Installed a Diesel Heater

[Randy Anderson]

For years I've used a small Mr. Heater Big Buddy propane heater to heat my shop along with an electric heater when needed. It's been a good solution for most days but had a few drawbacks. Chasing propane refills can be a hassle, when we have severe weather of near 0 deg with snow and ice like last week the local suppliers can run out of propane and it can be fairly slow at getting up to a comfortable temp when it's really cold outside. Plus the electric heaters are a big drain on my shop power and can lead to tripping breakers when I power up another machine. I decided to install a diesel heater in my shop and so far it seems to be going well. Time will tell. It did mean another hole in my shop wall for the exhaust and finding a place for it in my small shop wasn't easy. I'm hoping it will give me a better and more efficient way of keeping the shop warm, especially when we get long periods of well below freezing temps with wind chill below 0. Not sure if anyone else uses one for their shop but for the price it seemed worth a shot. My tractor runs on diesel so I usually have plenty on hand.

 

[hockenbery]

Sounds great. I’m sure you have a CO alarm. Be sure you can hear it where you work with machines running.
keep an eye on the vent regularly too.

Every hurricane we get people dying from running generators in garages and some were thought to be vented.

 

[Randy Anderson]

Yep, have two CO detectors in the shop. One near the heater.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I have to assume that when you say "diesel heater" you mean a fuel oil burner and not a diesel engine. The oil burner should fire into a heat exchanger exhausted to a chimney and air in the shop would be passed over the heat exchanger with a small fan assist, thereby keeping the products of combustion out of the work area.
In my previous shop I had a sealed off room for the lathe and a few other tools heated by a natural gas fired hanging heater and that was set up the same as what an oil burner would be, except for the chimney for gas has to have a SS liner because of the acidic nature of the exhaust.
In the MSP metro area that I used to live in we could get temperatures down to -30F, but where I currently live 200 miles to the north we have seen lows to -40F/C.

 

[Randy Anderson]

Don, it's one of those self contained units you see all over Amazon and YouTube these days. Like many things from China now. Made by one or two mfg I think but sold under many different names. Small all in one packages. Initially designed for campers and RVs by a German company years ago. A glow plug in a combustion chamber with a heat exchanger and fan around it. Simple machines but very efficient at burning Diesel.

 

[JeffSmith]

These have been available in the marine market for decades - a great solution to heating a cabin, particularly if your auxiliary power is diesel. I’ve thought about putting one in the shop, think I’ll do a little research and see what’s available

 

[Randy Anderson]

Jeff, it did a great job over the winter taking the chill off in the shop and keeping it comfortable. I ended up dedicating a 5 gallon yellow plastic diesel can as a fuel tank. It will go a very very long time on that much diesel. I run it on the lowest setting. There's a kit you can get for just a few $ that comes with the pieces (cap, hose and stiff siphon tube) to adapt a can to be a fuel tank. I knew it was inevitable that me trying to refill the small built in tank was going to lead to a messy and smelly spill.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I use a propane patio heater in the winter. Half of my garage has a 20ft ceiling, so I feel comfortable running it indoors (so to speak) for short periods. Typically I will turn it on, let it run until the temp gets up around 60 degrees, then turn it off and get to work. Not preferred, but it's what I have at hand.

With the higher temps this summer, I'm thinking about A/C for the shop, too.

 

[Randy Anderson]

Kent, I put in a small window AC unit in my shop a couple years ago. Works great. I looked at the mini split systems that are popular now but the cost was a bit much. I did have to cut an opening in my shop wall to slide the AC unit into but not that hard. I also tried one of the self contained indoor units that exhaust to the outside. That was a big fail. The exhaust hose generated a ton of heat back into the shop, it took up too much floor space and was in the way all the time. It also just could not keep up when the temps got high outside.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I appreciate that perspective. I was just looking at the combo air/heat standalone units. I'll have to cut a hole in the garage for a window unit, but that shouldn't be a big problem. Fortunately, I have hardie-board siding (cement, sand, cellulose) and not brick.

 

[robo hippy]

I use a wood stove in my shop to keep it tolerable in the winter, which is rather mild here, only below freezing a few times during the winter. My son in law lives in Maine, and has frequent power outages. Maybe it is a whole different animal, but he mentioned getting a propane fueled generator since they have propane at the house. Never heard of one of those before. Anyone know?

robo hippy

 

[Jim Byrne]

I use a wood stove in my shop to keep it tolerable in the winter, which is rather mild here, only below freezing a few times during the winter. My son in law lives in Maine, and has frequent power outages. Maybe it is a whole different animal, but he mentioned getting a propane fueled generator since they have propane at the house. Never heard of one of those before. Anyone know?

robo hippy

Onan makes them--6500 watt is the biggest. I am sure other manufactures also make them also.
I had some friends that used a propane generator for many years, since the lived just beyond the power grid.

 

[Mark Fairchild]

After dealing with a window unit for one summer I installed a splitter system. Best move I ever made for air conditioning the 30’x17’ shop. We had 100+ temps last summer for weeks. I have a wood stove for heat only because I like a wood stove.

