One 10000 watt, or two 5000 watt?

Ok, looking at electric heaters and 10000 watt heaters tend to be around 500$-900$. But 5000 watt heaters can be had for 100$ each...


Some background, redoing my polebarn in western washington. I have electrical on outside of drywall in emt.

Shop is roughly 600sqft(28ft by 22ft) with 10ft ceiling
t's currently insulated around r25 in the ceiling and walls.
Existing 60amp breaker with 6 gauge thhn to a break out box.
Looking to bring the temp up by 30F (it rarely gets below 30f)
I estimate I'll need around 25k-30k btu.

I was originally planning on one large 10000 watt heater that pulls around 45 amps or so. But they are so expensive I started wondering if two 5000 watt heaters would be a better call.


100$ heater that puts off 17k BTU each
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578579_200578579

850$ heater that puts off 34k BTU
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578250_200578250

My thoughts are, wire the two 100$ heaters to the 6 AWG coming out of the breakout box that is attached to the 60amp breaker. Since there are two heaters it should move air around pretty good and I save 650$.

What do you guys think?

I would agree. Advantages of two heaters; more even heat, redundancy if one breaks, run one in mild temps.

Having two will be better -- although ...$100? I have a 2k/4k and it was pushing a few hundred.

I hink I'd vote for the 2heaters.

I had to install temp heat in my father retail store when the boiler went out a few winters back, We did 2 5000 heaters, one in the front and one in the back blowing towards each other. Worked so well that they are still the primary heat source.

To clarify one is in the front left corner blowing towards the back of the store the other is in the back right corner blowing towards the front, they make a circular air pattern that works very well.

Thumper68 said:

To clarify one is in the front left corner blowing towards the back of the store the other is in the back right corner blowing towards the front, they make a circular air pattern that works very well.

Click to expand...

That's clever, think I'm going to pull the trigger one two of them.

As always, thanks for the advice and experience guys.

The first thing I have to question you about is do you have NG in the building? I have a 5000 W heater in my shop and it's been running for about five years. A year ago, I installed a 30,000 BTU NG overhead radiant heater. The installation ran about $2000 tot. My calculated cost savings return is less than two years.

If you don't have NG, definitely go to duel-Zone 5000 W.
My shop electricity was more important to go to machines. Each 5000 W heater will draw about 21 A on 240 V