# How do you keep your shop warm during winter



## itpcpro (Jun 9, 2014)

I have a garage shop where I don't have any heat source. Wondering what everyone else does when it turns cold. I use spray paint and spray clear on my wood signs and trying to figure out a way to keep the garage warm and not kill myself at the same time. I am looking into building a tabletop spray booth that will vent to the outside under my garage door.


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

Here in SE TN, it was down to 9 above yesterday and 17 this AM. My garage door isn't insulated so I don't even think of going into the shop. I do use a IR heater that I bought recently. In just an hour, it raised the temp from 46 to 62 which is comfortable. I don't attempt at painting or finishing at that low temps. :no:
Going to replace the garage door with an insulated one this spring. :moil:


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

Here in the Houston area, 100 in the summer, 38 and sucky today. When I decided I was going to be doing a lot of woodworking in my retirement years, I had the ceiling insulated to R38 with blown insulation. Previously, we had the siding replaced on our house and the contractor insulated the outside wall of the garage. Then I bought an insulated overhead door.

Lastly, I bought and installed a Fedders 11K Split System Air conditioner with heat pump. Today it is 72 in the garage/workshop...38 outside. And no worries about rust on the table saw, band saw or jointer during the high humidity days. 

It feels great...costly but still feels great. I can work any time, day or night but no spraying. I have an outdoor spray booth for that!  That is when the weather cooperates.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Same here, Mike. Two car attached garage, insulated two walls and ceiling with blown, I insulated the door with a roll of insulation, and then put solar screens on the windows (garage/shop is on the west side). Then we put in a Gree 1 ton mini-split with heat pump October 2013. Just like yours I can work year round with stabilized wood and no rust and as warm or as cool as I need it. I'm just a little north of you in northwest Louisiana. It was 18 at our house yesterday morning but a very comfortable 67 in my shop.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Radiant tube heater. The air intake is in the attic where there is clean air. I still don't try spraying inside either, summer or winter except maybe using an airbrush. Like Mike I have about R35 or so for insulation in the ceiling. The tube doesn't move air around so it. Is a good choice in the shop.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

itpcpro said:


> I have a garage shop where I don't have any heat source. Wondering what everyone else does when it turns cold. I use spray paint and spray clear on my wood signs and trying to figure out a way to keep the garage warm and not kill myself at the same time. I am looking into building a tabletop spray booth that will vent to the outside under my garage door.


geo thermal radiant heat...
house too....


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

No problem here! Living in the subtropics I just open the door & let the sun in! We only get 4-5 days a year where the minimum drops to single figures. (That's Celsius here, or below 50F) I can't remember a maximum that was below single figures. After seeing TV news reports, I feel sorry for you guys who have to live with heavy snowfalls.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

Knothead47 said:


> Going to replace the garage door with an insulated one this spring. :moil:


No biggie to insulate the door yourself, and considerably less expensive. Doesn't take long, so you could do it now, and get to work during the cold. There's various types of insulation that will work just fine, and probably instructions on how to do it on line, if you need them. i figure with time for measuring and cutting, I could probably insulate a door in under two hours, and probably even less than that.

Oh yeah, use a small propane heater, and just upgraded to one with a bit more output. Upgraded because it took the first one maybe 20 minutes to get a comfortable temperature. The second one should get the heat up in less time.


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

I might add that the heat from the summer sun comes through the attic. Insulating the walls or door doesn't stop the heat. It did absolutely no good to have an insulated wall or insulated door. I had previously insulated the paltry metal overhead door.
It was 102 outside and 102 in the garage.

Eleven inches of blown insulation in the ceiling did the trick. Note that I was miserable trying to get some electricity run for the shop lights so I could schedule the insulation installers.