 

[Brian Gustin]

I use a wood stove in my shop to keep it tolerable in the winter, which is rather mild here, only below freezing a few times during the winter. My son in law lives in Maine, and has frequent power outages. Maybe it is a whole different animal, but he mentioned getting a propane fueled generator since they have propane at the house. Never heard of one of those before. Anyone know?

robo hippy

Look for a tri-fuel generator (or a gas generator and tri-fuel kit) they can run on regular gasoline or Propane OR Natural gas, all with the same engine.

 

[Russell Nugent]

I use a wood stove in my shop to keep it tolerable in the winter, which is rather mild here, only below freezing a few times during the winter. My son in law lives in Maine, and has frequent power outages. Maybe it is a whole different animal, but he mentioned getting a propane fueled generator since they have propane at the house. Never heard of one of those before. Anyone know?

robo hippy

Lots of those at remote gas/oil/mobility sites here in alberta.

 

[Dave Hulett]

For my 24x24ft shop I opted for a PTAC (packaged terminal air conditioner). that has a 15k btu heat pump. PTAC's are a standardized size unlike air conditioners so you install a standardized sleeve in a hole in the wall and if fails 15 years from now you slide it our and pop in a new one. I pull mine out every spring to give it a thorough cleaning. You've all seen one if you've stayed in a hotel. they are everywhere with a dozen brands and many sizes (btus) to choose from. Mines an LG

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

My oldest son here is off everything, he has a bank of batteries and solar panels that are enough if the sun gets out, however in the winter with short dark days his batteries will go down some, so he runs a propane powered generator that will keep the batteries up.
So no large generator needed, as the batteries do carrie the higher peak loads, the generator is able to charge the batteries while and after those times.
The propane is used to heat domestic hot water and heat the in-floor heating coils when temps go down (as low as -40) and long freezing periods. cooking and BBQ, fridge and dryer all run on Propane.

Super insulated and airtight, he uses fresh air coming in through 2 heat recovering units, one for each level and only as needed at the level it sits.

My shop is about 24X30 and I have a propane heater hanging up high in the corner with chimney through the roof, works fine, but I don't like working in the winter just to be busy ;-), clearing snow etc. I'm getting lazy I think (and old )

 

[Darryl Fective]

I installed a mini split about a year ago. First, I had a local HVAC contrator come by to give me an estimate. He said it would never work and it would cost thousands. (tried to push a ceiling-mounted propane heater unit )

I ended up buying it on Amazon (~$600) and installed it myself. It did great over the winter, even in single digit temps. (I sort of had my doubts, so my pellet stove stayed until spring) It's also been very nice to have A/C during hot/humid spells. I'm shocked at how quiet it is. It's very nice to know that things won't freeze in the shop and while the electric bill increased a bit, it's pretty similar to (or less than?) what I would've spent on bags of wood pellets.

 

[Stan Pressner]

I use a wood stove in my shop to keep it tolerable in the winter, which is rather mild here, only below freezing a few times during the winter. My son in law lives in Maine, and has frequent power outages. Maybe it is a whole different animal, but he mentioned getting a propane fueled generator since they have propane at the house. Never heard of one of those before. Anyone know?

robo hippy

I have a 10kw propane Generac and love it. It has saved my butt many times during power outages.

 

[John K Jordan]

I decided to install a diesel heater in my shop and so far it seems to be going well.

Nice idea. And you can use the dyed off-road diesel, a lot cheaper!

I would definately consider such a heater if I hadn’t installed a heat pump for year-round comfort when I built my shop - ducts to every room.

Since I have six machines here that run on off-road diesel, after years of hauling a 100 gallon tank and cans to the distributor I finally got a 300 gal tank with an electric pump (the supplier delivers free if I buy at least 200 gal).

JKJ

 

[Randy Anderson]

John, I certainly won't need that much diesel. My little diesel tractor doesn't take much and the heater uses very little. Back when diesel was very expensive I might have driven somewhere to buy off road fuel but it's reasonably priced now. Plus, in my diesel F350 I can quickly burn up more diesel looking for cheaper fuel than it's worth to find.

 

[John K Jordan]

You’re right, it’s not worth it to drive to fetch a few gallons just to save on the road tax.

A farmer’s coop near here carries off-road diesel so it was well worth the effort for me when I got 100+ gal at a time, especially since I’m tax exempt for the sales tax as well. But the pain was to load then unload the full tank - we used straps and lifted in into the truck bed with forks on the skid steer - but it always took two people, one to operate the machine and the other to guide the tank.

Let me know if you decide you could use an 110 gal tank - someone gave it to me a decade ago. When I got tired of hauling it to get it filled, I started fetching about 50 gal in 5-gal cans then poured them into the tank which was low to the ground. That made it a LOT easier to fill up the tractor and other equipment since I didn’t have to lift and hold the can up high on the machine. (I’m getting elderly and feeble!)

JKJ

 

[DON FRANK]

After dealing with a window unit for one summer I installed a splitter system. Best move I ever made for air conditioning the 30’x17’ shop. We had 100+ temps last summer for weeks. I have a wood stove for heat only because I like a wood stove.

I have a split unit in my shop that also puts out heat in the winter. It works great and is easy on the power bill.