Heater

rusty428cj

rusty428cj

Rusty Gillis
I can't go through another winter without a heater. What is a good heater that will heat up a 2400 sq ft shop and not blow up when I paint? I have a space heater in the office but can't get any work done from there.

Thanks
 
a quick rule of thumb is 30-35 btu's of OUTPUT per square foot of heated space.(depending on insulation, windows, etc this will change but for our purposes it is a good ball park estimate)

Lets say you are looking at a unit that is listed as 100k input and has a 90% efficiency, that will be 90k output. Just about what you will need to do more than take the chill off and actually heat the area.
 
The pump will heat your shop fine untill you turn on the ex. fan and that is when you'll need some serrious heat input as there is no way the pump with ele strip heat can keep up if it's in the 40's or lower.I have my "booth" inside my shop and use a diesel torpedo style heater running in the shop to reheat the air being pulled into the booth thru filters.This way,the fumes are contained in the booth and exausted and the shop air is seperate and reheated as it enters the booth.I shut the torpedo off when mixing or cleaning so's not to have any accidents during this stage.I've been doing it this way for years now and it's really about the only way I know of to crank out a LOT of heat quickly without spending a fortune for gas or electricty using "conventional" style HVAC units.
Just check the BTU input on actual paint booth heaters.Then figure how much that will cost ya.OUCH!!!! Their like 500K to 1 million btu's
You have to consider that ANY conventional HVAC unit has whats called a temperature rise or,in other words,how much heat is produced from intake to supply air temp. Depending on how their "set up" you can achieve up to 60* rise from the intake,especially with gas furnaces.Heat pumps are another story as their dependent on the OUTSIDE ambient temp as well as the INDOOR along with how much ele.strip heat you have which is rated in KW's and 1 heat strip generally = 5,000 watts which = approx. 20 amps.You have 20 KW worth of strips and you looking at 80+ amps with single phase service which will make you ele meter spin off the wall when on full blast.I have a 2 1/2 ton pump with 10 KW strips and it does fine heating IN GENERAL in my 30 X 40 shop but when I turn on the ex.fan and open a window,it goes quick and the torpedo is the only source I have,no nat gas,and no way can the pump & strips keep up.
You could dedicate a gas furnace TO just the booth pulling in SHOP air and discharging INTO the booth and likely get by but trying to heat the whole shop AND the paint booth would not cut it unless you WAY oversized it and your gas bill would be thru the roof.Yeah, Diesel ain't cheap either now BUT,You get close to 100% effency and you only run it as needed for painting/drying.
Oh BTW,
MERRY CHRISTMAS.
 
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Mike k knows his stuff, he advised me through my whole project of heating and air installation.

Of course we don't have a paint booth to worry about and I never thought of that.

Thanks for the advice, Mike and merry Christmas.
 
i've used the torpedo for years. it burns farm diesel and i have never had an issue. my40x60x12 stays toasty even running the booth. with the booth off i have to turn it off after about 5 min. i've shot paint at 9 degrees outside with the booth at 75.
 
I'm thinking about getting a torpedo but what about fumes and doesn't residue get on the parts you are painting causing problems?
 
never had that problem rusty. they burn pretty clean. just dont try to readjust it. i've bought several that worked like crap because someone took a screwdriver to it.

and NEVER let it run out !!! smoke city .
 
mine holds 15 gals and would burn for 2-3 days i guess. my small one holds 5 gals and will run a day and a half. but rarely will they run all the time. they also make them to run on propane. the small one sets outside the booth while i'm shooting.
 
I have a thermostat that works with a torpedo heater. If you have any type of insulation at all, it makes a big difference, as the thing runs only to bring the temp up and maintain. I don't have a booth as such, but I do have a separate room for painting. The heated air comes from the main garage area thru a vent. That way I am not really worried about fumes around the heater. With a fan blowing the heated air into the paint room, it forces the fumes out any other opening, since it is positive pressure that way.

