radiant tube heater

[ikucera]

Have a 60X40 steel building up and in the process of getting wired and insulated. Had pretty much decided on forced air to heat it (I live in NE Kansas) but had a friend who put a radiant tube heater in. My main question is could I run 1 approx. 50 ft radiant tube heater down the middle of the building? would this provide adequate heat throughout the building? Also how many BTU (16 foot ceiling). Have looked at some online calculators and looks like around 125,000 but wanted some more opinions.

Thanks

 

[mygarageone]

Yes you can run down the center , they heat objects not the air and the btu rating your talking about should be ok.
Ideally it would be best to have 2 units ,one on each side of garage.

 

[SEV22XS]

Yes radiant is awesome and like said above it heats objects so the walls,floors,cars each it is very comfortable and a lot more even heat the forced air. You will need to do heat load calc to see if one unit is enough based on the outside temp insulation of the building and how warm you want to keep it.

 

[oldtractors]

How tall? The higher up, the better. My shop is 30x50 x 14' ceiling and the tube heater is 30' long and mounted 10' from one size. I think it is around 80k btu. I only have R19 in the walls and ceiling and there is plenty of heat.

 

[ikucera]

Walls are 16 feet. Was thinking about putting some netting down one side for a batting cage, so wanted to avoid putting the tube right above it.

 

[ikucera]

I have got a good deal from a guy for a 200,000 BTU tube heater. what are the down sides of having a little bigger heater than I need?

 

[mygarageone]

I have got a good deal from a guy for a 200,000 BTU tube heater. what are the down sides of having a little bigger heater than I need?

It won't heat like it should . It would be off and on all the time.
You really want it to be on the edge of almost being to small.
the closer it is to the demand the better it will heat.

 

[Vincenthdfan]

I put a 30 foot radiant tube heater in my shop and absolutely love it!

My shop is 30 x 42 x 14, fully insulated and I'm using an 80,000 BTU Natural Gas Tube.

I leave it on 45 degrees all the time and when I'm gonna be out there for a while I'll crank the thermostat up to 60 degrees and just enjoy the instant warmth!

 

[ikucera]

BTW the 200,000 BTU unit is a 2 stage heater, so I'm not sure how much that plays into the choice. It would only run at the full 200,000 when it needed to raise temperature alot. Most of the time when it kicked on it would be at around 100,000

 

[Fueler]

I also have tubes and would never use anything else again.
I should say that you should have a chat with the mfg about your needs before plunking down money on a "good deal".

After much study I settled on these folks. https://www.reverberray.com/

My kid, 12 at the time an I installed it ourselves with a little Egyptian engineering to get it up there.
I just realized it's been over 15 yrs.

 

[soapii]

I put a 30 foot radiant tube heater in my shop and absolutely love it!

My shop is 30 x 42 x 14, fully insulated and I'm using an 80,000 BTU Natural Gas Tube.

I leave it on 45 degrees all the time and when I'm gonna be out there for a while I'll crank the thermostat up to 60 degrees and just enjoy the instant warmth!

We have an almost identical setup, my garage is 30x44x12 and I also leave it 45* until I go out there. I went with a lower BTU 2 stage unit and I love it. Radiant is the way to go!!

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236234

--Joe

 

[mygarageone]

BTW the 200,000 BTU unit is a 2 stage heater, so I'm not sure how much that plays into the choice. It would only run at the full 200,000 when it needed to raise temperature alot. Most of the time when it kicked on it would be at around 100,000

Bigger is not better no matter the reason.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Pics or describe the building better. Is it a red iron type of steel building with insulation put on before the sheet metal went up, or is a pole or stud frame type building with a steel skin. Is the ceiling flat? or is it the inside of the roof structure.

When someone says steel building, I am thinking an all steel building, structure and all. Any other kind of structure and its nothing more than steel skinned. Just trying to get a better picture of what you are dealing with.

 

[ikucera]

stud frame type with steel skin. then insulation inside the steel and another inside layer of steel. There will be a flat ceiling below the rafters with insulation above that. Will try to post some pics.