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Radiant tube heat anyone?

I'm glad of that, given the amount of combustibles in there, ya packrat. :)
No worries, I haven't burnt the place down in 23 years with it sitting between my Bridgeport and Drill presses.
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No worries, I haven't burnt the place down in 23 years with it sitting between my Bridgeport and Drill presses.
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Love those little rascals. :)
All except for the care and feeding part... there is a warmth you get from a little stove
like that that you just don't get from any other kind of heater.
 
For Moparedtn:

Small shop (approx 630 sq with 11' flat ceiling and one ceiling fan) attached to my home so only 3 walls exposed to central Michigan winters. It is heated with this 240 V from Menards. I usually keep it around 60 but can easily run it up to 75 when I paint. Has 3 1/2" fiberglass in the walls and R-38 over the ceiling. Never checked how much juice it sucks but I didn't hear the head bill payer say much about it so I would suspect, not much at all. Had it about 3-4 years without a problem. It can run at 3,4,or 5K for watts but I never move it off the 3K setting. Pretty sure I paid less the $200 for this and it does the job just fine.

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Trying to decide what to heat the outbuilding with. It’s roughly 2,000 sq ft with a 13 ft ceiling. Gotta use LPG for fuel. Undecided between a house furnace or two 30 ft radiant tubes. Any of you guys have experience or recommendations?
Our main building is aprox 60 x 40 and 16' center height, spray foam walls and ceiling then steel lined.
We have had this pair of vantage tubes in since early 90s , they do a great job even in the below zero weather.
separate 220 electric heat for the paint booth.
Im a fan of the tube heaters , nice even heat.
We really need to clean the reflectors lol.
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I have insulated floor heat in my 36x50 and it runs off of a 40 gallon hot water tank. It's awesome and maintains consistent heat at 60 degrees. I have natural gas and the garage costs me about $100/month to keep heated. It's good down to about 5 degrees and then begins to cycle and cycle to keep up. For Pittsburgh weather, that's not often. Warm floors are awesome
 
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Went with forced air, gives me central air as well for the summer. I was able to get the stuff at cost from my buddy.
 
It’ll be worth it for the a/c in the hot humid days of summer.
 
My friend told me they now have a 2 stage tube heater? I have tube heaters 4 difference buildings. Shop and rentals. Love them. No dust blowing around
 
Trying to decide what to heat the outbuilding with. It’s roughly 2,000 sq ft with a 13 ft ceiling. Gotta use LPG for fuel. Undecided between a house furnace or two 30 ft radiant tubes. Any of you guys have experience or recommendations?

I have a 30x50 frame shop with a 13’ ceiling, 2x6 studs (R19), blown-in insulation overhead (R38), and a 6in concrete floor throughout. I’ve been running a 40’ single-tube 150k BTU radiant heat LPG unit in the shop for 14 years. It produces a nice even heat and I am extremely happy with it. I ran the tube the long length of the shop along the back wall opposite the main door – about 5’ off the back wall and about 5’ away from the walls at each end of the tube. The reflectors are angled slightly toward the center of the shop and I keep the temp at 50*F in winter when I’m not in it and turn it up a tad if I’m going to be out there a good while. Our winter lows sometimes dip into the single-digits, but rarely go negative. My best guess is unit uses about 160 gal of LPG during the winter.
 
I use LPG radiant tube in my shop and would do it again! I'm in the PNW and it can get cold in the winter, so I just set the thermostat to about 46 unless I'm going to be working out there then I'll bump it up and it doesn't take long to make it comfortable. My shop is a 36x48 and I work out there all year long.
The nice thing about the radiant heat is since it's not heating the air, when you open the door to move a vehicle in or out, all the heat doesn't escape. then since the objects are heated and giving off heat, the area is warmed back up quicker than with a furnace heating all that air again.
Good luck with your decision and have fun in the shop!
 
The most important step in deciding what system to use is a heat balance calculation of the heat loss (winter time) and the heat gain (summer time) if air conditioning is being considered. This involves the square footage, cubic volume of the structure, insulation values in external walls and ceiling, windows, doors, building orientation, and the climate zone its located in. In addition, frequency of the opening of the main door way to factor in infiltration of cold/hot air the system will see AND what interior temperature you want to hold.
The second important factor is operation....electric/heat pump/natural gas or propane fuel or oil or wood. Condiderstion must be given to the possibility of explosive vapor being present (gasoline, kerosene, paint fumes). If so, local codes MAY require a sprinkler system to be installed, based on square footage and building construction. Do your own due diligence, rather than acceptance of what your "buddy" installed, who in all likelihood did not factor in any of the above mentioned issues, but used scrounged components. A radiant heat tube system or a heat pump or a sealed combustion furnace offer the best alternatives to consider. Just my opinion of course.
BOB RENTON
 
I have insulated floor heat in my 36x50 and it runs off of a 40 gallon hot water tank. It's awesome and maintains consistent heat at 60 degrees. I have natural gas and the garage costs me about $100/month to keep heated. It's good down to about 5 degrees and then begins to cycle and cycle to keep up. For Pittsburgh weather, that's not often. Warm floors are awesome

Do you have any pictures of how the syst. is set up? It sounds interesting.
 
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