# Safely heating a basement workshop



## rm&co (Aug 26, 2008)

Hello to all.

Not a real concern now because it's summer but has anyone heated their workshop with the smaller infared Electric heaters. I have an older home basement workshop and I need to get more heat into it during the winter months. I saw one on one of the DIY channels where someone used a hanging infared heater in a garage, but I'm concerned about dust and possible explosion. All my tools are hooked up to dust collectors but we know we still get dust in the air. Also trying to do this on the cheap as I,m moving in a couple years to Northern Wisconsin.

Any help.
Thanks in advance


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

You won't have an open flame like gas-fired IR. You will have a hot surface though. I'm curious as to how much dust is needed to create a flash point. IMHO, I think you would need a lot of dust in the air to create a flash point. Recently, I threw a partial 5 gal. bucket of sawdust on a fire and it was like throwing gasoline on it. This would be a concentrated effect. Call the manufacturer of an electric system and ask them.
I use a heater that has exposed coils but I have never had any problem.


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

I use a small electric heater in my garage shop in the winter and I also have an overhead electric infrared heater. The little heater gets quite coated with dust but I have never had any problems. I just blow it out every now and then.


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## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

On the coldest days of winter I use a couple diathermic heaters, (oil enclosed radiators) especially if I have any painting. 

For the most part my shop hangs around 40 to 43 but the mid of Jan through Feb it can go down to 38 at night.


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

I had a quartz heater, but worried the sawdust would ignite on the tubes. I never worried about the heat element ones. I had up to 3 heaters going in the garage until I bought a Dayton 220 volt model.
This may be a bit much for a basement shop, but it sure puts out the heat if you need it.

Electric Utility Heater | Greenhouse Megastore


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