personal space heater

[K-Dog]

I dont know where this is going to get more traffic, here or elsewhere.

Its not even winter yet and my shop is already uncomfortable. It has heat, but the peak of the ceiling is a good thirty feet up. At least. Big concrete slab for a floor. Gaping holes in all four bay doors. Owner and landlord do not get along. Office is nice and toasty so odds are slim any thing big or significant will be done to make this shop comfortable to work in.

I have a personal heater which heats real well in a six or eight inch radius of the heater, but that is obviously not going to get me through the winter.

I want to find a nice hater that has enough balls to fill a work area and is safe for an autobody shop. I would prefer electric, due to the fact I will be on my own with regard to cost.

Any ideas ?

 

[K-Dog]

This is the one I currently have....

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005S4N3UC/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[sourdough]

Once again, the OP does not state the square footage, the insulation, and what your average and overall low OATs are in your area. That would help a bunch.

If you have the enormous air gaps that you stated, good luck.

 

[Milton Shaw]

You need to get what heat you have in there down from that 30 foot high ceiling. A couple of ceiling fans would make a big difference in comfort. Any heat you generate in there is going straight to the ceiling and not going to heat you at all. A radiant heater might work to keep you warm and not waste the heat at the ceiling.

 

[CNGsaves]

Heated jacket . . . . . and glue a rubber strip below those leaky doors.

 

[malibu101]

I
I want to find a nice hater that has enough balls to fill a work area and is safe for an autobody shop. I would prefer electric, due to the fact I will be on my own with regard to cost.

Any ideas ?

I guess I don't have to tell you and others that respond here that you have 2 basic options to build off of.
Electric or vented combustion. Since anything else would put "bad" things in the air in a bodyshop enviroment.

Would the owner let you cut holes to run vents and place whatever fuel tank onsite for combustion heat?
Do you have a big enough electric service if you want to go all electric?

Many more details are needed of what you have and need to do.

Also, like was mentioned, fans to get the hot air down from 30' will be a big help no matter how you heat.
And is there any way to fill the gaps anything better than they are now? Even rubber flaps (like rubber roofing material) to keep breezes from blowing through will be huge help no matter what.

 

[Garage Josh]

Should you have ceiling fans blowing down or blowing up toward the ceiling? I always thought it was the latter for winter months so you don't have the fans cooling effect, but pulling the air through the room and down the walls by pushing up.

 

[K-Dog]

I guess what I am asking is impossible.
I am not investing my personal money into the shop. I have asked my boss countless times to seal the doors, or get some ceiling fans. In many ways he is a fantastic boss, in many ways he is a complete ***. I just want to heat the area in which I am working. Kinda like those blowers you use in the summer time, cept with heat.

As far as square footage, three stalls wide so thats thirty feet ? and maybe four stalls deep. So sixty feet four bay doors ( two front two rear ) fifteen feet maybe. Little to no insulation.
Its a lease deal, so the property owner could care less about my comfort as long as she gets paid every month. My boss cares but is not interested in investing in a building he doesnt own. I dont see either willing to change so I am on my own.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Should you have ceiling fans blowing down or blowing up toward the ceiling? I always thought it was the latter for winter months so you don't have the fans cooling effect, but pulling the air through the room and down the walls by pushing up.

In most environments you want the fans to blow down. In a shop situation, with a open framework/truss/girders, having a ceiling fan blowing up would do nothing but **** your heat away from you, even faster than it could rise on its own. If its in a house, or possibly a shop, with little to nothing on the walls to block flow, a room of limited size, and a low, flat ceiling, a upward blowing fan MIGHT work at moving air up and out and back down the walls.

Charles

 

[dsimatt]

Its hard for what you want, last winter i tried a couple different electric heaters for just in the garage stuff and honestly they are a joke and i returned both. I got a mrheater big buddy that puts out some heat but they you have a flame and the fuel supply issues and i also got a torpedo heater to make the garage nice and warm.

This heater here might be something to try http://www.costco.com/Presto®-HeatDish®-Plus-Parabolic-Heater.product.100142330.html as it aims the heat at you and doesn't try to heat the area up so that may be a option.

 

[chipper]

Should you have ceiling fans blowing down or blowing up toward the ceiling? I always thought it was the latter for winter months so you don't have the fans cooling effect, but pulling the air through the room and down the walls by pushing up.

I've always heard in the winter the fans blow up to circulate the heat...it also may have something to do with most houses having the registers on the floor...a shop may be different

 

[Heavymetalmechanic]

For your person situation it sounds like you are stuck with few options. I use a heated vest I fashioned out of a soiled Milwaukee heated jacket when I'm out on service calls in barns and sheds. Because of the fire hazard with bodywork you are pretty much out of luck. Do you have 230V outlets? A electric construction heater is all I can sugest.

 

[BDT/NWMN]

Big barn being rented for work that it is not designed for.... No funding provisions intended to perform upgrades...........

So Buy yourself some warm/or and heated clothes, a small electric heater and a good extension cord....

 

[K-Dog]

*sigh*
Yup.
I guess it is what it is.

Long johns and extra socks.

 

[pseudorealityx]

The only reasonable heater choice is radiant. It will heat anything it 'sees'. But how much energy you get diminishes quickly based on distance. It's also typically a flame source, and being an autobody shop, you're probably likely to have some volatile fumes in there, which would scare me a way from that.

 

[danfromsyr]

you'll never heat all of the air to a comfortable temperature

you need a radiant heater that shines on you. like a french fry heat lamp.

they make quite the variety of these as safe (relatively) quartz heaters.
https://www.google.com/search?q=qua...&sa=X&ei=84ZrVJivGYOfyASMsYEQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg

the parabolic ones are small and shine brightly
https://www.google.com/search?q=qua...a=X&ei=godrVNmoDcy2yAT9pYLIAQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg