Shop Floor Heat

[bleazenb]

Ok have quite a decision to make on the cost vs benefits of my heating choice in my new shop. I just price materials for the in floor option. Heated shop floor will be 28' x 40' of my 40 x 56 new barn. 35 sheets of 2' insulation board @ $25 each = $875. 1100 feet of 1/2 pex tubing is $325.00 for a total of $1200. Not including manifold, water heater, pump and other materials to get the system up and running. My question is because I'm on a barn building budget. Would I be better off taking the $1200 and putting it in spray foaming the walls and using conventional force air propane furnance. If I went with the in floor option I was limited to using bat insulation in the walls and blown in above the ceiling, due to budget.

 

[Highbeam]

Do what you can when you can. In all cases, insulate the slab. You will only have this one chance to insulate the slab and also this one chance to put in the tubing.

Nothing wrong with FG for the walls and ceiling. I don't buy into the spray foam fad unless there is only a limited thickness to get a required R-value. Foam is exceedingly expensive.

Right now I have a 30x60 barn with an insulated slab and 1800 LF of tubing in it. As I save my pennies I will progressively finish the insulation and drywall job. Also, as I save my pennies, I will finish the floor heating job. In the meantime, I heat with portable propane heaters.

Oh and for pete's sake, insulate and run tubing in the entire slab. Divide the areas into zones so that you can heat some areas more than others if you like.

 

[jrz]

It is real hard to add the pex after the floor is poured. I went with infloor heat and spray foam, 1 1/2" in the walls, and then batts, great building.

 

[Stuart in MN]

It depends somewhat on how you will be using the shop. If you're going to be out there every day in-floor heat is great, but if you're only going to work in the shop on weekends and plan on turning the heat down the rest of the time it may not be the best choice. The thing about in-floor heat is it takes quite a while to warm up, so it's not like you can walk in the door, turn up the thermostat and be ready to go in a few minutes.

Also, it helps to know where you're located, since heating requirement are different from San Diego to Fairbanks.

 

[skeletonizer]

I put the insulation and tube in the floor and due to the cost had to wait three years to finally get heat in there.

It was worth the wait. In floor radiant vs. forced air in a garage is like the difference between Sophia Vergara and Rosie O'Donnell . They are both funny women with brown hair... who would you rather spend time with?

 

[93L#3008]

If you were to do it all yourself what will be your total cost for everything. $1,200 for tubing and insulation. How much do you expect all other components to be?

 

[aafc1]

I put just a hanging reznor heater at 125'000 btu and I walk in on a cold weekend and turn the heat up to 75. The air is nice and warm but I can only work for about a half hour because my feet are numb! If I had it to do all over again I would put the floor heat in. And yes I'm only a weekend warrior.

 

[bleazenb]

I just updated my location so everyone will know where I'm at in reference to the heating question. I also will be spending time out there doing family car maintenance, and restoring John Deere farm and lawn and garden equipment. I'm just not sure I want the lag heat up time the floor heat provides. I'm use to keeping my old shop a 30 x 32, at 45 degrees all winter and bumping up the gas forced air furnace to 60 when I was working in the shop. The old shop as on a concrete slab with no insulation underneath it. But it did have well insulated walls and ceiling and was heated with a 120,000 btu forced air furnace.

 

[jack stand]

I'm in my 1st shop with radiant heat. I use a wood fired boiler for the heat source and I can not explain the comfort of radiant heat over warm air, not to mention the heating costs. Radiant slab does not react quickly so you set it and forget it. As for your insulation, it's well spent money. I had a large project and bought used insulation from an outfit called "Insulation Depot", they like to sell by the tractor trailer load but you can use any extra in your walls. I put 3" of ISO foam in the walls (2 layers of 1 1/2') and foamed in each layer for a good "air seal" and still have room for r-13 fg insul. Even at your $800 dollar range, I'd go for it, even if you never hook up the tubing (the pex tubing install is a no brainer) If you plan on a decent ceiling height (over 8-9') with hot air, it all rises up to where you are not, (what I learned on my last shop). Using ceiling fans at 60 or so deg. only makes for a cold draft trying to push/circulate the warm air back down to the lower living space.

 

[911mike]

I just built a 40 x 70 stick built barn. I have a 24 x 24 workshop in one corner of the barn. I made that a seperate pour and installed infloor heat in that area. It's the best desision I ever made during the build. The walls have R-19+ and the ceiling is R-45 and I keep the room at 60 all winter for about $75.00 a month. One of the walls has a 10 X 8 garage door (R-14) which leads to the unheated area of the barn so that is my largest heat loss. No more cold floors to roll around on. The rest of the barn will get r-19 on the walls and R-45 in the ceiling and that will heat with a force air 125,000 BTU unit heater so IF i need to work it there I can. Do the infoor heat!

 

[dirttracker18]

+1 on prepping for the in floor. It was 2 years before I got the system hooked up but well worth the wait. In the mean time, I can to the realization of how much difference insulating the slab made. Even if I had no plans for in floor heat I will always insulate my slab now, garage, home, whatever. Well worth the comfort level.

 

[jlckmj]

I'm use to keeping my old shop a 30 x 32, at 45 degrees all winter and bumping up the gas forced air furnace to 60 when I was working in the shop. The old shop as on a concrete slab with no insulation underneath it. But it did have well insulated walls and ceiling and was heated with a 120,000 btu forced air furnace.

After reading the above, I say go with in floor. You are in an area that is mild compared to our friends in Alaska or Canada. If you are going to run the heat all the time anyway, you may as well have it in the floor! 50 degrees is actually a nice temperature if it is under your feet.

If you are heating the air to 50 degrees now, I would bet you could heat a shop the same size for half the money with a properly insulated floor and good radiant heat system. My buddies shop is much more comfortable than mine at the same temperature, I have to use fans to circulate the heated air that is trapped at the ceiling, he does not.

Radiant warms the whole shop including the concrete, not just the air in it.
(check out the heat and ac section of the board, you will read for days)

Jim

 

[tdkkart]

One word applies to heating the floor..........COMFORT.

 

[hockey88fan]

I just built a 40 x 70 stick built barn. I have a 24 x 24 workshop in one corner of the barn. I made that a seperate pour and installed infloor heat in that area. It's the best desision I ever made during the build. The walls have R-19+ and the ceiling is R-45 and I keep the room at 60 all winter for about $75.00 a month. One of the walls has a 10 X 8 garage door (R-14) which leads to the unheated area of the barn so that is my largest heat loss. No more cold floors to roll around on. The rest of the barn will get r-19 on the walls and R-45 in the ceiling and that will heat with a force air 125,000 BTU unit heater so IF i need to work it there I can. Do the infoor heat!

What is the heat source for your radiant? $75 per month not bad at all.

 

[911mike]

I have a 7kw on demand electric heater. Gas would be less to operate electric was easy. Savings would be about $100 a season for gas but to run gas lines it was going to cost 300+ so I went electric. When I turn on the lights and run the TV those generate a lot of heat too. Today it raised from 60 to 68 after working out there for 8 hours.