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## al m (Dec 13, 2012)

Bitter cold here, hit -40 with windchill one night this week ,having what is called frost quakes
I have a220 construction heater for my 14 x 20 shop,took a long time to heat it up this week,looking at alternatives for next winter


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

al m said:


> Bitter cold here, hit -40 with windchill one night this week ,having what is called frost quakes
> I have a220 construction heater for my 14 x 20 shop,took a long time to heat it up this week,looking at alternatives for next winter


WOW! I am not envious. :no:


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

My shop was a single car garage that was closed in and made into a room not long after the house was built some 40 years ago. It has central heat and window ac..... probably its best feature.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

JOAT said:


> No biggie to insulate the door yourself, and considerably less expensive. Doesn't take long, so you could do it now, and get to work during the cold. There's various types of insulation that will work just fine,


premium idea....
extruded polystyrene (pink or blue XPS) seems to work about the best and more/thicker/higher R value can put in an existing door then the Styrofoam that is in a factory made insulated OHD..
A big plus is to install a thin by wide Adhesive Pickup Truck Cap/Shell Weatherstrip Tape between the sections...
the big boxes carry it...
clean w/ DNA before you install the tape..


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

al m said:


> Bitter cold here, *hit -40* with windchill one night this week ,having what is called frost quakes
> I have a220 construction heater for my 14 x 20 shop,took a long time to heat it up this week,looking at alternatives for next winter


you my neighbor????
we've been seeing that in temps....


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## al m (Dec 13, 2012)

Stick486 said:


> you my neighbor????
> we've been seeing that in temps....


Believe it's several thousand miles between us Stick,or I maight stop by for a chat
-40 is minus-40 f or c,cold is cold,and it's dam cold!


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

al m said:


> Believe it's several thousand miles between us Stick,or I maight stop by for a chat
> -40 is minus-40 f or c,cold is cold,and it's dam cold!


cold isn't cold till the conifers start frost cracking/splitting...


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

darsev said:


> No problem here! Living in the subtropics I just open the door & let the sun in! We only get 4-5 days a year where the minimum drops to single figures. (That's Celsius here, or below 50F) I can't remember a maximum that was below single figures. After seeing TV news reports, I feel sorry for you guys who have to live with heavy snowfalls.


+1

Aaahhh the joy....:dance3:


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## IC31 (Nov 16, 2012)

I do not envy you folks with garage shops. We, luckily, have a home with a big basement that is partitioned off with several rooms, one of which has a garage door and my fun car's shop. Adjacent and in the next room is my wood shop. The room with that garage door - the opening needs to be closed off late every fall as the room gets to meat locker temp if I don't. The panels are a simple 2x4 framing and a painted-to-match-the-house luan ply exterior. These panels are insulated with 1-1/2" styrofoam insulation (I just bought another 1-1/2" layer to add one of these days. I also use foam tape around the edges to seal the small gaps that the builder and time have given me on this 1970 vintage house. When the panels are in, down come the door - and it gets as warm as I want it (usually 64*F) as the basement as well as the rest of the house has 4 zones of thermostatically controlled hot water heat.

As far as just insulating a garage shop door - that will help, but that skinny rubber wipe on the edges and the bottom seal (chipmunk food on my garage door frames) are really a big 0-R value air gap in the cold air off an iceberg windy winter and unless there is something more substantial around those edges.


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## BOjr (Dec 1, 2012)

I asked a local heating and air conditioning company what they did
With apartment forced air heaters when replacing them with more
efficient ones and was told they trash them. I asked if I could have one
And a couple days later I had a free heater. True it isn't an efficient
Heater but then my shop isn't huge. It does the job just fine and I 
live at 8,000 feet in Colorado.

Buck


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## gmercer_48083 (Jul 18, 2012)

Scott, I worked in equipment rentals in Michigan where it gets cold. We rented construction heaters for non insulated areas . The formula used is cubic feet x degree rise above ambient temp x .132 = BTU required. Lets say you have a 24' x 26' garage with drywall ceiling at 8' height...and the temp outside is 20 degrees, and you want to raise the temp inside to 60 degrees. 24 x 26 x 8 = 4992 cf x 40 degree rise = 199680 x .132 = 26,357.76 BTU per hour required for a poorly to moderately insulated garage. You would have to take into account that it takes additional time to heat objects in that are in that area. This formula will bring the desired result in about 1 hours time.


