Folks, I’ve got a similar post at Knots. I’m researching shop heat for an upcoming article in Fine Woodworking. I’d love to hear your questions, solutions, concerns, and recommendations.
Andy
Andy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. –Robert M. Pirsig
Replies
I think the cat's meow for shop heating (based on lots of lurking at this and some HVAC sites, as well as having a radiant slab in my own), would be a combination of ceiling and slab radiant. Put a slab sensor in to keep the slab at a steady 50* or so, and then another zone of PEX in plates in the ceiling to turn on when you need to ramp the ambiant up quickly for finishing or extended time in the shop.
This is assuming a shop with intermitant use where, for fuel cost sake, you would not want to keep it at 70* all the time.
As long as you isolated the heat source in its own room, or used a sealed combustion unit, or an electric boiler, the flammable issue with dust and finishing fumes in a shop would go away, you could open and close big shop doors with only temporary and minor ambiant change, EVERY surface would be a constant XX*, and you could easily keep the "working" ambiant at a constant state.
The combo of ceiling panels and radiant slab occurs to me as I notice that my shop's ambiant (with slab sensor set at 55*) increases a few degrees in an hour just by keeping the 10 - 150 watt incandescent lights on.
Edited 2/18/2005 9:47 am ET by johnnyd
I use our 2,900 square foot drive-in basement for work shop space. It has two zones for the radiant slab floor, the t stat is set at 62 degrees and basement is well insulated. I find it comfortable to work there, if I want to make it any warmer the wood stove gets put to use. The good thing about the wood stove is I get rid of all the scraps I generate that would get saved forever for some smaller project that I won't get around to doing.