How do I heat a shop building in Ontario Canada

SVanderkolff

SVanderkolff

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Oct 31, 2002
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Some time in the next couple of years I will be building my first shop that is not in the basement. I am thinking of a 20 X 40 shop with various rooms for different activities. I was wondering what the best way to heat the shop would be. My biggest concern is fire, with the dust and accumulated mess that I create I really don't want to have the shop explode on me. I want to maintain an above freezing temperature at all times. I know this means heating an empty shop most of the time but it is worth it to me. I will have electrical or propane available at the building. Cost is always a concern but I am willing to pay for my comfort. I make knives as a hobby right now but hope to turn it into a retirement project sometime in the next ten years.
Thanks for the help.
Steve
 
I think the most important factor: Insulate the hell out of it. That'll be the biggest cost difference long term in heating expense.


The other thing to consider may be terrain, whether you're in a dead flat area or hilly, setting part of the building into a bank, or putting the slab below grade can have a big affect from what I've seen. I'm not an expert on this, but I've been in slab concrete floored shops that were bone cold slabs above grade no matter how much heat was produced, and then some that were comfortable with minimal heat that were below grade or built into hills.


Obviously someone with more experience in that matter could elaborate on whether that's legit or not.
 
Just insulate it and put in a couple portable electric heaters. That's about the size of my shop; I'm in a snowy part of the province here and I have one electric in the washroom and one other That I can move around as needed.

Keeping it cool in the summer is more of an issue.
 
Heating the slab results in a great heat sink. It holds heat much better than forced air. When I build a separate shop on my acreage, I will use solar heating with a huge water tank under the floor. Here's some green options to consider:

http://www.ecosolar.ca/open_houses.html
 
In floor hot water heating, you can use propane or natural gas water heaters.

Spray on insulation provides insulation and draft control
 
Move somewhere warmer!



Sorry, someone had to say it. I'm planning a 40x60 and in floor seems to be the best. Just make sure your slab is built well because a busted pipe is a nightmare with in floor heating.
 
SVanderkolff said:
The lot is dead flat. I like the in floor heating idea. What about overhead heating tubes?
Click to expand...

It's not a very even heat, just under is unbearably hot, other side of the room, cold.

In floor is perfect, keeps the machines and handle material warm and dry and stable.
 
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Try to avoid systems that require forced air movement. My new shop has radiant lines in the 6" slab. There is 4" of rigid foam isolating the pad from the ground and footings. It is controlled by a residential water heater tank, and a low voltage circulation pump regulated by a thermostat. I didn't need a boiler because the area is under 500 sqft and the temperatures are lower than residential in-floor systems. I only need to keep the slab above 60F in the colder months and not even run it in the warmer months. In fact, I am considering using it to cool the floor in the summer.

In-floor requires some forward planning and may not be possible in some cases. Those little portable oil-filled heaters are more economical than electric baseboard ... safer, too.
 
If you can do in-floor heating it's the way to go. Otherwise, put a toyo/monitor stove in and call it good (that's probably the most economical method, and is extremely popular up here in the real frozen north ;) )
 
My dad is a contractor and pretty much everything up here is done with infloor heat now. Its economical and the slab is a great heat sink. Your feet stay warm, and the residual heat in the slab can keep a well insulated building from freezing up for days if the power happens to go off. You wont get that with forced air heat. If or when i build a new workshop, it will absolutely have infloor heat. I would say 90% or more of the new houses we build also have infloor heat in the basement.
 
I'll be putting in floor heating in mine, we're hoping to build this summer at our new land. And a well insulated building will make all the difference, dont skimp there, the house I'm in now is poorly insulated and every time it snows I get about 6" of ice on my roof from heat loss.
 
are you on natural gas where you are at? my house was natural gas when i bought it and i built my garage on a budget so i didn't heat it at first and relied on "red-eye" heaters with kerosene. two years ago i tapped into the natural gas and had a 3'x2' heater put in and couldn't be happier.... unless i had in floor heat.
 
Unfortunately no natural gas in our area. Its either Propane or electric. I will definetely look at the in floor heating when I build.
Thanks for all the replies.
Steve
 
Lots of good ideas here
Insulation is an investment and the spray stuff is expensive but worth it.
A wood pellet stove is what my son uses and he has a huge cabinet shop with 16' ceiling. He installed it himself and had it inspected for insurance reasons. He'll put a woodstove in later to burn scrap wood.
He shuts the pellet stove off and has an extraction fan on when spraying laqure.
I concurr with the infloor heat but feel it's too expensive.
 
I will never have a wood-stove
I had one and removed it.


I don't' care for the smoke and the dirt, lost space in the shop taken up by the stove, wood storage and safe zone of clear space around the wood stove.
It amounted to 20 square feet of space plus lost wall space.


Plus when I did use portable electric or propane heat, you could go outside and see the heat ripple straight out the chimney.


I want to set it and forget it, let the temp be steady with no work on my part.
 
i wanted in floor heat but funds jsut were not there so i got a hot dawg shop heater it is set for 40 at night and 60f on work days. my shop is 16x24 and 2 floors and the wals have R19 in them
 
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