Heating suggestions

[chaosracing]

I am in the process of getting a 26'x38'x16' pole building put up in the spring. Its going to have on large overhead door at 18'x10' Contractor is only putting up the shell and metal ceiling panels. I am planning on a 6" slab (at least where I plan a lift, maybe 4" everywhere else) with insulation under the slab. The shops I have been in before all had hot air systems (two were waste oil, not going there, one was a oil fired forced air system and also used a kerosene torpedo as well). I would love radiant heat in the slab, but was wondering if that is more economical vs a propane forced hot air system.
I plan in insulating the walls and ceiling as money allows. My plan for that is to use 1.5" rigid (either Polyiso or extruded poly ie blue board) on the wall in between the 2x4 wall strapping, then fiberglass over that. Ceiling will get blown in cellulose.

I have no access to NG and do not want oil either. I just want to plan ahead as I will probably not install a heating system for a year or two and will just use a torpedo for the time being.

So basically what I am asking is what is the better option to go with?

 

[b-boy]

A friend of mine built a pole barn with radiant heat in the floors. He did a 6" insulated slab like you mentioned. He's very happy with it. He raves about how comfortable the heat is in the winter. I know it was pretty pricey to install, but he uses his barn for his wife's business, so they needed reliable heat. He has NG.

I just put up a barn. I'm going to use forced air and insulate the hell out of the barn. I think that's the real key. If it's poorly insulated, it won't matter what type of heating you put in there.

 

[Bert_]

I've always been happy with the radiant tube heaters that get installed in 90% of the shops around here. Lately I've been seeing some Modine units that are pretty quiet too.

 

[Lelandwelds]

I've always been happy with the radiant tube heaters that get installed in 90% of the shops around here. Lately I've been seeing some Modine units that are pretty quiet too.

Before this forum, I had never heard of the tube infrared heaters. It looks like a vented 20 or 30 foot one would be perfect for a high Bay garage. I have googled a bit and people talk about decades of drama free service. Factory literature talks about 30k btu like it is 100k. Is there some magic here I don't understand? You see colder Temps than I ever will.

What about the square infra red?

 

[mrramsey]

IMO - tube heaters are great for large open spaces when you want to keep areas warm where people work while you are not worried about heating 100% of a building to 70 degrees in every nook and cranny. This is why you see them in manufacturing, warehouses etc. No need to heat the entire volume of the space. In floor radiant heat will warm the space evenly and would be my choice if were building my own wood working (or garage) space with say 9-10' ceilings. But when you start talking 16' ceilings I think you are better off with radiant tubes where you are directing more heat to specific areas so maybe the work area is 70 and the rest is 60 etc.

I installed a forced air heater in my small garage because in floor was not an option and ceilings were too low for tubes. This works well for my need though.

As far as the square infrared units the same thing applies. They heat an area and the objects in that area no differently than one of those outdoor patio heaters. They work well for what they are designed to do. Sure there will be residual heat that will warm the space as a whole. Imagine having a very large building with 5 small work areas. you would warm the work areas as opposed to heating a huge volumous space.

 

[dkoch1982]

Friend of mine got a 30ft infrared tube heater in his 40x40 shop keeps it at 60 all times no cold spots in that show even at -15 other day might of kicked on 3 times in a hr for 5 min. No noise no cold spots any where in that shop and his is 16ft walls too


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