Need some help choosing a heat source. It's a 40x60x15 pole building located in Maryland so we have mild winters. Insulation r40 blown in the ceiling and r19 faced batts in the walls, 2 12x14 insulated doors, 6 double hung windows and one man door. My 2 heating options are wood furnace or hanging 125,000 btu heater. I will mostly be using the shop nights and weekends the doors will stay shut most of the time not constantly opening and closing. Only looking to keep the temp comfortable to me that's 50's maybe 60 at most. I have 16 acres with plenty of wood to supply a wood furnace but there will be a few day a week I wouldn't not be able to feed a wood stove. So I was leaning towards hanging propane heater but I'm not sure how much propane would cost to keep the shop at 50 all the time. Propane is around 3.14 gal delivered. Already spoke with insurance company I can have a wood furnace so that's a non issue. Anyone have a shop my size using wood or propane with input would be great.
I have virtually the exact same setup. And I'm also in MD. I did a Reznor 125k. Best move I ever made. Most efficient heater on market. And it's compact compared to Modine units. I bought a 100gal propane tank from gas company. They sell me propane for $1.29/gal delivered. I keep mine at the same temp you are talking about and use my building in the same manner you're describing. Last year was the first full winter with heater. They refilled me once. So I didn't even go through 2 tanks of propane. Couple hundred bucks and kept entire garage perfect all through the cold months. I have diesel stuff, sideXsides, motorcycles etc etc that I like to keep at 50-55 deg. That's all I need. And if I want to go in there and hang on the couch and watch a game or something, I'll kick it up to 64 or something and it's warm fast. The best place to get these heater from is a site called Total Home Supply. They ship out of jersey so MD gets quick delivery. Free shipping. Reznor UDAP 125k, quick sling mount kit, propane conversion kit, and horizontal exhaust pipe kit. Total is like $1300 roughly. Maybe $1400. Great deal, awesome unit. I recommend horizontal exhaust out side wall instead of ceiling. Cutting holes in ceiling is always much riskier. I just piped out the back corner side wall. I have a $20 thermostat on the wall to control it.
Now I'm adding onto my 40x60. Being built now. Since the 125kbtu by everyone's calculations is a bit oversized for a 40x60, I'm just going to cut a 9x9 hole in the wall for a walk through to the new side and let the heater heat that too! I debated on heating the new portion separately but my current 100gal tank doesn't have the pressure to supply 2 heaters. So I'd have to buy yet another propane tank for the new heater and it was overkill I think. So we'll see how the 125k works for heating the new 30x40x16 in addition to the existing 40x60x12.
I too did r40 blown in attic and then r19 in walls. I finished the walls w bright white metal. LED lights from sams and a couple 80" fans from Home Depot on ceiling.
By the way, I have some land too and essentially free wood for life. I seriously considered the woodstove thing too but just wasn't practical as you always have to keep adding wood. And good quality big output wood stoves are $5000 installed easily.
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