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Snips... ;-)
Heating a Shop
Been reading all of the posts on heating a shop. In my day
I have used a double-barrel wood burner, kerosene heaters and forced
air by putting a closeable vent on the home high-efficiency furnace.
My first shop I built in a pole building with a heavy wooden floor
and insulated walls. I was sh*tt*n' in tall cotton for months,
but then it got really cold. I could still keep it warm, but
then one day I noticed it was raining inside. Being bald, I
noticed this right away. With no insulation on the roof or a
dropped insulated ceiling, my respiration was enough to start a
dripping rain inside. I was warm, but pretty damp. Stuff
rusted.
The next shop was small in an old summer kitchen attached to our
house. I couldn't channel heat to the place so I went to a
fairly good size kerosene heater. This worked pretty well, but
was expensive to keep going, not to mention a nuisance to fill.
Biggest problem was the accumulation of moisture inside the room.
As long as I kept it heated the tools were in pretty good shape, but
if you let it get cold after working, metal would
often be covered with frost.
20 years ago, I moved to my current shop which covers 3 basement
rooms of rough finish and I share space in one room with a
high-efficiency furnace and air. I simply cut a vent in the
hot air plenum that I can close or open. This has really been
the best because it doesn't take much heat to take the chill off and
by letting the air in that area it takes care of any humidity
problems that can cause rusting during high humidity weather.
The cost to heat my shop is negligible with the Lennox very high
efficiency duo. I have the usual limitations of working in an
old basement, but they are really minor. If I need to use
volatile chemicals I close the door to the room with the furnace and
vent fumes out a window with a fan. It really doesn't matter
how cold it gets or how hot and humid. I can keep a fairly
even temperature and humidity. Before this I had to use a
portable de-humidfier and that was an expensive proposition!
I don't have a lot of good things to say about radiant heat in a
wood shop either. It feels too weird to move in and out of the
radiant field. Gotta friend that tried this in her shop and
she gave it up in favor of forced air. I gotta come down on
the side of forced air whether it is gas, oil, wood or corn.
Anything where you can keep a minimal amount of heat to keep
moisture down without breaking the bank makes sense to me.
Everybody's
situation is different, but if you sort of live in your shop I think
some variety of forced air makes sense. You can go from cold
to toasty in a short period of time.
Paul Schobernd
in Normal, IL
December 15, 2005
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