Workshop heating

[eoinsgaff]

I’ve a fairly well insulated workshop and I want to get it to a uniform temperature all year round. I was thinking of an electric heater with timer (for night saver electricity) and a thermostat to top out the temp.

Has anyone experience with infrared heaters?

Apparently they are economical and effective in workshops. I want a uniform temp for my wood but, more importantly, my tools are rusting in the winter months.

 

[Rorschach]

If it was being left I would want something totally enclosed. Oil filled rad would be a good option, would even out the heat nicely too.

 

[eoinsgaff]

For clarity, see here for what I had in mind.
https://www.trotec24.com/en-ie/machines ... gJxG_D_BwE
Enclosure is important for me too as it will mostly be working when i’m not there.

 

[hammer n nails]

I use a oil filled rad works well

 

[Droogs]

I find an oil radiator pretty good for general ambeint heating. I have an infrared heater too, It doesn't seem to actually heat up the workshop. It seems to sort of heat the face of anything in front of it and then sort of uses that to give off warmth. I know if I am in front of it then i sweat buckets but if doing anything out of direct LOS then I'm pretty cold, Theyre really good at prewarming glueing surfaces before glue up and veneering

 

[MusicMan]

I use a oil filled rad works well

+1. I never use a fan heater in the woodwork shed, just in the metalwork (garage). Infrared could be OK depending on the safety spec. And my shed is far too small for any burner stoves.

 

[Sideways]

Comparing infra red and electric fan or convector heaters, the IR is intended to heat the people directly without wasting energy heating heating the air. It should be more efficient / cheaper to run if you're standing at one workstation most of the time. Because it doesn't heat the air (except indirectly from whatever soaks up the heat and warms the air around it) I wouldn't expect it to do much for your tools.
There is another recent thread about damp. The good advice from there is get your tools in boxes, your machines under cover, and use greenhouse type heaters or low power lightbulbs inside the cabinet to warm them just a few degrees and stop the damp condensing on the metal.
Worth remembering that burning stuff makes water vapour, so does breathing. If you warm the air it can hold more moisture so all is great until the temperature drops, then there's a risk that it'll condense on whatever gets coldest first. Keeping the tools just a little warmer all the time sounds like the best way to me.

 

[eoinsgaff]

So do I understand correctly that IR will not, or at least be very poor at, getting the shop to a consistent ambient temperature?

I should clarify further, the shop is actually very well insulated. Block cavity wall with 200mm insulation

 

[dickm]

Presumably it's still possible to buy (or even find offered on Freegle?) storage heaters? If the OP has an off-peak tariff, then running an appropriately sized storage heater will maintain a fairly uniform temperature without the costs of peak time electric heating. Ran one in my last, fairly well insulated, shed and it kept everything fine. Not ideal for evening work once they'd cooled down, but a brief blast with a fan heater could cope with that.

 

[beech1948]

eoinsgaff,

First, IR is a poor way to heat. Only the object hit by the IR will warm up. IR's ability to warm the mass of air in a workshop is almost zero.

Rusting tools can be prevented by having your tools held in a cupboard with a small greenhouse heater + thermostat in the bottom. I use 2 metal cupboards each with a 40watt incandescent bulb in the bottom. I lined the interior with ply, cut 6mm slots every 75mm and built a series of cheap OSB sliding drawers/shelves/trays to hold tools. The metal cupboards cost me £30 each and are 1800mm tall and 1200 wide.

I assume your workshop is insulated and the gaps around the doors covered over. I use an ancient barn with two wooden garage doors. Inside the doors I have built an insulated wall which with an hours effort can be removed. Rest of workshop is insulated with 100mm Celotex + double glazing.

More importantly I then went around and sealed every possible gap with foam.

I use an oil filled radiator or two to raise an keep temperature up. Each has a thremostat.

The best way to keep warm is to move and work.

Heating of any sort is costly.

I'm discussing with my insurer having a woodstove and burning old pallets as well as buying loads of logs. Yet to decide.

 

[Matt@]

I do not like IR heating at all. My abiding memory of this heating system is a large ind unit 30 yrs ago which had radiant tube heating high up in the roof which heated YOU if you were standing beneath it. If you walked 6 feet out of the range of the heater suddenly you felt the freezing cold. Creating a nice warm ambient temp it doesnt! Possibly in a much smaller workspace it may be different but smaller = single garage size or smaller IMO....Maybe these heating systems have come on in recent years, I dont know....

 

[RogerS]

I do not like IR heating at all. My abiding memory of this heating system is a large ind unit 30 yrs ago which had radiant tube heating high up in the roof which heated ....

There's the rub. However in a small well-insulated workshop with low ceilings then surely it doesn't matter what type of electrical heater is used. A kW from IR will put 1KW of heat into the room just as much as a 1KW oil radiator.

 

[Matt@]

I do not like IR heating at all. My abiding memory of this heating system is a large ind unit 30 yrs ago which had radiant tube heating high up in the roof which heated ....

