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Shop heating and cooling

RickAllen

Member
I have a 14 x 26 detached garage/future workshop that I plan to insulate and heat and cool. It has power to it now and I have natural gas at the house. I am in Delaware. I would like to get some ideas and recommendations for heaters and a/c units. What would you do again and what would you do differently if you could start over? I do have an attached garage where I will store completed assemblies. Thanks.
 
There are several good threads about this, so it's worth searching for them. Hint, the advanced search function is available if you click on "Search," in the blue band above.

The very best heating is a radiant floor. I feel that the second best is overhead radiant heat (which I have).

If your warm season climate is hot and dry, a swamp cooler works wonders. But it's got to be dry or else the cooler won't work well and some parts might corrode.

As for energy source, use whatever's cheapest.

I had my roof insulated with 6" of spray foam. I don't have a ceiling in my shop. The walls have that cotton batting, with drywall on top. Batting holds up better for the long term than blown-in insulation, which eventually sags (in my living room, about a foot and a half at the top is now uninsulated because of that). The shop stays between 40 and 80 F the year around by itself, with the heat and cooler off. On, I can put it at most any temperature I want.

Dave
 
I decided to keep mine pretty simple. My heat is great in the summer and I?m kept cool in the winter. 🤪
 
I bought a big window AC/heat unit from Home Depot for my 2 story 18x24 workshop. Upstairs was parts storage only so was closed off and never heated or cooled. Did have a gable fan to suck away some summer heat.
Both the heat and AC were expensive to run but during the summer I tended to work in the morning before it got too hot outside. During the winter I found that 50 to 55 degrees was a good working temperature. Good lighting is more important than temperature unless you live in Arizona or Minnesota.
 
Put all your money into insulation if you can, it?s not likely to require a service call and won?t consume any energy. Spray foam has the highest R value per inch. Get your heating down to a candle and your cooling load to an ice cube.

Retired HVACR professional

RV7 o320 160 HP Catto prop
2018 dues paid.

My 28x32 has a 60k 95% furnace and a 1-1/2 ton window a/c. ( both free) but we are in Kansas.
 
Rick, I recently bought a multi unit, Mini Split system and installed it myself. Bought a cheap vacuum pump and gauges on Amazon, and watched a few Youtube videos... Bought three wall units. Two in my machine shop and one in the airplane building shop (24 x 36). I keep the temp a steady 65 degrees in both shops which are both well insulated. I like my system just fine.
 
Heat pumps are great in our PNW climate. The mild temps allow them to operate in their sweet spot efficiency wise.
I put in a 30kbtu unit and it keeps my 2400 sqft hangar at 60F down to freezing and at or above 55 when it is in the teens. I am not as well insulated as I would like.
It cools down well at night here even in summer so cooling isn’t an issue either.

Not sure if a heat pump would do the job in your climate. Mine is the mini split type as well.
 
If you are also planning to paint in your shop, you'll need to take that into consideration for your heating system. I was planning for a gas-fired ceiling-mount heater, and there are three levels of safety rating for those; I chose the mid-range that draws in burner air from a roof snorkel (and exhaust out a chimney of course) and recirculates the heated air in the room. I shut my system off entirely when I erect my interior booth, a 10'x24' sealed space that filters incoming air at one end and filters exhaust air out the other... and both of those are low on opposite walls spaced far away from the burner snorkel and exhaust above the roof. Works well.
 
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i live in n. wi. so heat is a costly item. my shop is 16x24 in a pole barn. i have found that before mid december and then in only the coldest weather the concrete ''gives off heat'' for a long time in the fall. i can leave the shop unheated if i am out there every day and the temp will stay above freezing. get a large enough furnace so the temp can be brought up to 65-70 quickly. for the nights 20 below etc. that the temp would go below freezing i have a small unvented heater that will go on at 35 degrees. i have had this shop for 20 yrs. so i know this setup works. in the beginning i kept it much warmer for the 75% of the time i wasn't there but then decided why spend the money to keep the drill press warm. if you have the money to do it go for it but i watch a humidity in the room and rust has never been a problem. the unvented heater has never been a problem because it runs so infrequently and the flue for the furnace is always pulling fresh air.a wall mounted window shaker does get used in the summer.
 
For the first 25 years of my adult life, my shops were heated with forced air. It was OK but..

I built a new house 10 years ago and VERY intentionally installed radiant heat in the shop floor.

