Workshop heating

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Hi eoinsgaff,

eoinsgaff":1kwjdjjc said:
Has anyone experience with infrared heaters?

I've not used ir heaters, but I use storage heaters on Economy seven and it is excellent. I spent quite a bit of time insulating everything but now it is always at a temperature that I can work in and it is not too expensive.

Neil
 
Custard you have covered well a point I was going to make about woodburners.

They seem like the logical choice but in reality they are far from suitable. They require a lot of manual control, take a long time to heat up and then usually overheat which just wastes fuel. You can't leave them going overnight very easily and temp control is very hit or miss.
Fuel costs are very cheap, or even free but often require time and effort to prepare. They are very costly to install and maintain. A good wood burner properly installed can cost a couple of thousand £s, a couple of oil filled rads would cost under £50 if you are canny and it would take many many years to spend 2 grand on electricity running them.

Wood burners have their place for certain, but workshops and infrequently used spaces are not one of them in my opinion.

I use an thermostatically controlled Inverter Paraffin heater in my shop, it works well and is cheaper than running a similar sized electric heater. It would not be so cost effective if had not got it very cheap from a friend and can often find cheap fuel to run it on. It it broke, I would replace it with electric.

If you use your shop often, good insulation plus oil filled rads is best. If you use your shop less often, fan heater or gas heater is good. If you stay in one place a lot, an IR heater will likely do you well.
If glue-ups are a problem in winter, consider bringing them into the house if possible.
 
You can pick a stove up with a back boiler for under a couple hundred.

95c4bcb44a912521bc11b7a7cb1e65b4.jpg


This one's running 7 rads and can warm the workshop up in under an hour if it's been lit the day before. Most expensive part was getting a decent flue professionally installed.



Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Simple tube heaters and a cheap second hand dehumidifier keep all my tools rust free including the lathe and machines, I do give them an occasional waxing. I use the same on my boat through the winter months, cheap and effective, just additional heat added for personal comfort from a wall mounted fan heater which I obtained free.
 
Rorschach":23f7jymm said:
got it very cheap from a friend and can often find cheap fuel to run it on.

Does cheap paraffin exist? I have a flamegun which uses paraffin and I was shocked to find it now costs (in DIY type stores) more per gallon than petrol .
 
I pay about £5-6 for 4 litres, so yes more expensive than petrol. Buy it in B&Q though and the price could be more than double that.

You can run them on heating oil but that can shorten the life of the burner as it's not as clean as proper paraffin.
 
I used floor standing oil filled in my last workshop, safe, good heat, not to expansive to run and able to move around to suit, in the workshop I have now I've got a dehumidifier running 24/7 it does put out a small amount of heat but not upto room temp
 

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