There's the rub. However in a small well-insulated workshop with low ceilings then surely it doesn't matter what type of electrical heater is used. A kW from IR will put 1KW of heat into the room just as much as a 1KW oil radiator.

happy to be corrected but the principle of IR heating is that it heats objects inc persons not air?

 

[ColeyS1]

I do not like IR heating at all. My abiding memory of this heating system is a large ind unit 30 yrs ago which had radiant tube heating high up in the roof which heated YOU if you were standing beneath it. If you walked 6 feet out of the range of the heater suddenly you felt the freezing cold. Creating a nice warm ambient temp it doesnt! Possibly in a much smaller workspace it may be different but smaller = single garage size or smaller IMO....Maybe these heating systems have come on in recent years, I dont know....

That was my memory of them aswell. Where I served my apprenticeship the machine shop was down stairs separate from the benches/workshop. It was an old uninsulated brick building and sometimes it got so cold it didn't feel safe using the planer. It was at that point I'd look at the dusty offerings pointing towards the ground and decide they can't be as bad as I last remembered. They were absolutely pi55 poor. After a few seconds of the heater warming and snacking away the dust it'd give off the gentlest heat at a very small area in front. When the company went bust I bought a mobile infrared tube heater which they'd bought to try and improve the situation. It'll warm you up if you're sat in the same spot painting, or an oil filled rad warms everything up nice and toasty -I know which I prefer.
Perhaps the modern version in the link is leaps and bounds ahead of what we were use to. Knowing what I know now, I'd refuse to work in those conditions. That was one of several things that made the place a death trap. Good riddance.

Perhaps a cheapo oil filled rad and put the money you save towards the leccy bill ?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[RobinBHM]

If you have a well, insulated workshop, maybe you just need a couple of those tube heaters, just to keep the air temperature up slightly and stop rusting.

Or an oil fired rad. I use one in my 6m x 3m office and it warms up the whole room very well.

 

[Beau]

I want a uniform temp for my wood but, more importantly, my tools are rusting in the winter months.

That part makes a dehumidifier sound like the answer. The wood doesn't care about the temperature just the humidity. Obviously if you are working in there a lot full time heating makes more sense but if only occasional use I would get a dehumidifier and only heat for time you are in there. I have a badly insulated workshop on Dartmoor which as wet as it gets but leaving a small Meaco dehumidifier running keeps the rust at bay and the wood at lowish moisture content and lot cheaper to run than full time heating.

 

[shed9]

As above, a dehumidifier would help to deal with moisture and also help to supply heat. This came up recently on another thread.

Use a desiccant type not the compressor version. Compressor units will not work under around 10 degrees which defeats the point whilst desiccant units will and gently heat the air to boot. If you are well insulated a few tube heaters will provide ample background heat to keep things mildly comfortable. Be sure to use thermostats and ensure the dehumidifier has suitable self setting control else it will cost a small fortune over a year.

I would recommend not to aim for too high a temperature, a warm workshop when working is not a comfortable place to be in my opinion.

 

[decas]

We have a well insulated 30 sqm garden studio heated by wall mounted Dimplex electric convectors (1x1kw & 1x1.5kw). Used as an artists and textiles workshop. The heaters are on 24/7 during the cooler months and maintain a minimum temperature of about 10C. They are switched up to 18C when the studio is in use plus an extra fan heater - maybe 10 hr/week. Non-heating electricity use is light. Maintaining the minimum temperature means the space always feels welcoming and it is a pleasure to use throughout the year. Over the last few years the total electricity usage has been about £100/year. I think this is good value.

I also have a wood/metalworking workshop full of boys toys. It is an old, poorly insulated, brick cowshed and I have all the usual problems of cold, damp, condensation and rust. I keep an oil-filled radiator running on a frost setting and use a dehumidifier every now and then and a workshop woodburning stove when I want to work in it. I don’t measure the electricity supply to this one.

Dave

 

[eoinsgaff]

Thanks everyone.

In what may be a conclusion, a desiccant dehumidifier seems to be the answer. I agree re working in a shop that’s too warm. Even when it’s at its coldest these days it is still close to comfortable to work. Therefore taking out the moisture and raising the temp a smidge should do the trick.

Bang on Lads

 

[custard]

I agree re working in a shop that’s too warm. Even when it’s at its coldest these days it is still close to comfortable to work.

It sounds appealing to just put another jumper on, but there's another problem, you need at least 15 degrees C for many adhesives and finishes to perform properly.

In my workshop the main heating is via a woodburner,

It's only about three or four KW and on a frosty day if I fire it up at 8.00 in the morning it's late morning or lunchtime before it's warm enough for glue-ups, veneering and finishing. That plays havoc with production schedules, I'll be popping back and forth to the workshop until gone 10.00 tonight in order to complete the sequential glue-ups needed for a job.

Maybe a 6KW log burner would have been better, but then on milder days it would be like a furnace in the workshop.

Ho hum!