Being in Florida, how much heat can you need? LOL

My dad lives in Cape Coral and complains about how cold it is when the temp reaches 80 deg. LOL

Aaron
 
I use a torpedo heat as well. It is an older Master Heater with 150,000 BTU. Shine is right about people trying to adjust them. Mine wasn't running right and I found that the spray nozzle is supposed to be replaced every year. (been 20 years on mine) I bought new filters and spray nozzle for a little over $30 and installed them. Had to reset the pump pressure because in my zeal to get it running better I had tried messing with the pressure control and it was actually spitting fuel out the front while running.
The pressure setting is ultra critical and they recommend no more than .1 variance from specs. Mine was running at 11 psi and was supposed to be at 5.0 psi.
The Kerosene models will run on diesel but they tend to produce more fumes with diesel.
My plan is to eventually insulate the rest of the garage and put some drywall up. Then I'll invest in a better heater.
 
it's the die that smells. i've run road diesel and it is not as bad. but the smell is not worth paying the road tax on it. propane would be the cleanest but the price is as bad as diesel . i've thought of replacing mine one day with a good propane heater in the shop . not sure until i do a lot of research. i use farm diesel in a lot of stuff.
 
I had been using a propane heater and compared to the diesel heaters it was way cleaner burning, paint booth was on one side of the building drawing air thru a large duct from the work area and it kept the booth at a really nice temp while the other side did cool down some but not to bad.
 
I am trying to get a used propane house furnace. I was thinking that might be a "cheap" alternative and provide some clean heat. It will heat the garage outside the booth area and the booth fans draw from the garage air and force it through the booth and outside.
 
what i found was a propane torpedo will burn a 20 lb bottle in 8 hrs. on diesel it will burn 5 gals in 10 hrs or so. propane is considerably higher in cost to operate so i'm waiting to find a propane heater that is more efficient to operate. i've had gas heat in my shop before and it almost broke me .
 
Shine dont they also make them that will run off of Natural gas as well as propane?? I want to look into that when the day comes and I build my shop here.. I already have a furnace and a/c set up from a resturant that burnt down.. But when painting in winter months, I know the heat cant keep up with exhausting air.. So I want to get a natural gas torpedo heater because I assume them to have much less fumes.. I run a 100 something thousand btu kerosene torpedo and sometimes the smell is awful!!

One thing I have also noticed about these torpedo heaters.. Buy a new one and it barely stinks.. Run it the next year and you will notice a much much stronger smell in the air.. As the years go by the smell usually worsens in my opinion.. Maybe its the spray nozzle needing to be replaced..I dunno.. I took one of mine to a shop to have it serviced to fix the smell, however it smells as bad as it did before hand.. I retired it and bought a new one lol couple years later and it stinks pretty bad too :)

Oh and just in case any of you wonder..... Yes I run mine when painting in the winter.. right beside the car.. fumes and all...

I heat.. Turn off to spray clear.. Exhaust and as soon as it begins to drop significantly in temp I fire up the torpedo even if there is a ton of fumes floating around in the air.. I have always done this.. May sound crazy, its how I first did it many moons ago and back then my father in law gave me some reason or another as to why it would not ignite any fumes.. I dont remember why, but he was confident and he was right.. As a matter of fact he was the one to suggest the torpedo heater to me back then.. Good times good times

http://www.heater-store.com/forced_air_natural_gas_137_ctg.htm

http://www.masterheaters.com/natural/ForcedAir.html
 
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the spray nozzle and pump have to be replaced every so often. i run farm diesel in mine and the smell is not that bad. beats freezing . i live at the tail end of where the hell are we road so there is no ng around here. cost has kept me from changing. been here 13 years now and things have been ok. when it's that cold i just do something else.
 
I hang a piece of filter media on the INTAKE end of the torpedo which catches quite a lot of crap being sucked into the heater,which may cause some of the "smell" as well.I've been running mine on regular diesel and I've had no sooting issues so far.However,when there are residual fumes left from gun cleaning or such or in BK's case,clear solvents,it will smell from burning them.Yes,the heaters adjustment IS critical on how well it burns as well as the front deflector plate,which helps burn the fuell.Mine smells a "little" initally,but once that plate starts to glow,it's as good as it gets.I've not seen a nat gas one but they may have such.Propane units do fine BUT,unless it has a low pressure cut off,when the tank gets low,it will soot up the place like crazy.
One "tip" with the diesel units is to run some diesel Stabil in it before putting it away.The old diesel will slightly gel as diesel does and this is what fouls up the pump,screen and nozzle.
As far as causing an explosion or flash fire,THAT will depend on the concentration of fumes in the area.There is a rating level for the product involved on the MSDS sheet IIR.Now,"how" you measure that is a good question,I just error on the side of caution because I figure this will be a self-correcting problem.LOL...
BE SAFE!!!.
 
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