Understanding BTU's (finding my furnance)

[nonhog]

Hoping someone could tell me if I am on the right track here. My shop is getting close to finished and soon I will be planning electrical and heat.
I am pretty sure I will go with an electric furnance and wood stove . Get to working temp with electric then let the wood stove catch up. It is a pole building 1200 sq ft. with pretty high ceiling which some day will be partial loft.
I may wall off my parking area . So am I on track with 75k btu's ?
I would likely put some cadet style heaters in the loft . My main concern is getting the right furnace . Brands ? purchase from ? take out home furnace ?
whats worked for you ?

 

[CraigFL]

My 2 cents.... 75K BTU sounds OK for a 1200 sq ft insulated home in the north. But... I'm not sure where you're located and we also need to know more details about the insulation and building. High ceilings make it more difficult to evenly distribute the heat as well as give you more heat loss. We also need to know how cool do you like it-- i.e. maybe you don't mind working when it's 50 deg in the shop on those cold days.

You may encounter problems with the high ceiling and heat loss through the roof. It may be 75 in the rafters and 30 on the floor!

A heating contractor would do heat loss calculations for your building in your area and size accordingly. You may be able to find some of this info on-line. What the calculations try to do is show your total BTU/hour heat loss thru your building on the coldest day based on your desired indoor temperature and size the furnace to run continuously for that case.

 

[nonhog]

Good points ! I live near Tacoma (Washington) so its usually cool ,rare for extremes maybe dips in the 20's a few times during our winter .
I plan on insulating but slowly , I'll be broke for awhile I don't mind working around 50 but the older I get the need for warm bones and joints seems to increase ! So until I have it insulated and loft built and ceiling fan or fans added. It would only be o.k. slowly getting better as funds allow .

 

[6768rogues]

I have an 1800 sqft building in western NY, where it gets really cold. I have some insulation but not a lot, two layers of styrofoam on the ceiling and R19 in the walls. My 100000 btu Reznor heater does fine, raising the temperature in short order and maintaining it easily even with the doors occasionally opening and closing. My heater is 80% efficient making its input 100,000 btu and output 80,000 btu. An electric furnace is very close to 100% efficient, so your output will be almost the same as mine.

 

[Franz©]

Uninsulated steel building = heat exchanger.

You are only blocking wind, and you will need one hell of a lot of BTUs.
If you just put up 6 mil poly 8" back from the steel and seal it up, and a poly ceiling across the bottom of the trusses you have a chance of heating the space, but you don't stand a chance with just a steel shell.

 

[12gauge]

make sure you plan ahead so you dont end up with a sweat box like me. Im just north of you & i built in stages & now that i've added insulation & drywall the inside of the siding is completely soaked with water & so is the insulation now with condensation.

dont ask me the right way, i can only tell you the wrong way.

 

[jklingel]

Suggestion

that 75K but furnace sounds pretty light-duty for your situation. perhaps do some research on hearth.com, the boilerroom section in particular. tons of info there. too, insulate, insulate.