was what I could afford. Belair's right. Put in outside air draws. Takes the worry out of fumes.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

My car barn is 50'x100'. I started out just wanting heat to keep moisture away in the winter. The cost of radiant heat was too high so I decided to do a gas furnace. Alot of the cost is in the ducting etc so for a little bit more I just went with a combo heat/ac unit. I put in a 5 ton unit. In the summer it would run the ac all day and still not cool it so I added a second 5 ton unit. I have the building sealed up pretty tight with a outside air intake that filters the outside air. The fan is always on low and pulling just enough outside air in to pressurize the building to keep the dirt out.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Clill: ours is almost the same size, 60x100...is your ac/heat unit overhead, or standard fare house furnace? I see your ducting overhead, which is basically what *I* have in mind...but when we've asked some local "contractors", some say waste oil, some say propane overhead, yada yada...I'm doing a ground source system just across the field for our new house, and I was originally gonna tie the 2 places together and share part of the lines since we have to have so many hundred feet of them anyway, but noone here seemed to have a clue if it was possible or not...?

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Mine are standard ground units with Propane for the heat.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

For a 60x100 you'll need 12 tons. thats 500 sq.ft. a ton. if your doing ground source in the house, while the contractors there drilling the wells go ahead and have him drill wells for the garage. one well for each ton. when installing the ductwork, if you supply up high, the return should be low, and visversa. be carefull if you bring in oa to the system, so as you don't bring in to much. to much will cause humidity problems if the equipment is not sized to over come it. (i'm a mechanical eng. and design hvac systems by day and work on cars by night.) hope this helps https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/smile.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Can someone explain the concept of heaters https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/smile.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

[ QUOTE ]
For a 60x100 you'll need 12 tons. thats 500 sq.ft. a ton. if your doing ground source in the house, while the contractors there drilling the wells go ahead and have him drill wells for the garage. one well for each ton. when installing the ductwork, if you supply up high, the return should be low, and visversa. be carefull if you bring in oa to the system, so as you don't bring in to much. to much will cause humidity problems if the equipment is not sized to over come it.

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While the initial cost may be a bit more, you may want to install two smaller units (that add up to 12 tons) so that they can be staged for better humidity and temerature control. I do not think you can get a 12 ton single phase unit, but would have to go with a 3-phase unit.


An oversized unit will short cycle the unit (esp the compressor in AC mode) to death. Aslo, the "noise" factor may be an issue.

Electrical costs may be lower running lower HP blowers, compressors and condesner fan motors.

Keep in mind that you will only need max heating and cooling a samll portion of the year.

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I had a very similar set up in my old gargage...it`s a vertical wall unit at is only 17" wide and 5 feet tall...made to fit between the the standard wall studs...vents out the rear. 45,000 btu... worked great. I bought mine from Grainger Supply.

Dan.

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Pretty much the same setup in mine.. Works like a charm. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/beers.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Rob........we just built a new home and a new shop. Went Geo-Thermal in both. We have vertical wells for the house (5 of them) and then the dug a big pit inbetween the shop and the house for the shop and put 1600' of tubing in the pit and covered it up for the shop. In the shop we have radiant in-floor heat and forced air central air conditioning. Both Geo-Thermal. The shop is 36' wide by 44' long. We insulated the shop to the max and then sheetrocked every bit of it. We just moved into the house the middle of March but so far my highest electric bill for heating/cooling the house and shop together was $158.00. The house is a 2100 sq ft ranch style house with a full basement under it.

Good luck ! ! !

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Rob,

I am building a garage as this is being written and I went with the 75,000 BTU Modine Hot Dawg unit running on Propane. Radiant was simply too complicated and expensive for my detached unit, and we don't plan to do AC, so this option made sense. Like many of the others who responded, we are putting in a ton of insultation and sheetrock to make sure it's a tight structure.

Good luck.

Morris

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

last advice..at least for out here, a guy wants to lay real heavy duty plastic on the ground prior to pouring the floor to hold back the moisture/cold from coming in that way.. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/scholar.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

Actually budnate, you are correct. We put several mil polly on the ground between the crushed stone/sand and the slab. We also put fiberboard around the perimeter of the foundation before pouring the slab so that expansion and contraction can happen in a controlled way. We also took the masonry saw and cut some lines into the slab so that there is less likely to be cracking later. Finally, we used 3,500 PSI cement and put a ton of rebar along the front end where the garage meets the driveway so that the beginning of the slab won't crack if a car sits there.

Fun stuff!!

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

I dont cut my floors we rebar wall to wall with 5/8 rod...back breakin pain in the a$$ work.... but ya never know when a guy might score a Sherman Tank and want to bring it home, I dont want the shop floor cracking under a fellas new toy...at least that's what Dad said when I complained about all the drilling... https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/beers.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

I wish I would have been on here last year because I do HVAC work and have had the chance to install the apex tubing in sub floors. Stuff works like a charm when the system is installed correctly. Yes, it is costly but you won't be disappointed when you are on a warm floor!

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go with?
 

I have electric heat ceiling hung. I was going to Have Benny do me a propne unit but much to expensive around here. 75' of 10/3 romex a 30/2pole breaker and some staples and a piece of conduit is all it took. Have about $400.00 rapped up into plus my labor. But my garage is only 24X24. Most of the time when we did jobs like yours Rob, Companies went with gas or 480V-3 phase heat. Electric is the easiest/cheapest in my opinion right now. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/dunno.gif

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go w
 

I run a Schwank 20ft radiant in my 20X32 garage. It is spray foam insulated as well. Very, very air tight! I have to crack my garage door open a touch when I turn my ventilation fan on. Overall I'm happy with it. It gets very warm very fast!
Todd

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go w
 

We ended up going with a heat pump...so far, so good!

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go w
 

I pondered all those options too.Then a friend of mine said
why spend all that money on a heating system for my 20 x30 insulated shop.Just go to HOME Depo and buy a 220 volt
electric thermostat fanned heater for $ 75.00 and that all you need.
I Did just that and its perfect I can control the temp
as hot as I want. When I go to work in the shop I turn it on and in about 10 minutes its at 72and hotter if I want.
I also leave the heater on at about 55 when i am not working in the shop. The electric bill is just slightly more than when I am not running it. My friend put in a gas
overhead furnace at a cost of 1500. dollars. It will take a long time for me to spend 1500. on electric bill to heat my shop
PJ

Re: Shop/garage heating & cooling: what'd you go w
 

I have a 26 x 36 very well insulated garage built like a house (as contrasted to a pole barn) I have the 75k Modine Hot Dawg running on natural gas. Does a great job even here in Michigan. Keep T'stat at 50, bump to 60 when I work in there. Anything more and it gets too uncomfortable.

Had an old window unit air conditioner, so cut a hole in the wall and installed it up high ear the work bench. Didn't do too good until I put a fan on the workbench right under it aimed at the workshop area. THAT did the trick.

I rigged up a heavy cord that allows me to plug in my big generator in power outages in place of the air compressor and back feed power to my house. Just isolate it from the outside world and use only the critical circuits (beer fridge, well pump) Works quite well. No exhaust and noise problems in the house.

Neighbors around me have permanent backup systems that come on automatically when power goes off. Pretty slick, run on natural gas. Other than the noise, you'd never know the diff.