How much do you spend heating your shop/garage?

[Yankeefarmer]

For those of you who aren’t earning a living from your shop/garage:

 

[zmotorsports]

Mine is much less than I thought it would be. This shop is 3x the size as my last one and it costs me much less to heat it during the winter months. The 2x6 construction and better insulation definitely paid off.

 

[SmackinHondas]

No heat... but it's Texas. Rarely does it dip into the high 20F's, but that means I ain't working anyways lol

 

[kaymccampbell]

Mine is held in the 55-60 range most of the fall-winter-spring by just cast off heat from the freezer, dryer, and the heat plant generating hot water and heat for the house. When the outside temps drop into the single digits, then the zone for the shop kicks in to maintain 55. When I'm down there, which is most days, I might tick it up a few degrees, to get some warmer air circulating, but then it goes back down automatically after a couple hours. If I'm going to be in one spot all day, then I'll turn on a little ceramic heater for a little while to warm my feet. I wear warm clothes in the shop to save on heating bills. But, then I've done that my whole life. Being a church mouse n all.

 

[gmcgeo]

I'm around $250

 

[R6 Racer]

No heat... but it's Texas. Rarely does it dip into the high 20F's, but that means I ain't working anyways lol

LOL
location location location... I watch for the days to get up to that temp (high 20'sF) so I can get outside work done. -32C here today = -26F

As for heat around 70$p/m in propane to keep 32 x 40 from freezing. To make it a place that I can work in without extra clothing & gloves I heat it up to working temp with wood from my property. About 3 to 4 face cord for the year.

Steve

 

[racecougar]

Mine is much less than I thought it would be. This shop is 3x the size as my last one and it costs me much less to heat it during the winter months. The 2x6 construction and better insulation definitely paid off.

Ditto. After building my current shop with a focus on good insulation (R-19 walls and ~R-55 in the ceiling), my eyes have been opened to just how much insulation truly matters. Here in MO, I'm able to cool a 21,400 cubic foot space with two little 5kW window units, and I heat it with a combination of a dual-head propane tank top heater to get it up to temp and a little 5kW electric heater to maintain. That said, I do plan to eventually install a mini-split, mostly for the convenience of having a thermostat. In the meantime, this setup has got me by for the past three years.

 

[Racy2]

Probably around $2,000, 1500 sf. building heated to around 55, gas heater 80,000 btu.
Ontario, Canada

 

[zmotorsports]

Ditto. After building my current shop with a focus on good insulation (R-19 walls and ~R-55 in the ceiling), my eyes have been opened to just how much insulation truly matters. Here in MO, I'm able to cool a 21,400 cubic foot space with two little 5kW window units, and I heat it with a combination of a dual-head propane tank top heater to get it up to temp and a little 5kW electric heater to maintain. That said, I do plan to eventually install a mini-split, mostly for the convenience of having a thermostat. In the meantime, this setup has got me by for the past three years.

Another thing I noticed over the past few years in the new shop is noise level. I thought I had insulated my last shop pretty good but compared to this one I guess not. In my last shop I also had a 4'x4' room that was also insulated to house my air compressor. In the winter with the doors closed I could still hear the air compressor outside the shop.

In my new shop the air compressor is in the RV/storage bay and I can barely hear it in the shop portion with only a wall separating it from the shop. Outside of the shop it cannot be heard at all. While working in my shop in the warmer months I love having the doors open but I can hear cars/trucks/tractors driving by on the road just outside of our subdivision. However, in the cooler months when the doors are closed it is deathly quiet in the shop with no outside noises making their way into the shop.

When my neighbor was building his shop over the past year or so he asked me several times what I used to insulate it because of how quiet it is inside. Last night they were working in their shop using power tools and as I was walking around my shop checking things over before the storm was to hit I could just barely hear their routers and saws going in their shop when I stood directly next to the fence where their shop is. I am glad we both opted to heavily insulate so we don't have to listen to either of the other one.

 

[racecougar]

Same story here. Insulation is key!

 

[Hobby_Man22]

Same story here. Insulation is key!

Yeah all the insulation companies I talked to sounded kind of sketchy when it came to their answers about keeping noise inside the building. Went ahead and did it myself and used r30 Rockwool on the walls abd roof and someone can be using an air powered die grinder inside and you really can't hear anything outside the property line. I doubt the neighbors hear anything from across the road unless they are standing at their fence with their hands couped to their ears. Not only does it keep noise in it also absorbs the noise inside the shoo so it's quieter inside. I was inside a shop with spray foam and omg it was like being inside a tin can.

 

[nadogail]

Location, Location and Location. Some mornings I turn on the 5 KW ELECTRIC heater for a few minutes. With all those solar panels I don’t feel the cost.

 

[Michigan Mike]

I take issue with the thought that if I heat with wood my cost is zero. The amount of time spent cutting splitting stacking has to count for something. But then again I enjoy it being outside and I don't have a gym membership. Maybe it all balances out? Plus I really like wood heat.

