Propane Heat

[bigbuckguy19]

Hey men. I'm looking to start finishing the inside of my shop this spring and I've been looking into how I'm going to heat the sucker. We don't have gas on the yard (Sk Energy wants a big ol' pile of cash to do that...) so I've been looking at propane to heat the shop. Tons of propane heaters out there like a hanging furnace, tube style radiant, etc. I'm just trying to assess if going with propane will be worth it. Does anyone have any real world experience with heating a shop/garage with propane? If so what size of building and how much does it cost you per month?

 

[Ultrafrozen]

Works great, better than freezing. Make sure to install indirect fired and vented outside as you seem to be aware of already. Cost is insulation and temperature dependent.

 

[Crazy Canuk]

You may want to explore using wood pellets. I run a propane furnace in my house and also have 2 wood pellet stoves. It is much cheaper when I heat the house with wood pellets and leave the furnace off. I also run a third wood pellet stove in my garage which is about 1000 sq ft. I would say the pro's of wood pellets are: Real fire, cheap heat source, heats up quickly, minimal maintenance. Cons are: maintenance (cleaning stove once every 1-2 weeks, adding pellets). A lot of wood pellets stoves now can be controlled with a thermostat, personally I didn't hook mine up to one yet as I just turn it on when I want it. In the garage I can keep it toasty warm for about $5 a day. I have R50 insulation in the attic and my doors are R16.

 

[Vannatta32]

X2 on the pellet stove

 

[bigbuckguy19]

Thanks for the input guys. Another thing I need to consider is that for wood/pellet stoves it will add about $400 to my fire insurance per year. Sounding more and more like I'll stick with an electric boiler and floor heat like I have in the house and supplement with wood heat in the shop.