Heating a workshop with air heaters...

[cusimar9]

I know this has been covered time and time before but I'm looking to upgrade the heating in my workshop.

I can't afford to install a wood burning stove, although that would be awesome. I'm aware of oil filled heaters and the like but I quite like air heaters because they give out warmth very quickly which is useful when I pop in the workshop for short periods.

I'm particularly concerned about the risk of fire from sawdust and I'd like to reduce that. There are ranges of Stanley and JCB heaters which look more hardy but work in the same way and appear no less susceptible to the risks of fire (unless I am mistaken).

In fairness I've spent the last 12 months with poor dust extraction and a cheap-and-cheerful fan heater and have had no issues at all. Now my dust extraction is much improved (though still far from perfect) so I just want to ensure the heater is safe.

I particularly don't like the idea of leaving a heater on unattended for 30 minutes before going into the workshop, as the first signs of fire would be far too late. But clearly this would be useful on really bitter days.

Does anyone know if some air heaters are safer than others? Could the risks be reduced to a minimum simply by putting the heater on the concrete floor and having a clearance area around it?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[lurker]

Dunelm and wilkinson s have oil filled heaters for under £30.
I am planning to get one in the sales

 

[cusimar9]

Dunelm and wilkinson s have oil heaters for under £30.
I am planning to get one in the sales

I suppose 2 oil heaters for £30 would work very well and pose absolutely 0 fire risk...

 

[lurker]

I think you miss the reason why these fan heaters are hazardous. The hot element ignites the air Bourne dust and bang!

 

[lurker]

Dunelm and wilkinson s have oil heaters for under £30.
I am planning to get one in the sales

I suppose 2 oil heaters for £30 would work very well and pose absolutely 0 fire risk...

Not zero just a bit less

 

[Alexam]

One air blower heater to use before you go to the workshop, to take the chill off. Then the oil filled radiator to keep it cosy whilst your working in there?

 

[cusimar9]

One air blower heater to use before you go to the workshop, to take the chill off. Then the oil filled radiator to keep it cosy whilst your working in there?

Since the air blower poses the greater fire risk I was actually thinking the other way around - oil filled rad can be left unattended then the fan while I'm in there. Perhaps I just need to remember not to use the fan when I'm sanding or when there's a lot of dust about, so the fan blowing doesn't make the dust worse.

 

[Max Power]

Has anyone been, or know anyone who has been "blown up" while using an electric fan heater ? :?

 

[cusimar9]

I did also wonder if heaters with the thicker 'bar' elements would pose a slightly lower fire risk than the thinner filament types:

 

[cusimar9]

Has anyone been, or know anyone who has been "blown up" while using an electric fan heater ? :?

I haven't but I'd be willing to bet if one of these was running at full pelt near the output of a table saw it absolutely would burn the sawdust.

That scenario is easily preventable however and besides I'm not sure how such a 'flash burn' would go on to ignite anything else, obviously depends what else you have in the vicinity.

 

[hammer n nails]

I use a jcb heater with the fan on low works a treat never had a problem

 

[n0legs]

I've seen car bodyfiller dust ignited with a hotair gun, but that was done on purpose for effect :-"

 

[shed9]

Put some thought into insulation as well, makes a huge difference in more than one way. Easier to heat and maintain temperatures for comfort and other aspects such as glue-ups and topical applications.

One thing that has worked for me is a desiccant dehumidifier. These units heat the air and remove moisture which makes a more suitable environment for wood. You need to use the desiccant type as opposed to the compressor version as the compressor units only kick in at higher temperatures which kind of defies the point.

They often have drain taps that you can lead outside to avoid constantly emptying your self.

 

[cusimar9]

I've decided to stump for the JCB air heater I posted above. It was £50 and at 3000 watts it's an improvement on what I had before. I've put it up against the wall at the far end of the shop, 2+ meters from where any dust is likely to be generated. I'm going to pay more attention to dust extraction to try and minimise the amount of airborne dust, which is good news all round. I'm going to put the heater on some slate tiles so that, in the unlikely event of a fire, it won't spread anywhere.

 

[Richiet]

I too am currently in between ideas for heating my new workshop and for me the heating bill is my sticking point,as I work away I cannot monitor the house heating and my lovely children have the heating on max.24 hours a day.one of my wife's pals is a dab hand with knitting needles and has just completed a 100 percent wool thick jumper and it is fantastic although bulky,Im going to top this off with a halogen heater as suggested by a few on here,my daughter and her pal also use the halogen heaters in there small flat and she is like me and doesn't like being parted from her money.

 

[doctor Bob]

The bigger the air heater the lower the element temp, I have a 9kw heater and it does not glow red it warms large volumes of air. No way could it ignite dust.

 

[cusimar9]

That's interesting... so would you say that if the filament is not glowing red then it can't ignite a combustible substance?

That does make sense... but having seen a fair few air heaters none of them have ever glowed red, which would imply that none of them can cause a fire risk?

Can anyone confirm this?

 

[lurker]

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis32.pdf

 

[Alder]

Hi,
Mine is only a small shed but I have tubular heater plugged in via a wickes time switch so that it comes on intermittently on a 24hr cycle and it stops rust. When I am in the shed I merely override the time switch.
Russell.

 

[Steve.vfr]

Hi all my first post and I'm just getting my workshop together it's a 24ftx10ft which I've insulated the walls,ceilings and floor with 100mm roof insulation and although I'm not ready to use fully I have a oil filled rad on 1 kW and use the frost setting and find that on the frosty days we've had, the temperature hasn't dropped below 8 degrees I also have one
6 foot double glazed window and the doors are a set of 7ft double glazed patio doors. When I go in to do some work I pop on a 2kw fan heater for about 15 mins and it soon becomes toasty. On the photo you can see the frost on the roof where I had just started to insulate which shows the benefit of insulation.