 

[Jackfre]

I use a three of the hundred pound cylinders of lp per winter. I rarely leave the heat on overnight and only if I am doing a finish job that requires the temp. My EX38 Rinnai takes about 10-15 min to make my 1000 sq ft shop 60+ degrees. Leaving the heat off overnight in our coldest temps, 20*f the shop will cool off to about 46-48 overnight. It was a new build 6 yrs ago so well built/insulated.

 

[yelchevelle]

Y’all need to put location and/or climate info. This is an awesome thread btw.

I live in Birmingham, Alabama. Shop is 2200 sq ft. uninsulated block. Plan on putting sheet metal on ceiling and insulating ceiling and sealing all holes. Right now, the weeks with high in mid 50’s, lows in low 40’s, costs about 20-30 bucks a week in propane to maintain 50+*. I only do that if I am doing something that needs to stay warm. I am hoping that once I can get it sealed/insulated, I can maintain 50* all winter for 40-60 bucks a month in the winter.

edit to add, humidity is the thing I want to seal more out even more than temperature

 

[zmotorsports]

Y’all need to put location and/or climate info. This is an awesome thread btw.

I live in Birmingham, Alabama. Shop is uninsulated block. Plan on

Northern Utah. Temperature swings from single digits (sometimes sub-zero but infrequent) to triple digits in the summer, 100-degree temperature swings.

 

[toyotadriver]

Under $200 but it depends on propane prices.

 

[zmotorsports]

I had to change my vote because I read it wrong. For some reason I thought it was a month, not over the entire season. Still however, I spend less than my last shop and less than $500 a season on the shop alone.

 

[finn]

Last winter I burned about 575 gallons of propane. The pre buy price was $1.36, but I blew through that prior to the spring fill, so the cost was about $775.

That’s keeping 2640 sf , with two large overhead doors, three man doors, and five windows of about 4x4’ and a 16’ ceiling at 42 degrees and bumping it to 51 degrees daily for an hour for The November to April time period. We’re not at the shop during most of the winter, and keep it at about 60-65 in the shoulder season when I am working.

I stopped doing the temperature bump this year, and have used 236 gallons so far, but the propane pre buy price increased to $1.85. Cost so far is thus about $436, and we’re about half way through the season, so I expect to come in at around 480 gallons, and $875, depending on price after I exhaust the pre-buy.

The shop is 2x6 construction, with radiant in floor heat, a 95% efficient condensing boiler, supplemented by a Beacon Morris 82% efficient hanging heater that I use to bring the base temperature up when I am working.

For reference, it was -14 degrees last night, but it rose to a whopping zero by 9:00 am. It’s 61 here in Tucson today.

 

[65ranchero]

It's hard to quantify my shop radiant floor heat usage since it is a separate zone on the boiler.
The boiler has to run anyway to keep the wife warm ( and me)
Shop is kept at 58F all winter.
my guess is around $200 extra a year (maybe more)

 

[landrover bodger]

as my garage is 18x18 i mostly work outside so dont often heat it . heating is an electric space heater that gets used a few times a year if i am working inside .

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Thank you everyone for the responses so far and those yet to come. I expect that costs will vary widely depending upon location and shop size. I was mostly interested in how much GJ’ers are willing/inclined to spend to keep their work/hobby/hangout spaces usable during the cold weather.

 

[engineer2]

I'm guessing well under $100 per year. It's on the house natural gas. William wall furnace. Set to 50° unless I'm out there, which is 1 or 2 days a week in the winter. Then I bump it to 62° or so.

 

[u2slow]

My ceiling isn't finished or insulated, so it would be a waste trying to heat at all.

 

[jetnow1]

Central CT 24 by 30. 2x4 construction with blown in cellulose and 1 inch foam on outside of sheathing, approx r 20.
2 by 10 ceiling/attic floor joists with blown in cellulose also. Heat and cool with a mini split, heat is kept at 64. Costs about 50 to 100 a month in cold months. Well worth it.

 

[HPRifleman]

This winter's natural gas prices makes it impossible to compare cost to last winter when I didn't have a garage. But looking at just usage charts it looks like there is only a slight uptick.

 

[finn]

You really have to sort this by climate zone to make any sense of it.

I posted what my shop in far North Upper Michigan costs. My garage in Tucson costs zero to heat. I think it got down to 28 degrees for an hour so far this winter, and most days are in the sixties or seventies.
On the other hand, my shop in the UP costs zero to air conditioner in tha summer. Large doors and high ceilings allow plenty of airflow.

The garage here in Tucson would need four months of air conditioning to work comfortably in the spring and summer.

In addition to my shop up north, I have a second, more reasonable sized garage there, 32x54’, with lower ceilings that I can heat. It has the same 75k btu heater, but I only use that to supplement the wood stove. It doesn’t have a separate propane tank, and I rarely use the propane.

The wood has been free so far, and the chainsaws, splitter don’t count since they’re tools, and nobody here considers tools an expense, do they?

