Heating your workshop

[OneEyeCharlie]

Exactly... 100F dosn't make me happy about going outside. But bundling up is always easy

Perhaps, but you don't have to shovel heat. I'll post pics the next time a storm rolls across Lk Michigan and uses my neighborhood as the first available rest stop.

[Updup]

Perhaps, but you don't have to shovel heat. I'll post pics the next time a storm rolls across Lk Michigan and uses my neighborhood as the first available rest stop.

 

I reckon there are pros and cons to both senarios. And I'll bet you would rather live down here and I know I would rather live up there. Then after a year or so, we would both want to live wherwe did..and back and forth and back and forth.

 

When its hot I wish it were cold, and when its cold I wish it were hot. When its in the middle, I always want it to be a little colder or a little hotter.

 

We hard hard to please arn't we?

[nater]

Perhaps, but you don't have to shovel heat. I'll post pics the next time a storm rolls across Lk Michigan and uses my neighborhood as the first available rest stop.

 

You mean like this? Picture is from just outside Caberfae Peaks in between Cadillac and Manistee on Thanksgiving Day a few years ago. Somewhere I have a picture of a rest stop on 131 with only the very top of the back of a park bench sticking up above the snow.

 

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_xNv_CsuPNWc/SU6QVIHxoqI/AAAAAAAAABg/jlF-erZKBrA/s400/cp03.jpg

 

 

I love the winter, I was a shoot in Southern Michigan last December, it wasn't 'too' cold yet and guys didn't have to worry about setting the ground on fire. I love the way shells look when they refract off the snowflakes in the air.

 

I don't like attempting to dig holes in the frozen ground, but that's what racks are for.

Edited October 15, 2010 by nater

[Siegmund]

I imagine it may well be next summer before I get a chance to build anything suitable for winter work. But no harm in planning ahead, right?

 

I do like those heated floor slabs, and if I ever have my own house built those are at the top of the list. Guess I should read up on the practicality of using antifreeze in them too. (Maintaining an outbuilding above freezing all winter is NOT something I'm willing to do, given Alaska's climate and energy prices.)

 

Other alternatives in some places may include wearing a thicker overall and doing short sessions in the workshop

 

That's certainly half of the solution. The limiting factor for me, incidentally, is not personal comfort, but being able to see: somewhere in the mid-50s my breath starts drifting up from the dust mask and condensing on my goggles, and once it's below 50 I am working more by feel than by sight, and have to peek out from under the goggles to read a digital scale.

 

Edited to add: I love how fireworks look in the snow too. Lots of childhood memories of buying stuff on July 5th and saving it for winter! (back before there were class C sales in December) Having a space that was 50 rather than 0 or worse would be a big plus.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Siegmund

[davis050594]

It's not cold enough to warrant a heater for a while, but it is too cold for just a long sleeve shirt. Is a cotton hoody safe I assume? What about something heavier, cotton? And last but not least, gloves, what should I do about that.

[Arthur]

Tee shirt under shirt with sweatshirt over, long johns under thick trousers, Boiler suit over all of that. thick socks and warm boots then you should be warm for long enough to be worth going to the "shed" and standing on a carpet to keep your feet off the floor.

 

Gloves you have to make careful choices between them getting in the way and them protecting you from dirt and chemicals and solvents

[lostfido]

My garage has in floor heat. The boiler that runs the system is natural gas fired and is located in the attic, separated from the main area by 5/8 thick Sheetrock.

 

Don't make much of anything but an occasional rocket here, and usually not during the winter. (Humidity is not an issue, the hot tub takes care of that)

I cannot begin to tell you how great the infloor heat is-----------it is 68 everywhere in the garage-----top to bottom

[asilentbob]

I think solar thermal should not be ruled out as an option. Passive or actively fan circulated.

 

Could be as simple as black paint or something on outside walls... Or more complex and efficient.

 

You could have matte black spray painted aluminum green house duct pipe going from the work shed out to a solar thermal collector, then back to the workshop. Doesn't have to be air duct, but air wouldn't have that pesky freezing problem. If you put a clear tube around the ducting or pipe so there is in essence a buffer zone of air between the hot pipe and cold outside air (and ground, etc) you will have a higher efficiency. There are all kinds of designs for solar thermal systems available online via google.

 

Large green houses will sometimes use thermal storage of some sort. Like allowing the sunlight entering the green house to heat up black steel, HDPE, etc drums of water. The drums then re-radiate that heat back all night. Just gotta make sure the incoming heat from the sun is more than enough to make up for the heat lost to the cold air.

 

EDIT: a term to google for more info on this use with green houses, alt energy temperature maintenance for eco houses, etc would be "thermal mass."

Edited October 30, 2010 by asilentbob

[pogue1000]

I have a big kerosene heater that I use to heat my work area before I go out there. Then I turn it off once out there.

 

I do not use any acetone or vapor chemicals so I feel as though the the flame is not as much of an issue if I did have it on.

I do realize that dust in the air can be flammable as well, so for example this weekend when I was wetting some charcoal based stars I did go outside till I had it mixed.

 

Please correct me if you think different of my procedure.

 

Most of things i do in small batches since i am very new to the hobby.

[hillbillyreefer]

Here is how my new shop will be heated when I finally scrape together enough money for the concrete.

 

http://www.wsetech.c...terdomestic.php

 

The shop already has big natural gas furnaces in it. But free heat is better than purchased heat. The solar collectors are actually less expensive than the boiler I was looking at, the cost of the rest of the system is pretty much the same.

 

Mods if posting that web address breaks any rules please accept my apologies and delete the post.

Edited December 1, 2010 by hillbillyreefer

[nater]

Here is how my new shop will be heated when I finally scrape together enough money for the concrete.

 

http://www.wsetech.c...terdomestic.php

 

The shop already has big natural gas furnaces in it. But free heat is better than purchased heat. The solar collectors are actually less expensive than the boiler I was looking at, the cost of the rest of the system is pretty much the same.

 

Mods if posting that web address breaks any rules please accept my apologies and delete the post.

 

 

 

My grandpa has a similar type of heater to heat his pool. As the water drains from the pool, it is fed through several coils of black pipe on top of the pump house for the pool. It works so well, the water can get too hot in the summer. I would imagine it would work good to heat water for radiant heat.