I was done with flopping around on a cold concrete floor.
 
Wall unit Heat Pumps

I have built two shops....both larger than the one you outlined. I insulated both. both had an insulated garage door on the end. In one, I put a heat pump that you might find in a hotel room.....single unit that does A/C and heat. Worked great. On the other, I installed a small heat pump similar to what you might find in a house. It was a lot of work (did it myself), but it worked well too. Now, I have a home in an airpark with a pretty good sized hangar....it is insulated.....I put the largest window unit / heat pump I could find and it does great.

So....for simplicity, I would recommend a wall unit similar to what you find in a hotel room....heat pump for both heating and cooling. If you really had your heart on using gas to heat, then I would install a separate, independent gas heater.

Ellis
Grumman Tiger Owner, A&P/IA, RV7a builder, Fayetteville NC
 
Mini-Split, Spray Foam Insulation

I live in TX so what works for me might need to be different for you but I agree with many of the previous posts. Spray insulation is expensive but worth every penny. Garage door insulation helps but not as much as the spray insulation. I have a Mitsubishi mini split heat pump (A/C and heat). Their initial cost is relatively high but their operating cost is extremely low. I have a 40' X 22' garage with a 10' ceiling. I pay about $0.12/kWh for electricity and it costs me about $0.20/hour to keep my garage ice cold in the middle of a Houston summer. I think I'm the only person in history to say in Houston during the summer "This garage is too darn cold!!". :)

I hope this helps!

Jeff
 
Insulate the ceiling and walls (but before that, run all the electrical you think you might ever want). Then insulate the doors.

Then install a mini split heat pump. Best thing I ever did for our summers here (hot and very humid).
 
I live in TX so what works for me might need to be different for you but I agree with many of the previous posts. Spray insulation is expensive but worth every penny. Garage door insulation helps but not as much as the spray insulation. I have a Mitsubishi mini split heat pump (A/C and heat). Their initial cost is relatively high but their operating cost is extremely low. I have a 40' X 22' garage with a 10' ceiling. I pay about $0.12/kWh for electricity and it costs me about $0.20/hour to keep my garage ice cold in the middle of a Houston summer. I think I'm the only person in history to say in Houston during the summer "This garage is too darn cold!!". :)

I hope this helps!

Jeff

Did the same in my Florida garage. House was a builders model so walls and ceiling were insulated from when it was an office (code required removal of AC vents connected to house system when it became a garage). I insulated the garage door with a kit from Amazon. I can?t tell any difference in my electric bills and it heats as well as cools on those rare days in Florida where that matters.
 
I have built two shops....both larger than the one you outlined. I insulated both. both had an insulated garage door on the end. In one, I put a heat pump that you might find in a hotel room.....single unit that does A/C and heat. Worked great. On the other, I installed a small heat pump similar to what you might find in a house. It was a lot of work (did it myself), but it worked well too. Now, I have a home in an airpark with a pretty good sized hangar....it is insulated.....I put the largest window unit / heat pump I could find and it does great.

So....for simplicity, I would recommend a wall unit similar to what you find in a hotel room....heat pump for both heating and cooling. If you really had your heart on using gas to heat, then I would install a separate, independent gas heater.

Ellis
Grumman Tiger Owner, A&P/IA, RV7a builder, Fayetteville NC

I do not have any allegiance to gas heat. I provided that info to get comparisons. It would only require about a 100 foot gas line from the existing meter to the shop. Also, I was always under the impression that gas is cheaper than the alternatives. I do find a mini split system appealing though.
 
Shop heating cooling

Hvacopcost.com let?s you do some comparisons. Probably many other websites.

Keith Rhea
 
I do not have any allegiance to gas heat. I provided that info to get comparisons. It would only require about a 100 foot gas line from the existing meter to the shop. Also, I was always under the impression that gas is cheaper than the alternatives. I do find a mini split system appealing though.

I'm currently getting quotes to run an additional gas line (~200ft) for a generator. If I pay a contractor to run that line it's going to cost about 4 times the purchase price of the used generator. If you already have adequate power run to the shop, it might take a long time to pay back the install costs for gas vs extra energy cost for a heat pump.
 
there is an animal in the rental dept. at ace hdwe. called a ditch witch. this thing was absolutely bulletproof and worked magic to go thru 250' of heavy woods and put in a 20'' deep trench for electric for me. in half a day with a husky friend. rocks almost football size would come out of the trench.
 
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