Paul Bush on sun 14 mar 99
I need ideas for how to heat my garage-based studio. I recently bought
a house that has a large 3-car garage. It's a metal building, and is
not very well insulated, and very cold in winter months. My studio will
be taking up about 40% of the space. There is 240 electricity, but no
gas to the garage. I've thought about propane, but that would require
constant trips to refill the tank, or the costly installation of a large
tank. Any ideas for heating the space, and suggestions for how to
temporarily divide off the studio space from the rest of the garage,
would be greatly appreciated.
Paul Bush
Portland, OR
Mike Gordon on mon 15 mar 99
Paul,
INSULATE your studio, run a gas line from the house service over to the
studio area and buy a space heater,or some other type of gas heater, be
sure to have local codes in place as to distance from walls, VENTING,
and gas line inspection. OR do it like I do and just do it and use your
head or get someone to help you that has experience in this sort of
thing. good luck, Mike
Billie Schwab on mon 15 mar 99
If you can swing it I would recommend in-floor hot water - that is if you
need to pour a floor. If Ihad to do again, this is what I would have done.
I use two of the most efficient, small, baseboard electric heaters and have
240 service and if I kept the shop as warm as I would like, I would pay well
over $200 per month. I only fire less than a handful of times per month as
well. My insulation is very good......walls, ceiling....this was the most
inexpensive alternative and fit my budget at the time.
this is only my experience though.......do not use any forced air
systems.........
Keeping my boxes of clay off the floor helps too - on the
hands...........clay on cold concrete.....brrrrrrrr
Billie in Venus PA where we have not gotten even a flake of snow......we
were supposed to have 4-6"
of snow by now...........
June Perry on mon 15 mar 99
Dear Paul:
I just heated my garage studio. I don't know if both garages are insulated.
The walls are drywalled and I only know for sure, that the wall between the
two garages is insulated, but I don't know if the outside wall is. Mine was
separated into two large areas with a third one small room with a sink that
was the laundry room and is now my clay mixing room.
I put one large electric wall heater in each of the large rooms and the space
is very comfortable. We also bought a couple of those garage insulation kits
that sells for about $25 or $29 and put those up on the doors. The nice thing
about those kits is that it says you can still open the garage doors.
I would think that propane would be an expensive way to heat. Around here it
sells for about $127 to $129 a gallon!
It wasn't cheap to install the heaters -- about $1200; but it's well worth it,
I thik. Most of the portable heaters are rated about 1500 watts. One of my
wall heaters is 3000 watts and the other is 4000. I probably could have gotten
away with the two 3000's, but it only cost about another fifty dollars more to
go up another 1000 watts. I hate to be cold and I hate to have to sit around
and wait for pots to dry in a cold/damp environment.
I bought one of those 1500 watt heaters for a small atrium room that I use as
a greenhouse. It works on a convection principal and really heats up that tiny
room very well. That space is only about eighty square feet give or take ten
feet. It cost more than the usual 1500 watt heaters that we had seen. I think
it was around $79 at Eagle Hardware; but my seedlings are doing well in there
and it actually is too hot if I put it up to the highest setting.That atrium
also has two glass doors and a wall of windows, so it's losing a lot of heat.
You have three garages so I would think you'd need two of those convection
types in each garage, particularly if it is not insulated. The nice thing with
those and my wall heaters, is that they're not tied in to the house heating
system and you can manually turn each one to where you want and save on your
heating bills.
My old studio which which was in a converted barn, was initially heated with
wood and then about two years ago I installed a second hand ceiling mounted,
industrial blower type heater. We bought it for about $200 and it did a great
job of heating that space. The only insulation I had was in the ceiling. That
would be an inexpensive way to go, particularly if you could do the electrical
work yourself. I had it on a thermostat, but it seemed to have it's own idea
about when it should go one and off!
Regards,
June
R Wearley on mon 15 mar 99
>From: Paul Bush
>Reply-To: Ceramic Arts Discussion List
>To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
>Subject: HEATING GARAGE STUDIO
>Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 14:47:11 EST
>
>----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
>I need ideas for how to heat my garage-based studio. I recently bought
>a house that has a large 3-car garage. It's a metal building, and is
>not very well insulated, and very cold in winter months. My studio
will
>be taking up about 40% of the space. There is 240 electricity, but no
>gas to the garage. I've thought about propane, but that would require
>constant trips to refill the tank, or the costly installation of a
large
>tank. Any ideas for heating the space, and suggestions for how to
>temporarily divide off the studio space from the rest of the garage,
>would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Paul Bush
>Portland, OR
>
>Paul,
Regarding your heating situation in your garage/studio you may
consider my solution. I purchased a medium sized downflow gas
furnace (such as might have been used in a mobile home) and had
a sheetmetal base custom built so as to direct the heat out into
the work area at floor level. Call a local propane distributor
and have them come and analyize your situation including your
tank sizing, location and hookup. Their salesman will also help
you with the local codes concerning these things as well as how
you should locate your furnace, including venting it. He will
probably give you this advice free of charge if you are a
potential customer (I was a former salesman!). You will also
want to isolate your working area as much as possible to retain
the heat in that area. The more you enclose it the more efficient
your heating system will be for you.
