Back up heat in my boiler shed

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goosegunner

Minister of Fire
Oct 15, 2009
1,469
WI
I have a 12' X16' boiler shed that is insulated. When I travel in the winter I have easily heated it with a 1500 watt plug in electric milk house heater. My dad worries about it so he was checking it 3 times a day.

It is time to do something more permanent. So I am thinking of either electric baseboard or electric wall heater. Either one I use would be wired 240v.

I want reliable so I think the baseboard would be best for that but I am concerned about the dust and fly ash that would be in the shed getting on element.

I also am concerned about all the copper piping I have in the shed. I would need to put one baseboard on the same wall as the copper piping.

Can boiler piping and electric baseboard be on the same unistrut?

So what would recommendation be for reliable back-up heat be for boiler shed?

gg
 
GG, in my 12' x14' boiler shed , I have an 8 ' electric baseboard with a wall thermostat that I use for the same purpose you described. When I leave for any length of time with no wood burning, i set it for 50 deg and it has worked fine. Before I turn it on , I clean it off with my shop vac to get the fly ash off the unit then fire it up. Works well and was reasonable priced and an easy install. Bruce
 
Too bad you're so far away. I have three or four 8 or ten foot electric baseboard heaters up in the rafters of my garage that I would gladly give to you.
 
yeah.. baseboard. just check it and make sure it doesn't get gunked up like you said.
 
a1b385f4837a44fc19f9d738d5884b37.jpg. I installed one of these
 
fab up some temporary covers to keep the elements clean prior to use
 
Willman said:
fab up some temporary covers to keep the elements clean prior to use
Click to expand...
Just dont forget to remove cover before turning heat on. :eek::ZZZ:ZZZ
 
huffdawg said:
I have only turned it on to test it. Once in 5 yrs.
Click to expand...
I've never needed back up heat in the boiler shed either. Went on vacation once the coldest week out of winter, and had a friend come fire the boiler.
 
woodsmaster said:
I've never needed back up heat in the boiler shed either. Went on vacation once the coldest week out of winter, and had a friend come fire the boiler.
Click to expand...

My dad lives 1/4 mile from me and checks the property when we travel. I just heat the house and garbage with LP. All my lines are buried below the frost line and come up into heated space. I set it up that way so I don't have to worry about having someone fire the boiler.

I will at some point also add some type of temp monitoring for extra precaution.

gg
 
If you have the capacity there are 240v, 5kw ceiling mount fan forced heaters that are popular around here. They come in either a "dressy" rec room or industrial garage version. About $150...
 
What about radiant heat from an electric hot water heater? A used rad and a little circulation pump.

I don't even know if that would work, just spit balling ideas of extra stuff you might have setting around.
 
Buzz Saw said:
What about radiant heat from an electric hot water heater? A used rad and a little circulation pump.

I don't even know if that would work, just spit balling ideas of extra stuff you might have setting around.
Click to expand...

That could be a possible solution. It would remove the problem of fly ash getting in the electric heater.

I already have many used cast iron radiators.

It would be much more expensive to set up though.

For now the plan is electric baseboard. but that could change.

gg
 
I never felt the need for auxillary heat in our boiler shed, just keep the circulator pump running while we are away and the unit is wired into a stand by generator. However, I have made and will likely continue to make mistakes, so am asking why people feel the need for an additional source of heat. Thanks.
 
goosegunner said:
That could be a possible solution. It would remove the problem of fly ash getting in the electric heater.

I already have many used cast iron radiators.

It would be much more expensive to set up though.

For now the plan is electric baseboard. but that could change.

gg
Click to expand...
Yeah, expensive if you have to buy everything but if you could use old stiff might be ok.

What about a HWH without a pump? Would it naturally convection through the rad?

What about a HWH element installed in a rad? Yes I know that's getting pretty far out there...[emoji3]
 
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