New welding shop tube heater

[Portable Welder]

My existing shop is 38' x 40' with a 16' ceiling and I just did an addition that is 40' x 80' with a 18' ceiling, The existing shop has a 150 btu hanging forced air furnace.

I'm wanting to do a radiant tube heater in the new shop and was thinking it would be best if I put it over top of my welding table that is 22' long so it heats the table and the table can hold the heat.

My problem is that the table is on the opposite end of the building approximately 72' away.
My question is do I use one big heater or will I be better served with 2 smaller ones.

Or would I be better off not worrying about heating the tables and run one long one the length of the building.

Your input will be appreciated.

[Sberry]

Personally I would like 2 units. I have one over my bench and it makes it feel nice and rosy. With 2 there is twice as much to go wrong but also not out of luck should a problem arise with one. The one I have was straight, I put 90 in it and turn it. I really rarely use the thing as I mainly heat with wood but it is a backup. Back in the day I was doing a fair amount of design/proto work, would come in shop at 10 at night, kick it up over the benches for half an hour to get rolling, made it real comfy.

[Doughboyracer]

...in-floor heat is the BEST.

[WyoRoy]

I'm not sure about the claim of in-floor heat being the best...especially on a retrofit like this!

I went with the double heater set-up. Each unit faces the opposite direction to the other in order to have the heat output equalize over the entire shop. On the combustion side of the heater the heat output is greater. By the time the tube nears the far wall and is vented to the exterior you can place your hand on the tube and not notice much, if any, variation from room temperature...that in itself is a good indicator of their high efficiency. Both are on seperate thermostats, so its easy to save a bit of energy if you only need one side of the shop warm and toasty.

Living up here in Wyoming with cold weather, the heating bills are almost always less than the electric bills up at the shop with an R40 ceiling insulation factor and the thermostats left around 40-45 degrees unless the shop needs brought up to temperature. When that happens, I just crank the thermostats for 10-15 minutes and reset to 40-45 afterwards and the heat stays comfortable longer than I care to work at any given time.

[Doughboyracer]

I'm not sure about the claim of in-floor heat being the best...especially on a retrofit like this!

This was NOT a retrofit... It was an addition... which I took to mean NEW addition to existing building. Generally that would mean NEW floor too.

[WyoRoy]

This was NOT a retrofit... It was an addition... which I took to mean NEW addition to existing building. Generally that would mean NEW floor too.

Sure, probably is a NEW floor...which makes it a R-E-T-R-O-F-I-T if it is already in place. If it isn't, the original poster can add in-floor heat in the new section and keep his old amazingly inefficient hanging forced air furnace in the old section OR swap out that old forced air furnace for a high efficiency radiant tube ceiling heater in that or both sections as he sees fit. I'm just going with what the original poster mentioned about his welding table being located 72' away in the opposite corner when the original building was stated as being 38' X 40'.

[drpipe]

I'm laughing myass off reading this ... I don't know why? I live in Alaska I have a small barrel style stove made out of 16" pipe in the corner but I use my table heater I love it it us not worth snapping a picture of ... I have a piece of six inch pipe at a 45* angle under the table about 30" long it has a piece of 1" plate tacked over 2/3 of the top end of pipe u run a weed burner in through the bottem of pipe it's hooked to a twenty foot hose hooked to a propane bottle stored in the corner next to my oxy act. Rack .... My system might be a little backwoods but it heats up my 3/4 inch 12 x6 table and me nicely

[WyoRoy]

Very workable idea! To be fair though, you need to grab a 55 gallon barrel and some garden hose to go state-of-the-art with in-floor heating. Just kidding.

The first couple of winters after I had my shop built I was doing basically the same method. Probably still would be going the cheap route, but found it didn't do a thing for rust on the machine tools, both from the water vapor in the exhaust and during the non-heat cycles. If I didn't own the machines, I'd most likely go with this method and forget thermostats, gas bills, etc.

[Sberry]

Shop heaters.

[Portable Welder]

I'd better stick with the first one you showed, The second one might be a little to HOT to keep around. ( Not to mention how cold my bed would be when my wife discovers the new heater. )

I'm sure the 1 st one would be way cheaper to operate.

Sberry, A mistake I made with my wood stove was that I wanted a pipe that would last for ever so I used a pc. of 6 x 6 x 3/16" structural tube and because it was so heavy it took alot to heat up and a cold pipe wont draft as well as a thinner one.

I'm going to have to make a bigger stove for the new shop.