Good Luck,
Reg Wearley
Val Knight Studio
Big Arm, MT PS.Don't be afraid of the gas-it's great!!
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Alex Wilson on mon 15 mar 99
Hello Paul, the first thing to do is insulate. Then go out and get a wood or
coal burning stove and put that in a spare corner. I've found that coal will
keep its embers going for a lot longer than wood, but then I have a coal yard
not far away. Once you are insulated, the radiant heat from a firing kiln will
also serve to heat the workshop. I put a small electric baseboard heater in my
place too, ostensibly to keep the clay and glazes from freezing when I'm not
running the stove, and it keeps the cat happy as well, not to mention the
potters' fingers.
Nothing worse than potting in the cold, been there, done that, no more for me
thanks.
I hope this is of some use to you,
Alex in Iowa
Stephen Mills on mon 15 mar 99
Build a shed inside the garage with insulated walls and ceiling and heat
that with a small electric convection heater.
Steve
Bath
UK
In message , Paul Bush writes
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I need ideas for how to heat my garage-based studio. I recently bought
>a house that has a large 3-car garage. It's a metal building, and is
>not very well insulated, and very cold in winter months. My studio will
>be taking up about 40% of the space. There is 240 electricity, but no
>gas to the garage. I've thought about propane, but that would require
>constant trips to refill the tank, or the costly installation of a large
>tank. Any ideas for heating the space, and suggestions for how to
>temporarily divide off the studio space from the rest of the garage,
>would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Paul Bush
>Portland, OR
>
--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
home e-mail: stevemills@mudslinger.demon.co.uk
work e-mail: stevemills@bathpotters.demon.co.uk
own website: http://www.mudslinger.demon.co.uk
BPS website: http://www.bathpotters.demon.co.uk
Alex Pomianek on mon 15 mar 99
paul if youown the house mybe you could bild a wall we all know people who
have worked constrution. maybe you could find one of these people to help u
put up a wall one wall is not that tough of a project. you might try the
library. get one of those time life book on carpentrey. you also might think
about a wood burning stove in oregon wood is easy to get all you need is a
wood cuting permit that you can get from the forest service for about 15
dollers i hope these idea help good luck with the cold studio.
alex pomianek
wenatchee WA
ps wood stoves make fun little exsperamental kilns
enjoy
Deb Contardi on tue 16 mar 99
At 02:47 PM 3/14/99 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I need ideas for how to heat my garage-based studio.
Paul,
I am in the process of heating my garage that serves a dual purpose (kennel
and studio). I am going to purchase a small gas heater (one that hangs
from the ceiling) and run a separate gas line from my existing service. The
other thing I am doing is replacing my old garage door with a new one.
although this is an expensive proposition it is a necessity. However I
believe you can buy a kit to insulate your existing door. Also, as far as
separating your studio space, I would just frame in the area that you need
and drywall and paint.
Good Luck
Deb Contardi
Phoenix Pottery
Triskelion Irish Setters
Longmont, CO
Brent Chalmers on tue 16 mar 99
Hot water heat in the floor is the way to go.
lay plastic pipe on the floor and pour another pour of concrete. 2" should
do the trick.
Circulate hot water from any source through the floor. Recycle your kiln
heat, etc.
This works very well in Canada, where we often use wood heat in an external
"boiler", (no pressure).
That's my $.02. CDN.
brent
NakedClay@aol.com on tue 16 mar 99
Hello Everybody!
While we're discussing alternatives to typical gas and electric heaters, also
consider wood pellet stoves. These stoves burn compressed wood pellets,
instead of logs, coal, or other burnable fuel. The stoves, which look like
old-fashioned "pot-belly" stoves, are more efficient, they require remarkably
small amounts of pellets (sold in 25 or 50-lb. bags) for a day's worth of
warmth, and don't require the permits for building chimneys that wood-burning
stoves might require. In fact, there is little, if any, discernable smoke.
These stoves do require a 110 volt electric outlet, for the "starter" which
creates the starting spark, and the motor which powers the fuel "cogs." Some
stoves come with fans, to direct the heat into the room.
There are many websites to see pellet stoves, and the pellet fuels. Check them
out!
Milton NakedClay@AOL.COM
Yucca Valley, CA
Waiting for the impending snow storm, coming in from the coast.
Tom Wirt on tue 16 mar 99
>From: Paul Bush
>Subject: HEATING GARAGE STUDIO
>I need ideas for how to heat my garage-based studio. I recently bought
Not sure where you're located, but if you've got enough headroom, and can
spare an inch and a half, you can add floor heat using just a 30-40 gallon
water heater (electric). There are self leveling floor compounds that would
cover the heating pipes. If you're in cold climes at all (Chicago or north)
you will find floor heat the best way to go.
Tom Wirt
| |
|