Only issue there is I abhor taking out and disposing the ashes.

 

[u2slow]

The wood has been free so far, and the chainsaws, splitter don’t count since they’re tools, and nobody here considers tools an expense, do they?

Only issue there is I abhor taking out and disposing the ashes.

Ya, I would have my small chainsaw regardless - even if I didn't burn wood. I still split all my home-heating wood by 8# maul.

I shovel out the ashes every 2 weeks or so into a steel bucket. Sprinkle it out in the yard - mix it with other fill - where I'm trying to build up an area to flatten it off.

 

[tjansson]

I heat when I'll be spending more than an hour in there. I burn wood, probably about 1/2 cord in the garage. Some of it is from my land, some is delivered as logs @ $100 per cord. Going rate is about $250 per cord seasoned firewood, not that I buy it like that but if you count my labor and overhead, I "spend" about $100 a season to heat once or twice a week.

 

[kwb]

Seattle Area - put myself in the <$500 range but that is very dependent on what I am working on and at best an estimate since it is all metered with the house. Lately my projects have been more at the boat than in the shop so fewer days to run the heat.

36x42x14 - no insulation, no sheetrock.

 

[rburke65]

“It doesn’t cost me much”…..”Less than my last garage, and this one is 3 times as big”…..all these type of answers don’t mean or tell us a damn thing. Ya have to quantify.

 

[niget2002]

This is my first year since moving into the house that I decided to set the heat at 40f all winter. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my last month of electricity for the shop only went up $20. I have a 5 ton 16 SEER heat pump heating 1300sq/ft.

 

[Improved700]

Mine is about $30 per month additional. 25 X 65 building. Heated side is 25 X 35.
10 foot side walls. Only outside door is single entry door. 3 windows.
Natural gas forced air 80,000 BTU furnace.

If the price were to double every month, I still would have it heated.

 

[Flatland Dave]

36 x 48. E. Central South Dakota. In floor. Electric boiler. About $3.00 per day. 55 degrees.

The way I look at it is it costs about a cup of coffee per day.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I have about 700 sq ft attached garage, I use an electric unit heater keep it at 60 most of the time. It's well insulated, try not to use the overhead doors & really haven't noticed much more electric being used, maybe we are using less elseware? 2 kids leaving home has saved a lot!

 

[MushCreek]

Insulating and heating my 900 sq ft shop is on my to-do list. The lowest it's gotten so far this season has been 38 F.- too cold for my old bones. I've discovered that you cannot heat up a 2000 lb. milling machine with your hands. Plans are for R-19 walls and maybe R-30 ceiling, with a mini-split for HVAC. I don't plan to run it 24/7, but I would like to keep it above freezing so I don't have to winterize the plumbing every year.

 

[jasondavidmann]

Southern Manitoba Canada

$700/yr *$0.09/kwh electricity rate*

20x40x12, radiant floor heat, electric boiler

Heat set to a continuous 55F

R40 ceiling, R40 walls, and 4" under the slab and perimeter

 

[HPRifleman]

This is our actual usage for the past two years from our gas company. We added in-floor heat for a 1074 sq. ft. garage and 541 sq. ft. dwelling space last year. The heating system was turned on in October 2021 and has been operating ever since.

Reading Date	CCFs	Therms	Days Used
Dec-21	321	336.72	30
Nov-21	284	297.91	33
Oct-21	76	79.72	30
Sep-21	19	19.93	32
Aug-21	12	12.58	29
Jul-21	11	11.52	30
Jun-21	32	33.53	32
May-21	85	89.08	29
Apr-21	159	166.63	30
Mar-21	235	246.28	29
Mar-21	417	437.01	31
Jan-21	332	348.26	29
Dec-20	310	324.88	30
Dec-20	212	222.17	33
Oct-20	156	163.64	32
Sep-20	21	22.05	30
Aug-20	12	12.6	31
Jul-20	15	15.76	29
Jun-20	18	18.91	30
Jun-20	112	117.6	30
Apr-20	182	191.1	31
Mar-20	242	253.85	31
Mar-20	301	315.44	30
Jan-20​	307	321.42	32​

 

[couch67]

Attached garage 450sq ft, heated with baseboards 4000w. Keep it around 12 C (~55F) and turn it up to around 18 C (65F) when I plan to be in there. Added cost about $30 / month for Dec to Feb, so my estimate is just over $100 per year to heat. Ottawa Ontario.

 

[driftpin]

South Florida, no need for heating, ever. If we get a cold snap, and outside temps descend, a light jacket or a sweatshirt is enough while inside the garage.

As for cooling, the 'shop' is a simple 2-car CBS garage, w/a flat-tile roof. In the summer, I don't cool it. It stays habitable, it's hotter than the AC-cooled house, but it never has gotten hot-enough to prevent me from working in there. Having lived as a young adult in the Rust Belt, I don't care to be there as a resident during the winter. Visits, yes, residency, no.