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## 64 ford (Apr 21, 2013)

Here in Minnesota the temp gets to well below 0-f and here in Southern Mn. We get a lot of wind (hence all the wind farms). My home shop is 24x 36feet.it started out as storage for my old cars so it was only framed with 2x4s. When I made it into a wood shop I put in 3.5 inches of fiberglass and covered over that with one inch of poly-ISO which I believe is r-6.
This is covered on both sides with aluminum foil and all the joints were taped with foil tape.
I ran the insulation up the bottom side of the rafters instead of the bottom of the bottom chord.this is a little more to heat but gives a area to run wiring,dust collection etc.
Also I put 2 ceiling fans up there to move the air.
I installed a 80,000 btu home furnace that is only 80 percent efficient (a freebie we removed from a job) I keep the temp at about 45 degrees when I'm not in there and at about 55-60 when I work- warm enough for me. When I finish I turn it up to 72 - 75 for as long as needed. I usually burn about 150 gallons of propane per winter. 
In the summer it is shaded so I don't AC but I run a dehumidifier.
Our main shop is insulated the same but we have in floor heat run by a electric boiler. This costs more but the shop is larger and we keep the temp at about 60 degrees.
Dennis


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## rwl7532 (Sep 8, 2011)

Heating with propane can be problematic. Besides heat a lot of water vapor is released into the air. This will condensate on the metal tools. Allowing fresh air from outside will eliminate the problem. When I use my propane heater in my one car garage, I don't close the door all the way. A three inch gap allows enough air to counter act the condensation. Your mileage will vary.


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## woody1401 (Dec 2, 2013)

Living in the Piney Woods of East Texas we just use a wood stove from HF. Works fine, just remember to use a flue cleaner twice a winter.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

No additional heat in my shop which shares a common wall with the house...ie Living rm. on the other side and crawl space below that (split level).
30"'x 30" access hatch which I leave open brings in warmish air from the crawl space, *plus the thermal byproduct of the T12 ballasts*...I just leave the lights on when it gets below freezing. There are at least a dozen 4' 2 lamp fixtures out there, plus the shop is really, really well insulated. 
Those insulated garage doors are worth every penny.


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## 64 ford (Apr 21, 2013)

Ralph
I vent the furnace to the outside so moisture isn't a problem. That's why the furnace is only 80 percent efficient. Opening a door at -10 - f wouldn't be a good idea! I agree tho, that unvented heat would be a real problem. Using fresh air from the outside would help the efficiency but this old furnace wouldn't be easy to set up that way.
Dennis


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## billyjim (Feb 11, 2012)

If I want spot heat, as opposed to trying to heat the whole garage, I set up my halogen flood lights. Great light and they put out a lot of heat.


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## MikeMa (Jul 27, 2006)

I use a kero heater when I am working. If the temp is above freezing the heater will warm the garage enough to work in.


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## harmondreamer (Oct 20, 2015)

as an alternative, you can buy a used air conditioner and install it in the garage. It will help to heat the air temperature somehow.


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## Hfranco2018 (May 1, 2018)

*COOL AND HEAT A WORKSHOP (MINI SPLIT)*

Compact and quiet, mini- splits are very safe for installation in woodshops, as they produce no flame, nor do they have hot elements, and the indoor unit’s coils never get hot enough to ignite dust and other flammables.

These cooling units work just like home central-air units: an outdoor compressor coupled with an indoor cooling coil, but in miniature. The lightweight, outdoor compressor takes up little room, the interior cooling unit can be hung anywhere (no ducting necessary), and the connecting refrigerant and electrical lines require only a 3" hole through the wall.

For an added cost, many mini-split units offer a heat pump upgrade, adding the capability of drawing heat from the outdoor air and depositing it inside. 

They’re simpler and less expensive to install than heating systems that require ductwork. They’re also more efficient and cheaper to run than typical electric heaters, thanks to inverter technology that allows their compressors to operate at variable speeds, delivering only as much heating/cooling as needed.


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