Heater

[willsie01]

Recently retired I'm looking at setting up an existing garden "room" as a workshop to do some hobbies. The first thing I'm interested in in making a guitar...or two, if the first works out well enough. The first requirements of a suitable working space to do this is maintaining a suitable temperature & humidity for the tonewoods used in the guitar. The structure of the room is thermalite blocks, concrete floor and flat, felted roof. I won't necessarily leave the tonewoods in the room overnight so only need to maintain a reasonable temperature while working on it.
Will I get away with a thermostatically controlled electric radiator?

 

[Lazurus]

Add a small dehumidifer to keep humidity constant

 

[Jelly]

Thermalite Blocks will help a fair bit (compared to brick or concrete) and the size of the room will make a big difference, but you might struggle to maintain a temperature much above 10-12C during really cold snaps using a 1kW to 2kw sized Oil-Filled Radiator or Convection Heater, and running one constantly during a cold period is not a cheap endeavour (ask me how I know )

For most of the year a small oil-filled radiator (good) or convection heater (less good due to fire risk in a woodworking environment) will do well enough to keep the temperature warm-ish in an enclosed uninsulated space.

 

[Sheptonphil]

I use a Mylec curtain heater. It’s set at 10 degrees, so never gets really cold in there to heat up when I’m in.

 

[willsie01]

Add a small dehumidifer to keep humidity constant

Yes, I monitored the humidity and temperature yesterday with a Dimplex radiator on and the temperature never got above 8 degrees C & the RH was 75%.
What humidifiers can I look at?

 

[Lazurus]

Go for the electric dessicant type as they work at much lower temperatures that the compressor type.

 

[RichardG]

Looking in which magazine the meaco dd8l, meaco dd8l Zambezi, ecoair dd1, electriq desd9l, Ecoair DD122FW MK5 are all desiccant best buys.

 

[shed9]

Looking in which magazine the meaco dd8l, meaco dd8l Zambezi, ecoair dd1, electriq desd9l, Ecoair DD122FW MK5 are all desiccant best buys.

I've had several humidifiers in my workshop over the years including a Meaco which failed within within a relatively short time frame. I've been running a De'Longhi for the last two years and it has been faultless. It's attached to the wall and the out feed tube is just ran straight outside through a small hole. As above, go with a desiccant model as the other variants at this price point will not work under certain temperature conditions. Also the desiccant models will actually raise the temperature slightly which makes it easier for any other heater in the environment to do it's job.